This companion volume to "Hiragana Gambatte!" is an interactive workbook that teaches katakana with manga-style art, and nearly 100 mini-articles on Japanese society and culture. "Gambatte", meaning "hang in there", is an interactive series of learning materials for mastering the Japanese language.
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Editorial Reviews
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On arrival in Japan, most people are surprised to see the extent to which katakana is used. It is only then that many students question why their studies never really focused on mastering katakana and realize that without katakana reading ability, they are unable even to order from a restaurant menu.
The uses of katakana go beyond simply representing foreign loanwords, and this needs to be highlighted when teaching katakana. Other Japanese words, such as onomatopoeic expressions and the names of wildlife and plants, are also written in katakana. Not unlike the use of italics in English, katakana can often be used to emphasize a particular word in a sentence. Advertisers use large-size katakana on billboards for similar reasons.
Katakana Gambatte! has been developed to complement its companion Hiragana Gambatte!, teaching the script through mnemonic devices. Guided writing space enables students to practise writing katakana and over 100 culture notes about katakana words provide a fascinating insight into today's Japan. It is suggested that follow-up lessons include the use of as much authentic material as possible, including menus, magazine and newspaper extracts, cartoon strips, songs, and advertisements. Students should be encouraged to actively seek out katakana words in authentic materials and re-enact role-play situations such as restaurant scenes using these materials.
Games enrich and promote script learning as well as provide meaningful contexts for the use of Japanese. Students can make and play games such as Katakana Bingo, Snap using katakana cards, and for younger students, katakana learning can become a tactile experience by forming words using playdough or cooked spaghetti.
Katakana Gambatte! as a resource, complements both the National Curriculum for Japanese in Australia and other universal Japanese language programmes.
To all my colleagues in Japan and Australia, for their informed contributions and ongoing commitment to the quality teaching of the Japanese language, their role is greatly acknowledged. I also wish to thank Gerard and Dalton.
Deleece Batt B.A. (M.A.S) Dip. Ed. 1994
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
disappointing,
By A Customer
This review is from: Katakana Gambatte (The Gambatte! series) (Paperback)
Having learned hiragana from the brilliant James Heisig's book, I was happy to see in the review that this book claims to use the same "mnemonics" method of helping memorise the shapes of katakana characters . Indeed, characters in this book are superimposed over pictures. However, in nearly all cases the pictures have very little to do with what the character looks like (imagine a picture of a person twisted in a very bizzarre way that stands for "centurion" (SE)).Practice examples are interesting to read as they give tidbits of japanese culture, but they all imply the knowledge of characters that have not been covered yet, making following them extremely painful, and there are not enough of them at all. Rather than taking a character apart and seeing what parts it consists of, the book just lists them in alphabetical (a-ka-sa-ta) order without trying to find any kind of relation between them. You are definitely better off waiting for Heisig's katakana book
1.0 out of 5 stars
Useless!,
This review is from: Katakana Gambatte (The Gambatte! series) (Paperback)
This book is not worth the time or money. It teaches you how to write the letters, but provides no practice except for reading animal sounds, a snakes and ladders game, and a word search. Also, it gives culture notes, but uses words that are comprised of katakana characters you haven't learned yet. A much better and fantastic book is Japanese Kana Workbook by P.G. O'Neill
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