Customer Reviews

Mangajin's Basic Japanese Through Comics (Part 2)

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I bought Mangajin (book 1 & 2) a few months ago, and I have to admit that they are worth every penny I spent! Mangajin deals with all the troubles and nuances that every learner of Japanese encounters. It uses popular Japanese manga to portray real examples so you can get a full grasp on what every word or expression would mean in context. I definitely recommend this book to everybody-it teaches you most of the stuff you'd never find in a textbook! Get this book today because it is very rare(you can't buy this book hardly anywhere else online, not even at mangajin's own website, because their stock is exhausted!)!

Learning Japanese through comics (manga) is not just kids' stuff. It is important to realize that in Japan, even adults read manga (check out the subway-- those business men are not plowing through the WSJ!).

Manga reveal aspects of Japanese culture that cannot be understood from textbooks-- for instance, body language gestures and colloquial phrases. This book carefully explains what the characters are saying, the context of what's going on, and why they choose the phraseology they do.

To a greater degree than in Western culture, the nuances of social interaction are crucial in Japan. Although you will be afforded leeway as a gaijin (foreigner), it helps immensely to learn some of these nuances. Understanding manga is a good place to start.

Besides, then you'll fit in on the subway!

I said pretty much all that I had to say about these books in my review of Volume I. This one is just more of the same, so I would recommend that you buy both of them together, though I suppose I would say the topics covered here are a little more advanced than many of the basic ones covered in the first book. Here is a listing of the topics that are covered in this volume:
25. Body Language and Gestures (part 1)
26. Body Language and Gestures (part 2)
27. Yappari/Yahari
28. Abunai
29. Stylized Kanji
30. Maitta
31. Sasuga
32. Titles
33. Iya
34. Daijobu
35. Mono (part 1)
36. Mono (part 2)
37. Slang and colloquialisms (part 1)
38. Slang and colloquialisms (part 2)
39. The many faces of "face" (part 1)
40. The many faces of "face" (part 2)
41. Kondo
42. Wake
43. Tokoro
44. Shimau
45. Bakari
46. Commands (part 1)
47. Commands (part 2)
48. Saying what you want

This is the Part Two of Mangajin's Basic Japanese Through Comics. It provides another 24 lessons of some common japanese phrases (e.g. yappari, abunai, maitta, daijoubu, iya, mono, dekite, etc.) As the name of the book suggested, the author used different manga pictures to depict the common japanese phrases in different meanings with different contexts. The author also indicated the politeness level (i.e. Lv 1,2,3,4) for each usage to help the readers use the phrases properly in various siturations. If you're currently studying Japanese and in between beginner and intermediate levels, this book is a treasure for you to benefit your proficiency in Japanese.

(Reviewed by Otto Yuen, 03-July-2007)