Mangajin's Basic Japanese [Paperback]

Vaughan P Simmons (Author), Wayne P Lammers (Editor)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Nippon Shuppan Hanbai Deutschland GmbH (April 1, 1994)
• ISBN-10: 0963433512
• ISBN-13: 978-0963433510
• Product Dimensions: 10.5 x 8.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,578,483 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very good, but not "Basic", September 25, 2001

By 

Zack Davisson "japanreviewed" (Seattle, WA, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mangajin's Basic Japanese (Paperback)

This is a great supplement for those studying Japanese language and culture. Don't expect to pick this up as a first Japanese book, however! In the introduction, the author admits that "Basic Japanese Through Comics" may be a little misleading. It is basic Japanese, but the book assumes that you have studied a year or more in a classroom environment.

With that aside, this is the best resource I have seen for transforming "classroom" Japanese into "natural" Japanese. The book uses popular Japanese manga to smooth out some common errors for Japanese learners. For example, there are two chapters discussing the many uses of "Hai" and one chapter on how to naturally say "anno..."

The manga used is very fun and gives a good cultural insight into daily Japan. No giant robots or magical girls, it is mainly office humor in the same line as "Dilbert." The office humor demonstrates varying levels of polite language, and Mangajin is kind enough to offer a "politeness scale" to show how polite anyone is being in a given setting. This is very useful, as politeness levels is where many English speakers find themselves in trouble in Japan!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Real-life (?) Japanese, May 16, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Mangajin's Basic Japanese (Paperback)

This book (there are at least a couple volumes) is great! It's refreshing to find an approach complimentary to the basics one would learn in class, and we find that, just as in every other language, day-to-day speaking is often quite a bit different from the stuff you're taught in the early learning stage. And hey! You're reading comics! How bad can that be?