Japanese in Mangaland: Learning The Basics
by Marc Bernabe
List Price:
Our Price: $13.63
You Save: $10.37 (43%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $6.14 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Marc BernabeEdition: Turtleback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2004-03-12
ISBN: 4889961151
Number of pages: 269
Publisher: Japan Publications Trading
Book Reviews of Japanese in Mangaland: Learning The Basics
Book Review: Wow, I'm finally learning some Japanese!
Summary: 5 Stars
I've never had much luck with Foreign Languages. I'm an intuitive writer to begin with, and so generally build my writing structure by "ear". What sounds like it could be spoken naturally is the way I construct a sentence. Because of this, I virtually wasted three years in High School French. The net result of which gave me very little knowledge of the language, save a few remembered words.
Now I've spent the last six years collecting anime (in both dubbed and subbed versions), and a little translated manga. An appreciation of the Japanese culture derived from watching and reading, inspired me to want to learn some of the language. Still, it's hard to teach an old dog new tricks without some sort of gimmick that makes it seem easy. I tried the special tapes and courses that were supposed to be so great, but for the most part, they were boring. I listened, heck, I even tried sleep-learning with the audio CD's, still when the track ended, and I hardly learned a thing.
Then I saw a book coming out on "TheRightStuf" anime site, so I thought I'd check it out on Amazon. It hadn't been released yet, so I found this one instead. Pretty good reviews, so I thought I'd give it a try. I was pleasantly surprised with the results, after the first few lessons, I'm beginning to recall not only the spoken word, but the hiragana characters that write it in Japanese!
What's typical of most "gimmick" type books are that they focus only on the "gimmick", and beyond that are not very good. They are often not written by very knowledgeable people on the subject, just someone with a unique point of view. Often after a good start, they degrade into a boring reference. Those of you who've read those "...Dummies" books know what I mean. The real dummy is someone who thinks a reading a thousand-page book, is learning something the "easy" way! This book is not like that. While still a basic book on Japanese, it covers the subject very well. It manages to maintain interest with not only the manga "hook or gimmick", but with well-written, well-supported examples.
In addition, it gives the history of the Japanese language, how it's taught in Japan, and displays each phrase covered in five or more different equivalents. One of the most important but often missed in other texts is the literal English translation and the suggested proper translation. Too often, I've seen the suggested translation, and could not relate it back to the written Japanese characters, because the translated words are now out of order! Just that little detail helped me to start learning some written Japanese characters.
For a relatively small book, they go the extra mile. A guide for how to construct the written characters is included within the lessons. Each new lesson has interesting information on the Japanese culture as it relates to the language, and illustrated examples using manga. While I know you won't get a very comprehensive view of this complex language, I believe the foundation; will enable you to build on what you have. This will enable you to do well with more intermediate and advanced texts.
On the book itself, an exceptional bargain is to be had. The book is soft covered, but bound like hardbound books. The paper is smooth, likely acid free to last a long time without yellowing, much like the pages in an expensive college text. The graphics and print are easy to read with appropriate breaks and use of bolding, italics, and different fonts and sizes to accentuate the learning experience. I rarely see this quality of book in print these days. It was printed in Spain, they must have some very good print shops there.
Summary of Japanese in Mangaland: Learning The Basics
This book is designed to help one master the basics of the Japanese language using the popular "manga" (Japanese comics) as a didactic tool. Its clear explanations and vivid examples help one naturally to get the "feel" for the basic patterns of Japanese grammar and at the same time to remember vocabulary associated with concrete situations. Besides that, learning with manga is more fun than simply reading page after page of dry prose. The 30 lessons that make up the book include drills, and a small glossary of 160 basic "kanji" is appended as an added bonus.Japanese Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Japanese Books
Ultimate Japanese: Advanced (Living Language Ultimate Courses)by Suguru Akutsu
Living Language; Published: 1998-08-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $36.95
English to Japanese and Japanese to English Dictionary of International Accounting and TaxationFrench & European Publications Inc; Published: 2003-03; CD-ROM; Book
Best price: $95.00
Japanese Morphophonemics: Markedness and Word Structure (Linguistic Inquiry Monographs)by Junko Ito, Armin Mester
The MIT Press; Published: 2003-11-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $23.95
Price in other shops:
English-Japanese / Japanese-English Dictionary of Computer and Data-Processing Termsby Gene Ferber
The MIT Press; Published: 1989-02-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $103.47
Price in other shops:
The Oxford-Duden Pictorial English-Japanese Dictionaryby John Okell
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 1983-06-23; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $44.49
Word by Word Picture Dictionary English/ Japanese Edition (2nd Edition)by Bill Bliss, Steven J. Molinsky
Pearson ESL; Published: 2006-12-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $24.97
Price in other shops:
Let's Learn Japanese Picture Dictionaryby Marlene Goodman
McGraw-Hill; Published: 2003-01-31; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $6.59
Price in other shops:
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Conversational Japanese with CD-ROMby Ph.D., Naoya Fujita, Naoya Fujita
Alpha; Published: 2002-07-19; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.84
Price in other shops:
Collins Japanese Phrasebook and Dictionary (Collins Gem)by Collins UK
HarperCollins UK; Published: 2009-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.39
Price in other shops:
An Introduction to Modern Japanese: Book 1by Richard John Bowring, Haruko Uryu Laurie
Cambridge University Press; Published: 2004-03-18; Paperback; Book
Best price: $85.02
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Kanji in MangaLand Volume 2: Basic to Intermediate Kanji Course through Mangaby Marc Bernabe, Veronica Calafell, Alberto Aldarabi, Javier Bolado
Japan Publications Trading; Published: 2009-10-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $19.79
Price in other shops:
Japanese in MangaLand: Workbook 2by Marc Bernabe
Japan Publications Trading; Published: 2011-07-18; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.65
Price in other shops:
Kanji in MangaLand: Volume 1by Marc Bernabe, Veronica Calafell, Alberto Aldarabi, Gea Cassinelo
Japan Publications Trading; Published: 2007-11-16; Paperback; Book
Best price: $47.40
Japanese in MangaLand 3: Intermediate Level (Japanese in Mangaland (Numbered))by Marc Bernabe
Japan Publications Trading; Published: 2006-04-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.39
Price in other shops:
Japanese in MangaLand 2: Basic to Intermediate Levelby Marc Bernabe
Japan Publications Trading; Published: 2005-09-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.92
Price in other shops:
Japanese in MangaLand: Workbook 1by Marc Bernabe
Japan Publications Trading; Published: 2006-09-15; Turtleback; Book
Best price: $17.63
Mangajin's Basic Japanese Through Comics (v. 1)Random House; Weatherhill; Published: 1998-03-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.50
Price in other shops:
Remembering the Kanji, Volume 1: A Complete Course on How Not to Forget the Meaning and Writing of Japanese Charactersby James W. Heisig
University of Hawaii Press; Published: 2011-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $23.64
Price in other shops:
Japanese Demystified: A Self-Teaching Guideby Eriko Sato
McGraw-Hill; Published: 2008-05-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.56
Price in other shops:
Japanese the Manga Way: An Illustrated Guide to Grammar and Structureby Wayne P. Lammers
Stone Bridge Press; Published: 2004-11-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.51
Price in other shops: