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| Japanese in Mangaland: Basic Japanese Course Using Manga | 
| List Price: $24.00
Buy New: $12.08
You Save: $11.92 (50%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (based on 30 reviews)
Sales Rank: 18864
Category: Book
Author: Marc Bernabe
Publisher: Japan Publications Trading
Studio: Japan Publications Trading
Manufacturer: Japan Publications Trading
Label: Japan Publications Trading
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Turtleback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 10.1 x 6.8 x 0.3
ISBN: 4889961151
Dewey Decimal Number: 495
EAN: 9784889961157
ASIN: 4889961151
Publication Date: March 12, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 25 more reviews...
 fun as complement: on its own you need to buy the extra workbook November 8, 2008
My complaints about this book:
- there are very few exercises in each chapter and they are far from
being sufficient, so you WILL need the extra workbook that is sold
separately...by 'very few exercises' I mean 1 page !
- The user has to do alot of memorization from lists, which becomes
boring very quickly because, as mentioned, there are very few exercises
in the chapters...the extra workbook assumes that you have learned the
corresponding chapter beforehand, so there is no way around this
tedious list-reading
- many of the manga examples do not follow the same level as the reader,
they usually cover characters that the reader hasn't
learned yet in previous chapters so you are stuck reading the romanized
script anyway...which sort of defeats the purpose of the book to some
degree
Now, to the positive aspects:
+ if you look past my complaints, the book is actually fun to work with,
using Manga makes your studies seem less "school"-like,
this counterbalances the tediousness of vocabulary memorization
+ the author explains everything very clearly, usually with examples
+ the book brings up aspects of Japanese that are more "street"-like,
like phrases and words that you would only hear in movies and manga,
and that most Japanese textbooks would dismiss as being too informal
,such as the more "vulgar" forms of saying I/me
+ the chapters are very short, around 5-6 pages, which is perfect for those days when you don't have much time to put into your studies
To summarize:
~ if you plan to make this book the only source of learning you really
need the extra workbook to give you some exercises to do
~ if this is a complement to you regular textbook then this will make
your learning abit more fun and you will learn some "unofficial" stuff
Good idea, but not a great execution October 9, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Right now, I'm learning Japanese through manga. The problem for this review is that I'm doing it with another product- Japanese the Manga Way: An Illustrated Guide to Grammar and Structure. Japanese in Mangaland is a decent book, but it's by no means the best, and it's easily lost in a sea of better material.
The first and biggest strike against Japanese in Mangaland, is that it doesn't include real manga- all the "manga" included was drawn for the book. This pretty much violates the entire concept. Compare Japanese in Mangaland side-by-side with Japanese the Manga Way, which uses authentic material, and you'll see that the art used in Mangaland isn't really even close to authentic manga a majority of the time. Japanese in Mangaland mostly looks like western stereotypes of what manga is supposed to look like, and this is largely drawn from the artistic style of popular anime. You'll see lots of big eyes, Sailor Moon style. You won't see any of the extremely simple and often very cheaply printed styles of, for example, Shin-Chan.
Aside from violating the whole concept of learning through manga, Japanese in Mangaland isn't a bad book at its core. The best part of the book is that it has plenty of real exercises and practice lessons, which is the one thing that Japanese the Manga Way sorely lacks. Japanese in Mangaland also has multiple volumes and plenty of workbooks, meaning it's overall a more intensive program than Japanese the Manga Way, which is one standalone book with no exercises.
However, I really can't suggest Japanese in Mangaland even for its workbooks and exercises. If you've got the motivation to get that far into learning a language, it's time to join in on a real Japanese learning course, or to just pick up some real manga and look up the parts you don't recognize in reference books. A book like Japanese the Manga Way is really meant to be a stepping stone, encouraging you to go buy some real Japanese reading material and immerse yourself. That's a much better way to learn the language. Japanese in Mangaland is just your average workbook disguised by false manga-styled drawings.
So I can't recommend purchasing Japanese in Mangaland. If you really want to read manga, pick up Japanese the Manga Way and start reading real manga now. If you're more interested in just reading the language for its own sake, lessons on topics like swearing and onomatopoeia (words that describe sounds, like "zzz.." for sleeping or "vrooom" for driving) are best left to later courses while you work on your basics. I'd only recommend Japanese in Mangaland to someone who really can't help falling asleep reading a coursebook unless it has cute pictures in it, or maybe if you're really desperate for a few pages on topics like swearing and onomatopoeia- in which case you might want to pick it up from the library instead.
 Great for reviewing Japanese August 26, 2008
I am returning to Japan for a visit and needed a review of conversational Japanese. This book worked well for that purpose.
Above the rest August 17, 2008
I am absolutely astonished by the quality of this book. When I looked at the cover, I expected this to be a gimmicky book with only a cursory glance at grammar and even worse, entirely in romaji (Roman letters). Fortunately this book does not treat the reader like a moron and expects you to work, and giving you everything you need to achieve your early Japanese language goal. I believe that so far there are only 3 books in the series and they go up to an intermediate level where you will have a solid background in the language, almost enough for the second level on the JLPT.
I expected this book to have more manga in it, but only small panels are taken from manga and used as an introduction for the chapter. Some useful material for manga-specific subjects (onomatopoeias, etc) are mentioned, but the focus is on the language as a whole.
I think the most impressive part of this series is its focus on _common_ vocabulary and colloquialisms. I studied years ago with the Genki textbook series and its vocabulary was poor, giving you words that you just would not use in everyday life.
I recommend this series but I also suggest any Japanese student to purchase another book or use another study system in order to learn the writing system.
A bit too advanced for child. July 23, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I was hoping for more manga. A bit heavy on the text. The book is very well done, perfect for an adult. But too heavy for early teen.
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