Some changes in RL has forced me to re-evaluate my Japanese studies. In other words, I have too many other things to keep up the pace I started last month. It hit me that had to come up with another plan when it was almost half way through the month and I hadn’t done anything to complete my kana studies. So, I did what any other sane person would do. I went online to find something more structured, and joined Smart.fm. I’ve head about this site for while, but my lack of progress convinced me that it might not be a bad idea to check them out. And, they’re actually not too bad. I’ve started my first goal, which is of course, Mastering Hiragana. This goal is a better way to learn the kana, because it not only takes you through the hiragana, it has audio, shows you the proper strokes for writing it, and has a typing of the romanji on the keyboard. And it doesn’t go in order, like I was doing with my memorizing. This has been really helpful in teaching me to identify characters faster. It quizzes with multiple choice and by having you type the…
With a long list of wish lists and license requests, and not too good a prospect on getting a lot of those titles in English for whatever reason (too long, too old, too niche, etc), it makes a manga fan seriously consider learning to read Japanese. Why go through a middleman when you can go straight to the source? And Japanese tankoban are cheaper, even with the exchange rate, to buy. But learning a new language can be intimidating, especially when the letters that look nothing like you’re used to. Fortunately the internet is filled with resources to help you buy and read your Japanese manga. One really good resource is Rainbow Hill Language Lab which features entries about Japanese language and culture. Recently the blog has been featuring several entries about reading manga as an aid to learning Japanese. One such entry was a list of tools to help you start reading manga. This list featured both resources that could be found online as well as books and study aids, all with links. He gives resources to the basics of the alphabet, basic grammar and vocabulary and kanji. If you’re serious about your manga, and don’t want to wait…
Learning Japanese from popular culture such as anime and manga is nothing new. Mangajin, a magazine from the early 90’s used manga to teach lessons. In fact, it’s exactly these things that inspire westerners to want to learn to read and speak Japanese. The Japanese have recognized this and have created a website to help learners of their language. But it’s not exactly what you’d expect. The website, anime-manga.jp doesn’t show you manga panels with translations. No, the purpose of the site is to help teach learners about colloquial expressions that often show up in anime and manga, but not in textbooks. Languages are fluid, they are always changing. Anime and manga, which are all about popular culture reflect these changes, which often stump new readers who don’t live in the culture and see and hear these changes. On the site, you can see and hear expressions from typical characters from anime and manga such as school age boys and girls, butlers, and samurai. You can even hear an Osaka dialect from an old man! I’ve heard people try to discourage others from using anime and manga as a resource for learning Japanese precisely because of the colloquialisms. But in…
This has been bugging me for a while now, and I’ve got to say something. It was spurred by an article in The Oregonian, and pointed out by Brigid Alverson of Good Comics for Kids. The gist of the Oregonian article was teachers incorporating comics into the classroom, through the Comic Book Project, a joint effort by Dark Horse Comics and Columbia University of New York. Included in the article was the following quote: