Japanese the Manga Way

マンガで学ぶ日本語文法

Stone Bridge Press

"Presenting all spoken Japanese as a variation of three basic sentence types, Japanese the Manga Way shows how to build complex constructions step by step. Every grammar point is illustrated by an actual manga published in Japan to show how the language is used in real life, an approach that is entertaining and memorable. As an introduction, as a jump-start for struggling students, or (with its index) as a reference and review for veterans, Japanese the Manga Way is perfect for all learners at all levels."

Level: BeginnerJLPT Level: N5Language Style: Polite & CasualCompanion App: No

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What does Japanese the Manga Way cover?

Lessons
The Three Basic Sentence Types	Simple Questions with か ~ Ka	Negative Verbs
Sentence Particles	Doing Things with する Suru	Negative Adjectives & Desu
-です Desu and -ます -Masu	Modifying Verbs, Adjectives, & Desu	Let's Do It!
Modifying Nouns	Desire	If and When
Explanatory　の No	が Ga Marks the Subject	を Wo Marks the Direct Object
More て -Te Form Expressions	は Wa Marks the Topic	Ko-so-a-do Words
Probably, Surely, Maybe	Some High-Traffic Particles	Connecting Words
Commands	Quoting with と To	Complete Sentence Modifiers
Can Do	Question Words	The Past Forms
Passive Verbs	The -て -Te Form	The Four Politeness Levels
Making It Happen	Basic Verb Facts	Sentence Structure
Giving and Receiving	Summary: Sentence Particles	Summary: Desu and -Masu
Appea.rances and Hearsay	Interjections	Summary: Simple Questions
Honorific Language	Existence	Relative Time Table
A Generic Counting Sequence	The Basic Numbers and Units	How Units Are Combined
Frequently Used Counters	Dates and Durations	Nouns
Personal Pronouns	Kinship Terms	Hours and Minutes

Student Review

Japanese the Manga Way was the first Japanese textbook I picked up for myself outside of Minna no Nihongo, which I had to buy for university. I call it a 'textbook,' but it doesn’t really fit the usual mold. It doesn’t come with practice questions or answer keys, and if you have Genki 1 or Minna no Nihongo, it’s repeating a lot of the same material.

What The Manga Way really does is provide that little bit of extra interest for those that want to run before they can walk when learning a language, which is most of us. We all have that game we’d like to play in Japanese, or TV show we’d like to watch without subs, sometimes before we’ve even learned Hiragana! But the unfortunate reality is, many language learners quit before they get to these kinds of milestones. It’s a big commitment after all.

Japanese the Manga Way tames this overeagerness, by giving beginners as much as they could reasonably understand, while fulfilling some of the same aspirations. It doesn’t particularly matter whether you’re interested in manga or not. The strength here is knowing that you’re learning grammar points from real materials. It may only be one to four panels per grammar point, but there’s a feeling that you’ve actually understood something, that at least for me ticked some of those psychological boxes to keep me engaged.

Manga the Japanese Way is a good book for those that don’t really like textbooks, or perhaps are using them begrudgingly. In that sense it’s good for self-study, to push students forwards in a way that’s a bit less formal.

It’s also one of the rare textbooks that I’ve come across that does most of its teaching in English. It does use hiragana and some kanji, but goes a little more in depth into describing how certain grammar points work.

Another unexpected benefit of this book is that due to the source material it’s using, it goes more in detail on casual form than most other textbooks do. While this can come across as ruder if used in the wrong contexts, in a lot of examples these kinds of sentences are more akin to those learners would actually see in Japanese media.

Due to the increased use of casual forms, towards the beginning of the book there is a politeness key, detailing four levels of politeness which will be marked next to each example sentence throughout the rest of the book. These are:

PL.1 – Rude / Condescending
PL2 – Plain / Familiar
PL3 – Ordinary Polite
PL4 – Very Polite

This is a unique take that I hadn’t quite seen before.

Some of the simplified approaches the book makes are actually quite useful, such as detailing how sentences are structured and how that relates to English. Of course, in English, some of this can seem quite silly, but the way it’s used can help learners get to grips with these early issues.

As an example, Japanese the Manga Way provides all of the below for a single sentence:

うち、この辺なんですか？ – Japanese
Uchi, kono hen na n desu ka? – Romaji
Home, this vicinity is-(explain) (?) – Literal order
Is your home around here? – Literal
Do you live around here? – Intention / Translation

In using images, Japanese the Manga Way touches on the way that Japanese often omits the subject in sentences, which can be quite difficult from listening alone. In describing the actions that occurred before the panels used, students can learn that in casual Japanese, the language is rarely redundant. You can see in the example below, that the character simply says ‘おそい’, which could mean ‘is late’ or ‘is slow’, but the book translates this to ‘She’s late’ and details below the example exactly why it would be translated this way.

Japanese the Manga Way Example

Teacher Review

Before using Japanese the Manga Way:

Honestly, this is one of the few Japanese textbooks we've reviewed on this website where you don't need to have read or prepared anything beforehand!

You could study hiragana beforehand, but it's by no means essential.

What to read next?

I think the dream of most Japanese learners would be that after finishing this book, you'll be ready to jump straight in to reading manga, but that's not really true. This book really works best alongside something like Genki 1 or Minna No Nihongo.