しあわせ

よつばと！ 著:あずまきよひこ

More “Feel Good”-ness from しあわせ！

Yotsubato is a manga from the creator of my favorite anime “Azumanga Daioh“, Kiyohiko Azuma. It is about the day to day existence of a pre-schooler living in Japan with her adoptive father. (Yotsuba may not be Japanese herself). The manga’s subtitle is “Enjoy Everything”; which Yotsuba-chan surely does as only a five year old can. And so the look of delight on her face as she laughs ははは！never fails to cheer me up.

There are 7 volumes available. (I got mine while in Japan and via Amazon.jp In London you can get them at JP Books in Mitsukoshi.) Yotsuba always speaks in kana, sometimes mispronouncing words too. The adults speak in Kanji, but it all has furigana so it’s good for learners. The artwork is very clean and detailed line drawing that gives a good sense of Japanese life. — check out 第9話 「よつばと復讐」[Yotsuba and revenge] here.

by Wayne P. Lammers, (Stone bridge Press)

This has it’s origions in Basic Japanese Through Comics above. However this time it is a more structured and comprehensive course on grammer and usage than before. It can be followed as a course in Japanese, however it is probably more difficult than a standard text like Japanese for Busy People. I think it is better as a way of reinforcing and expanding what you have learnt in class. It uses kanji as well as romaji and all the examples are from Manga. However there are no other reading excercises or comprehension tests.

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by Mangajin

Two books comprising a series of 24 articles from the now defunct magazine Mangajin. Each article covers a word or phrase such as どうも、どうぞ、すみません、or はい。Using manga to illustrate their points they go through various nuances of the word or phrase. Each dialog is presented in kana and kanji, romaji, a literal translation and an English translation. It is also scored from 1 to 4 for politeness, 1 being rude and abrupt. 4 being very formal.

These are very interesting books and can be dipped into rather than used as a textbook starting at the beginning and pressing on to the end.