I suppose they might have been right, we’ll see.
My son and I have been watching JoJo (we’re on season three with Josuke). Now my son decided it would be fun to read the manga in Japanese using a dictionary.
Any ideas how to go about this? I suppose a physical dictionary will not be useful here. Maybe some app that can scan Japanese characters?
I’ve been working on learning Japanese via various apps. Trying to learn Japanese from reading a Manga would be really hard. Japanese writing consists of 3 different types, Katakana, Hirigana and Kanji. It would take forever to try and look up every Kanji or Katanaka you come across in a Mange.
I don’t know if a kid would find this interesting. But I’ve been very impressed by this app:
It’s more advanced-beginner to intermediate level Japanese and probably wouldn’t work for someone just starting out. But it does a great job integrating spoken Japanese, written Japanese, and English definitions and has a built in flashcard system.
There is also a manga specifically written for people learning Japanese. I’ll have to see if I can find it.
Edit: it’s Crystal Hunters. (https://crystalhuntersmanga.com/)
Thanks for all the advice. My son decided not to take any of it. That’s his standard MO :)
He’s working his way through the ‘Learn Japanese to survive’ games, currently on the 2nd game (Katakana), and feeling pretty good about himself.
I also bought him his first Japanese language manga (for those who are not fluent in Japanese, it’s the first issue of the Phantom Blood run):
Is this the normal size? I’m used to large pages on comic books, but maybe that’s a western thing?
Based on my somewhat limited experience yes that’s normal. All the Japanese Manga I have is just under 7” by just under 4 and 3/4”
Edit: I actually found some that are even smaller — 6” by 4 1/4”.
I wouldn’t recommend JoJo as the ‘starter’ manga to learn the language - try something simpler and more slice of life. Maybe something like Yotsuba to or Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san
Heh, It’s either JoJo or nothing.
We’ve been watching JoJo for the last few months and he’s very invested in that story. Worse case he ends up knowing hiragana (he’s already memorised it) and katakana. Best case he can actually read stuff.
Either way it’s a win.
Personal interest is the biggest driver!
I don’t see why you couldn’t just scan it with Google Translate. That said, translating from Japanese to English and vice versa has always seemed like a bridge too far for these online translators. I think the problem is that in Japanese there’s a lot of context involved in understanding what’s going on and important parts of phrases (like subjects, for example) can be dropped from sentences. For example, if I were to say “I’m on my way to school” I would say “gakkou ni ikimasu” which is essentially “go to school”.
I see in the 4th to last panel the old man is saying “Oi…koitsu no kuchi wo akeruno tetsudae!” which is essentially “Hey, help me open his mouth!” When I run it through Google translate it comes out as… “Hey…help him open his mouth”. Which is not actually all that bad. I suppose you could get the gist of it. But there’s no “him” in the Japanese sentence because they use context to get the point across and that’s something that a translator won’t pick up on by scanning a comic.
I guess if the main goal here is to read JoJo then go for it! However if the main goal is to learn Japanese through reading manga then I would start with something like Doraemon. No matter what, I would memorize the hiragana and katakana characters. That will take a little work but make up some flashcards and memorize it. An adult could do it in a couple of weeks and kids are supposed to learn better than adults, right?
That’s exactly what he said!
He memorised the Hiragana in three days, using the game and flash cards, now he’s working through the Katakana. We’re watching Attack On Titan right now and he keeps pausing and calling out the letters he knows. I think he’s on his way to do it.
Oooh Attack on Titan was great. Unfortunately only the first series was available on streaming.
My son took your advice and got this. he found it very useful. He’s read the first book and now going through the second. Thanks!
