Comments on: What Manga to Read as a Beginner

By: Shannon

Shannon — Sat, 30 Apr 2016 15:41:08 +0000

How can I look this up? I am a super beginner and don’t know where to find stuff! Can you post a link to this on amazon?

By: Haruka.

Haruka. — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 07:05:40 +0000

What about novels? I like Japanese culture but am not huge on manga, and own a few Japanese novels but find them difficult. I’d say I’m at an intermediate level, it’s just kanji I have trouble with, and want something that has as much furigana in it as possible.

By: Making Mistakes, Does It Hurt? | Spanish Only

Making Mistakes, Does It Hurt? | Spanish Only — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 11:07:28 +0000

[…] for those who never speak or write.I used to make mistakes, and even Khatzumoto of AJATT fame admits he used to suck when it came to speaking. It’s all ok, as long as you’re aware of your mistakes and aren’t fooling yourself into […]

By: All Japanese All The Time Dot Com » Khatzumoto’s Book List…Club…List…Whatever [KBL]: Introduction

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 08:34:40 +0000

[…] “complex” a book, if you’re enjoying it, then you = teh winn0r. Remember, always give priority to your interests over your level. Something you’re interested in means you’re going to have domain knowledge. A science […]

By: Stephen

Stephen — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 12:49:32 +0000

I like Chi’s Sweet Home; bought the first five volumes from Kinokuniya’s SF store. It’s mostly hiragana but does have kanji here and there, always with furigana. And the onomatopoeia! There’s sound effects in katakana for everything. It’s a lot of fun.

By: takegimi

takegimi — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 07:06:13 +0000

Hi! I’ve been reading this site and think it’s great. The ALTs in our community have also used this extensively when preparing for orientations on how to learn Japanese.

I just wanted to add to the list of suggested reading:
Real Real Japanese Series
www.amazon.com/Read-Real-Japanese-Fiction-Contemporary/dp/4770030584/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215327828&sr=8-1
There are two; one for fiction and one for short essays. The books are arranged in order of increasing difficulty and there are English translations on the left side with Japanese on the right. The thing is, the translations are really by phrase, perfect for Anki input.

By: khatzumoto

khatzumoto — Sun, 04 May 2008 08:52:24 +0000

@Ron
OK…anything in particular you’d like to see me DO in it?

By: Eric

Eric — Sat, 03 May 2008 00:56:35 +0000

If you’re anywhere near a Kinokuniya, which is a Japanese bookstore that I know has chains in big US cities and I wouldn’t be surprised if they have them in Australian cities, that would do you proper.

By: beneficii

beneficii — Fri, 02 May 2008 19:25:16 +0000

Chibi Maruko Chan…so cool, so cute.

By: captal

captal — Thu, 01 May 2008 10:35:17 +0000

Is there anywhere to read よつばと in Japanese online, or will I have to order them from Amazon.co.jp? (I’m in Australia & American till August then off to Japan, so if necessary I could always wait 3 months)

By: Ron

Ron — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 23:25:30 +0000

If it would be possible, I would love to see a video of you speaking Japanese! Thats would be awsome!

By: Cush

Cush — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 14:23:47 +0000

Crayon Shinchan is a good manga for beginners also, because the japanese is simple and all the kanji have furigana.

By: X3R0

X3R0 — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 10:06:07 +0000

I agree with whoever said more resources, I recently got a game which is perfect for me, ゼルダの伝説夢幻の砂時計 for DS, because there’s a lot of kanji, and the furigana is only visible when you click it. With fixed furigana I can’t help but look at the furigana first before giving the kanji a chance. I’m not sure if a lot of games have that, the only other game I tried to play was Pokemon Pearl which I love, but got bored of because it’s kanji-less 🙁

By: Eric

Eric — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 07:57:59 +0000

Hey, Doraemon isn’t totally boring. 🙁 His kanji book helped me too, haha!
But yeah, よつばと！ is quite amazing. It’s the only manga I’ve really gotten into. Tried Berzerk and GTO, nothing. Got bored of One Piece. There’s so much manga out there but I’m too picky or something, haha.

By: Tkyosam

Tkyosam — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 06:30:38 +0000

Thanks for the souht out buddy 😉

Dude, today I found a website with all the Gantz manga in English(scans of course).
So now I get some clarity of I miss somethin 😉

stay black

-Sam

By: nacest

nacest — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 06:25:27 +0000

Regarding manga, my suggestion to beginners (and people at any other level) is to read “よつばと！”. It’s so funny and fun and the vocabulary used is very simple, while still being of everyday use. Right now it’s the only thing that I can read (almost) entirely without the help of a dictionary. But don’t worry, it’s not meant for children.

Also, you may want to try げんしけん, because it’s another great example of everyday Japanese, and it’s not excessively difficult. It’s also very interesting, because it depicts the lives and adventures of a group of otaku.

Those are the ones I’ve found to have the best balance difficulty-enjoyment for me, as of now. Hope you check them out!

By: quendidil

quendidil — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 15:53:56 +0000

Maybe you could also write a log on your Chinese/Cantonese studies?

By: AJ

AJ — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 14:45:15 +0000

Heya Khatz,

In regards to your request for more ideas for articles, I think an interesting article would be about how to compose a resume in Japanese. Maybe include examples of how you did it and the like.

That could also tie in with an article on that job fair you went to, as well.

Good article!

-AJ

By: hicks

hicks — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 09:16:59 +0000

I Love this website. However there are a few things I think need to be discussed a bit further..The first is that of using these methods after getting to intermediate stage using the uneffective conventional methods. In particular i would like to ask James or anyone else who started the sentence method at intermediate level, what was the rough timeline of your progress. I studied Japanese full time in Japan for over a year and reached the (JLPT) 2級　level, but low and behold found that my speaking was still a bit stilted and that I couldnt really read real things! I have now come to my senses and found and have started follwing the method in this site….but i would like some feedback from someone who has started halfway through as it were. The second thing i wanted to mention was the wisdom of learning the language before actually moving to Japan…I think this is a very very wise move.

Also for job resources try: careercross (they dont mention any qualifications)
or Japan career (you generally need 2級　level or above but if you can actually speak the language that might be even better!)

Also no mention of Dr Slump on this site…this comic was easy to get into the swing of and he repeats alot of the same vocab plus its pretty funny.

By: Madamada

Madamada — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 22:30:16 +0000

Oh dear, so many people who don’t like Doraemon or Sazae san. I’ll feel just a little less safe walking the streets from now on.