How to Learn Enough Japanese to Start Reading Manga

I was on a train from Narita Airport to Tokyo when I noticed that everyone seemed to exist staring at me.

Why all the stares?

I was reading manga.

The Japanese people sitting in front of me were absolutely fascinated past the sight of a foreigner reading manga. One couple actually started to talk about it, as if I wouldn't sympathise their chat! (Icouldsympathise, and I have my linguistic communication exchanges, music, and TV shows to thank for that).

They marveled at a foreigner reading manga, and wondered how I had studied to achieve this kind of reading level.

Information technology'south really not that hard, equally long as yous follow the right process.

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

Why Manga is Perfect for Japanese Linguistic communication Learners

At that place are many reasons why reading manga is ideal for Japanese language learners.

Less words, more pictures

At a bones level, manga is but the Japanese version of a comic book, and almost everyone can recollect enjoying comics every bit a kid. Comics are like shooting fish in a barrel for children to read since in that location are enough of pictures and much less text than a regular volume.

From this perspective, it makes sense for Japanese learners to read manga. Information technology is unrealistic to study Japanese and and so look to be able to tackle a paper article about politics, so manga is a great starting step to work your way upward. You lot'll see lots of Japanese onomatopoeia plus many short, simpler sentences.

Socially acceptable for adults

There are a large number of mangas, whose audiences range from children to young adults to adults. In this regard, we are lucky that it's socially acceptable for adults to read manga in Japan.

Furigana is often included

Since the publishers of manga besides want a large customer base, y'all will frequently find furigana in manga. Adult readers will ignore it, while younger readers utilise the furigana every bit an aid. Obviously, it was never conceived as being an assistance for foreign readers, yet we are the ones who tin can benefit nigh from this. If you read a manga and proceed seeing the furigana for a particular kanji graphic symbol, and then soon you will be able to read that character! What a painless and uncomplicated way to acquire Kanji.

Manga is a nifty way to develop your Japanese reading ability, and the stories are quite enjoyable. Manga contains short sentences with illustrations showing what is happening, and often has furigana– which is especially useful for Japanese language learners.

vi Unproblematic Steps for Learning Japanese With Manga

i. Familiarize yourself with an entire manga book

First of all, attempt reading a whole manga book without help. Depending on your level this may be difficult, then if you have a very low level of Japanese you may desire to skip this step.

All the same, if you lot're up for the challenge, you volition develop several primal skills through this practice. Yous will go familiar with the layout of manga, and your mind volition stay engaged in the story using both the pictures and the Japanese words that you do know. Recall, if yous struggle with kanji you should pick a manga that uses a lot of furigana.

ii. Look upwardly Japanese vocabulary

After reading through the entire manga, information technology's time to fill up in the gaps. Get-go from the starting time and look upwards every word or grammatical structure that y'all don't know. This tin can exist time consuming, merely it will help you reap the biggest rewards.

Thanks to the internet it'due south like shooting fish in a barrel to check the meaning of words with an online dictionary, and cheers to the prevalence of furigana in the manga, information technology is very simple to look up kanji. Personally, I add together little notes in pencil throughout my manga, and I tend to cantankerous out the furigana for kanji.

three. Take notes that yous tin use over again

I highly recommend making notes while you read the second time and expect up all of those new words. Practise whatever fits your own report style in terms of notes. I tend to write discussion meanings or grammatical explanations in small writing with a pencil – direct in the manga.

For example, if I look upwards a word similar 勉強 (べんきょう – report), so I will write "study" nearby. If I run into the aforementioned kanji on a following page, I won't add the translation, as a bespeak to myself that I should know the word. If the same kanji appears multiple times, then I will start crossing out the furigana in later occurrences to signal to myself that not only should I know the meaning, only I should besides know how to read it.

Y'all can create different variations of this, such as remembering the page number for the first occurrence of the discussion, and writing that page number side by side to the kanji whenever you lot see it once more. Alternatively, you can create a carve up notebook where you lot write the vocabulary or kanji, its meaning, etc., and assign it a number which you can then write in your manga book.

Some people similar to color lawmaking, so again, develop a arrangement that works all-time for your preferred learning style.

iv. Re-read a manga book with notes

Having read the whole book a second time while looking up new vocabulary, kanji or grammar, it is now time to re-read the manga. Experience free to reference your notes throughout. You should detect that it'due south much easier to read than the first fourth dimension. The plot should exist crystal clear and easy to bask. It's hard work to get through a manga book and bank check all the vocabulary, so re-reading the book later on will show the benefits of doing it this way.

5. Read the book once again without notes

Don't stop after your third read-through! Aim to re-read the book several times, until it becomes too easy to read. It is for this very reason that I make all of my notes in pencil, as I kickoff to erase previous notes when they become unnecessary. This way, stage by stage I tin can see exactly how much of the kanji, vocabulary, etc. that I've learned based on how many notes remain in the volume. I go along reading until I can make it through without whatsoever notes at all.

6. Allow some time pass and and so read it once more

Once all of your notes are gone, it'south a good thought to re-read the volume from time to time. This volition go along all of that Japanese fresh in your heed, and besides requite you lot the chance to enjoy reading an entire manga book without aid. Exist proud – this is a huge accomplishment!

How Manga Can Assist You Watch Anime (And Vice Versa)

One of the great aspects of manga is that they often form the basis of an anime (here's our anime guide in case you missed it). This is because as certain manga testify pop, creators of anime shows decide to go ahead and make it into an anime series. Many people who watch anime will later read the manga version. They're already familiar with the plot, but reading manga tin provide details that a viewer could easily miss in the anime.

Conversely, if you lot follow the above steps to primary manga reading, afterwards it's a bang-up thought to sentry the anime version instead (if it exists). Not merely will you know the plot, simply the Japanese speaking should be like—if not nearly identical—to what each character says in the book. Information technology's a really fantastic style to develop your Japanese listening skills, and yous can use Japanese subtitles to enhance your learning fifty-fifty further.

If you lot're completely new to watching anything in Japanese, or not yet ready for a total anime, I recommend using FluentU to go yourself comfortable listening to native Japanese speakers.