Japanese the Manga Way: An Illustrated Guide to Grammar and Structure

This is one of my favorite books of all time, on any subject.It's not appropriate if you're just starting Japanese. There's a price of entry for this book:1. You need the kana under your belt. Hiragana -and- Katakana.2. You need some basic vocabulary, otherwise, the information here will be overwhelming.3. You should already know some grammar, like dictionary and polite form, past/present. Basically, you should be able to form basic Japanese sentences.In other words, this book is not for the bare bones basic student. But I will tell you the magic of this book, for this book is truly magical. Maybe you spent a few months in Japan like I did. Maybe you took a year of Japanese. This book is essentially a grammar book, but it comes at grammar from two directions: formal grammar and colloquial grammar. You'll read this book, and it will change and shape the knowledge that's already in your head. Things that seemed inconsistent (like -- why are na and i adjectives so different?) will become clear as day for you. It will give you insight into Japanese the way Japanese people speak, not the way a textbook writer presents a foreign language. You'll learn to speak with Japanese people.... not ask the student next to you some contrived question that the whole class has to ask their neighbor. This book will really open up Japanese for you. Living, breathing Japanese.And make no mistake -- even though this book focuses a lot of colloquialism, it is NOT dumbed down, and it does NOT make concessions in accuracy for the sake of ease. It is a grammar book, plain and simple. You'll learn formal grammar. You'll learn colloquial grammar.I recently spent 9 months in Japan for work, and I was learning Japanese from みんなのにほんご, which is a great book, but I will tell you why this book is better:You can open this book to any page at all. Any page. Read a small section. You will be able to walk out your door into the streets of Tokyo and use what you just read. Immediately. It is the most practical semi-introductory book to Japanese I've ever seen.I absolutely love the different levels of interpretation. The author gives the Japanese "おーさむい、さむい", then the romaji (you shouldn't be using this), then then the literal translation "Ohhh... is cold... is cold...", then the figurative translation, "Hoo... it's cold. It's cold", and then, the translation within the context (since language must always have context): "Hooo... it's cold out there!". This is important, because Japanese, more than any other language I've ever learned, is based upon context.Shortcomings?Yeah, there's a few. The book should have a reader. No matter how good a book is, you still need to practice. He does give a list of manga titles that were used in the book at the end, but I wish he had mentioned their difficulty level or which ones would be appropriate for readers up to chapter X. I don't know which of his manga list are easier manga and which are harder. I wish he had spent a lot more time discussing what we should be reading first.Exercises. Every language learner needs exercises. There doesn't appear to be a plethora of Japanese workbooks like there is for, say, Spanish.But those are minor. In summary:If you intend on learning Japanese as its spoken in Japan, not just as an academic exercise, keep doing what you're doing. Stick with Genki or Minna. But. Get this book. You will be SO happy you did.

I've been self-studying Japanese for two years at this point and have presently completed the JLPT5 and JLPT4. Grammar has been a weakness in my proficiency for some time now, so I resolved to get some supplementary materials to focus on it. Prior to this book, my primary grammar books were Genki and Genki 2.I had heard this book mentioned now and then on forum threads and such, but only in passing, and I had never seriously considered buying it. The focus on manga reminded me of the kind odd thing you see from gimmick books like "learn japanese in two weeks with only an hour a day". Any serious language learner knows this kind of thing is absurd and that most such books are a waste of money. Recently, however, I read an article wherein the author praised this book as her primary tool when it came to improving her grammar. Because she's much more skilled than I am in Japanese, I decided to take a closer look at it.To say it plainly, I could not have been more wrong about this book. In looking for a grammar book, I researched about a half dozen options, and this one was by far the best. It is a thorough, well thought out guide to Japanese grammar. Some of its greatest strengths:- Approaches the grammar in an extremely logical way. The book begins with the simplest possible Japanese sentences, explores each grammar point thoroughly, and as you advance through the book slowly builds on what has already been learned. I found the order of topics far more logical than Genki.-Doesn't attempt to simplify the reality of the grammar to "protect" you. This was a big surprise to me since Genki is a college-level textbook, but as it turns out, it's inaccurate in a fair number of places when discussing the grammar. It often tries to explain parts of Japanese grammar by citing English equivalents, but often the equivalencies are false, and I can attest that this can lead to problems as you advance. For example, Genki does not accurately explain the Japanese system of present and past tense. It equates the Japanese past tense to the English past tense, when in fact that comparison is not totally accurate. It led to my encountering situations where I thought the tense should be present, but Japanese material would use past tense. It was very confusing. (Example: When someone explains something to you, in English you say "I understand." In Japanese, you use the past tense of the verb, "I understood." This book correctly shows why that is.) Similarly, I noticed that so-called -na adjectives did not always behave as I would expect based on how English adjectives work. This book correctly explains up front that that's because they're not truly adjectives per se, but more like a special type of noun. Providing the correct understanding up front may be initially confusing, but will prevent misunderstanding later.-When a certain construction has a notable masculine/feminine connotation, this book will note that up front and explore the implications immediately. A lot of what Genki has you learn up front may sound a bit strange if you say it as a guy. This book explores these and other similarly important details the moment a construction is introduced.-Introduces informal, formal, and humble language right alongside the standard polite language used in most textbooks. One thing I encountered as I studied Japanese is that by the time I was introduced to informal and humble/exalting language, standard polite language was so ingrained that it was difficult to adapt. With this book, you are aware of these variations right from the beginning, and even if you don't remember them precisely at first, they will not trip you up when you encounter them later.-The writing is simple and clear, without being needlessly complex when it's not necessary. I've done some tech writing for a living, and one of the hardest skills to master is the ability to write only as complexly as necessary to convey a concept fully, and no more. This book is excellent at that.A lot of this boils down to: the writer keeps things simple and clear, and the book respects your intelligence as a reader by not trying to hide things from you to make the grammar easier to understand.If I could, I would apologize to the author of this book, because I badly misjudged it by jumping to a conclusion based on appearances. Don't make the same mistake I did. Whether you want to strengthen your existing grasp of grammar or are just starting to study the language for the first time, you can purchase this book without reservation. I guarantee you won't regret it.

From my perspective as a beginner with Japanese, this is a great book. It's a very large book, the amount of information in here is a bargain compared to the typical high price of language learning materials.The book is definitely suitable for a complete beginner, with the caveat this is a book ABOUT the Japanese language (specifically the grammar and structure, as it says on the cover of the book). It definitely won't teach to to understand spoken Japanese or converse in Japanese. Nor will it even teach you how to read Japanese, because it doesn't teach much kanji and you can't read Japanese without knowing a lot of kanji, and in fact it contains very little Japanese at all. Typically, each point is illustrated with one to a few short Japanese sentences, followed by a long discussion in English about grammar and/or vocabulary used in the sentence.The book is best used as a supplement to other language learning material you might be using such as a formal class, textbook (such as Genki) or language learning app. There a lot of information in this book that you won't find in those other source. Especially good for telling you how real Japanese people speak, compared to the formal "polite" language used in beginner language-learning materials.If you are just curious about the Japanese language but don't really want to learn how to speak it or even read it, then maybe this is the only book you need.Is the fact that the book uses "real Manga" as the source for the Japanese sentences just a gimmick? Yeah , probably, but it's still a really good book, and maybe the Manga makes the lessons more approachable.