Job Discussion Forums

whatthefunk · Joined: 05 Aug 2003 Posts: 130 Location: Japan

I already started a thread about japanese books, but i thought id start one on manga cause while im sure theres some good stuff out there, i cant seem to find it. so heres what to do, tell us your favorite manga books and include a brief description. ill go first with one of the only ones i know about and one that im sure you all know about too. but whatever....

Crayon Shin-chan - about a really bad mannered kid. no continuous story really, just short 2-5 page stories. pretty funny.

PAULH · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Posts: 4672 Location: Western Japan

lajzar · Joined: 09 Feb 2003 Posts: 647 Location: Saitama-ken, Japan

The only good reason for watching childrens' anime at all is to get an idea of the social influences on your students. In some cases, this pop culture knowledge can be incorporated into a lesson.

Conceivably, *some* of them may have some educational value for learning Japanese. But watching them for their entertainment value is somewhat unimpressive for an adult foreigner.

whatthefunk · Joined: 05 Aug 2003 Posts: 130 Location: Japan

oh jesus, lighten up. i well know that crayon shi-chan is bad mannered, vulgar and gross....thats why i like it. its funny. i would love to read something more sophisticated, but my japanese isnt there yet, so ill have to stick with manga for now. and i have a question for ya, you both said that adult foreigners would have no intrest in manga. why? whats the difference between an adult foreigner and an adult japanese?

lajzar · Joined: 09 Feb 2003 Posts: 647 Location: Saitama-ken, Japan

Adult Japanese tend to read adult manga for their entertainment, not childrens' manga.

Also, its worth bearing in mind that when Japanese people see a foreigner reading childrens' manga, their first reaction isnt "hes learned enough to read that", its "he's an otaku", and thats not a good thing.

diva · Joined: 15 Oct 2005 Posts: 22 Location: Tokyo

To get back on topic....I choose 'Battle Royale' (also a novel and a movie).

40 high school students are put on an island and have to fight it out until only one is left alive.

It reads like a crazed version of 'Sin City' and is very much adults only.

Sour Grape · Joined: 10 May 2005 Posts: 241

pnksweater · Joined: 24 Mar 2005 Posts: 173 Location: Tokyo, Japan

I love graphic novels (which is a big word for comic book). For Japanese artists I'm a big fan of Yukito Kishiro. He's much more popular abroad than in Japan it seems. I buy his stuff for the great artwork. Unfortunately I only know the English titles of his work. You'll probably have to look up the Japanese titles on some otaku site. My favorites are Battle Angle Alita, Roller Ball, and his latest is Aqua Knight. He doesn't use furigana for the most part, only when young children are talking. You'll have to bone up on kanji to read these.

pnksweater · Joined: 24 Mar 2005 Posts: 173 Location: Tokyo, Japan

lajzar · Joined: 09 Feb 2003 Posts: 647 Location: Saitama-ken, Japan

ok, I see I didnt phrase it too clearly.

The manga that started this thread, Shin crayon foulgob, is written for a very young age group - lower end elementary school kids. There are of course manga aimed at various age groups up to and including adult audiences. And not all adult targetted manga are pornography either.

I guess reading managa that has a target audience whose age is in teh double digits would be more socially acceptable, but not by much. Adults reading manga still get labelled as otaku, unless the title is porn, in which case they get labelled as perverts.

In the privacy of your own home, I guess its all your own business, but its well worth being aware of how youll be perceived if you openly read childrens (especially small childrens) titles.

whatthefunk · Joined: 05 Aug 2003 Posts: 130 Location: Japan

oh no! some person who i dont know and will never meet will see me reading crayon shinchan on the train and think that im an otaku!!! oh my god! i never thought of this!!! what should i do??!! my life is over if some stranger thinks something bad of me!!!!

anyway, thanks for the tips on manga, people. ill look into those that have been recommended. keep em coming.

lajzar · Joined: 09 Feb 2003 Posts: 647 Location: Saitama-ken, Japan

I was thinking more about your cow orkers than about the train.

wintersweet · Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2005 11:41 pm Post subject:

Many of the over-20 Japanese women I know read manga without being considered otaku or even mangamania. Fashion magazines for mainstream young adult women carry stuff by artists like Yazawa Ai in the back.

Anyway, I just gave an English edition of a friend's favorite manga from junior high as a present to her. Keeping in mind the research that reading for pleasure in the target language has a high correlation with success, has anyone tried using translated manga when teaching English? Most of the manga will seem old to them, but perhaps the novelty factor (and being able to criticize the translation, if they read the original) would be an asset. Since the manga market exploded in the US, you can find manga aimed at most age levels, with correspondingly complex/copious text. Admittedly relatively little of the adult-but-not-erotic comics (of the kind they used to feature in Mangajin) have been translated, but I've found that some adults will jump at the chance to try revisiting a nostalgic childhood favorite.

Oh, and don't get me started on whether manga is evil because it has slangy Japanese/English. Face it: that's the way people talk. Anyway, getting students to read ANYTHING for fun in English is a huge step in the right direction.

Of course, you could use comics that were originally written in English, as well, although I'd avoid most superhero comics, since their low production values and such will be a turnoff to many. There is some info about the use of comics in ESL classes here:
http://www.night-flight.com/secretorigin/
It's a resource book in PDF format that you can download for free. I saw several vendors with comic books at the TESOL conference I went to this weekend, too. These were written specifically for the ESL/EFL student, and looked kind of like more modern versions of those Illustrated Classics (or whatever) comic books I had when I was a kid.

Sorry to kind of derail the thread. Wink

FWIW, I'm currently reading Nana. For better or for worse, I recently read that the #1 reason American students in Japanese classes now give for choosing that language is an interest in anime/manga, as opposed to 15 years ago when the reason was "business."

Relatedly, the class populations are getting younger, with more female students. I predict there will be an increasing number of female English teachers in Japan over the next few years.

diva · Joined: 15 Oct 2005 Posts: 22 Location: Tokyo

I should warn you, whatthefunk, that if people are going to be thinking that you are a pervert/otaku when they see you reading 'Shin-Chan' on the train then they will probably attack you if they see 'Battle Royale'...or at the very least they will call the police.

Although, having said that, on most of my train journeys everybody seems so ingrossed in their own misery that they don't seem to notice the fat fanboy in the Silver Seats with his disgusting comic books.

One of my early 'heartfelt moments' in Japan was when I was reading 'Shin-Chan' on a local train and the elderly woman across from me was smiling at how cute I looked. I suspect, not for the first time, that I was getting away with behaviour that a Japanese person would be pulled up about.

So, to conclude, I guess that most people on the train won't even be looking at what you are reading and if they do, they will quietly be thinking 'henna gaijin'!

diva · Joined: 15 Oct 2005 Posts: 22 Location: Tokyo

To answer Wintersweet I have used translated manga in my classes but only in a very casual way.

Two examples...a) my house features in GTO as a backdrop in one of the scenes. So any lesson with 'house' as the theme or my basic introduction lesson sees me using a slightly unusual visual aid.

b) One of the 'Doraemon' adventures features a truly awful pun on my name. So any lesson that needs a cheap laugh (hmm...all of them) sees this getting used.

Apart from 'seasoning' a lesson with a light sprinkle of humour I don't really see how one could use manga in any deeper way.