I've seen plenty of manga before. Thumbed through them in the bookstore or my son's collection. But this is the first time I bought one for myself, and unwrapped one for the first time.
Before I unwrapped it, I noticed paper tab sticking out of the pages, which turned out to be am order replenishment card for the store. Totally usable as a bookmark, if one desired.
Then the glossy cover came off, leaving a no nonsense book.
Then the glossy cover came off, leaving a no nonsense book.
At this point I was still feeling pretty confident. I'm not even sure what age group Shin Chan is written for. I'm guessing 10-12 year olds, based entirely on knowing nothing about the manga, only what I watched during the flights in and out of Japan.
My confidence didn't drop immediately upon opening the book. everything looked fairly typical, but wow was the text small.
My confidence didn't drop immediately upon opening the book. everything looked fairly typical, but wow was the text small.
The characters are a mix of hiragana and kanji.
Some of the kanji also have tiny hiragana next to them: furigana. Which is a way to learn how a particular kanji is pronounced in a given context.
For example: 生 can mean life, fresh, raw, genuine or birth. The pronunciation will change depending on how it's being used:
Sensei: 先生
Namabiru: 生ビール
Uma: 生ま
Furigana provides the correct pronunciation in hiragana.
Why not just use hiragana? (asks every Japanese learner ever). Because of the limited sounds in Japanese there are lots of homonyms. Kanji provide more context.
すい (sui) depending on context can mean:
水 : water
膵 : pancreas
騅 : dapple-grey horse
錐 : cone or pyramid.
Some of the kanji also have tiny hiragana next to them: furigana. Which is a way to learn how a particular kanji is pronounced in a given context.
For example: 生 can mean life, fresh, raw, genuine or birth. The pronunciation will change depending on how it's being used:
Sensei: 先生
Namabiru: 生ビール
Uma: 生ま
Furigana provides the correct pronunciation in hiragana.
Why not just use hiragana? (asks every Japanese learner ever). Because of the limited sounds in Japanese there are lots of homonyms. Kanji provide more context.
すい (sui) depending on context can mean:
水 : water
膵 : pancreas
騅 : dapple-grey horse
錐 : cone or pyramid.
So furigana can be a great learning tool or a crutch, depending on how you use it. In the case of Shin Chan, the manga, kind of useless for the most part. This image isn't typical, most of the furigana is readable with magnification, but some pages the ink bled into the paper. But does demonstrate some of the variability trying to read this. Until I get used to recognizing characters that may be handwritten differently, in a different font or just blurry, I'll really need to concentrate just on parsing text.
Pretty sure that kanji is 教 : teach, faith, doctrine (thank you Wani Kani). The furigana is unreadable.
Pretty sure that kanji is 教 : teach, faith, doctrine (thank you Wani Kani). The furigana is unreadable.
So now my journey begins in earnest. I suspect I'll need a magnifying glass and a bottle of Advil (not a sponsor, just my headache cure of choice). There's almost 200 pages and I have until the end of January (1 year from when I set this goal). Not hopeful that I'll make a lot of headway, but if I can get over the hurdle of rewriting and translating every sentence, and actually reading with some comprehension (albeit slowly) I'll be pretty satisfied.
一生懸命頑張ってください
一生懸命頑張ってください