I don't think anybody has mentioned this yet, but to me, this is one of the best resources you could possibly find. Mangajin was a Japanese-learning magazine that ran for a few years up until about 1996. I bought my first copy at the "store" of a Japanese language camp in Minnesota that I attended when I was 15 years old. About three years ago I bought a full set of remaining copies for, I think, 200 dollars.

Mangajin mainly gives excerpts from a wide range of manga, and then translates it on the opposing pages, word by word, and line by line with translator commentary notes. The manga used are often quite advanced, sometimes the kind aimed at salarymen, and most Americans would not recognize their titles. They provide both literal, and also more natural-sounding translations, which expose some of the more peculiar and subtle aspects of dialogue-based Japanese that you would never find in a regular textbook. Each issue also covers a theme, and there are always several good articles that explain a facet of Japanese culture and introduce key terms. One issue was all about the paranormal, and explained the pantheon of all the ghosts and demons, and the Buddhist-based concept of "bakemono." There is a free sample of this article (its really interesting) and a few others available at the Mangajin website.

Mangajin is still a cult favorite today, and you can buy the common copies, as I did, at the official site: http://www.mangajin.com. You can usually buy the more obscure copies on Ebay, but sometimes they get kinda pricey.

Mangajin and Kanji Odyssey 2001 (which I learned of from this forum) are the best written resources for post-Heisig learning that I have found so far.

I think that the magazine is a great resource too. I picked up a subscription to the remaining magazines a couple of years ago and have them lying next to my bed for night time reading. I've never used them for "serious" study, but then again I only finished RTK1 a few months ago, and before that I was studying from a textbook.

It's great that the manga are real-world based and have grown-up themes. There was one issue which had a manga of a classic ghost story written in old Japanese speech, which was really interesting to read. So, yeah... there's a lot of variety in there and I'm a big fan. Pity it stopped publishing.

I subscribed to it a few months before they went bankrupt (yeah that was a long time ago). It was a great magazine. Somebody should try to make something like that again.

You can find great compilations of Mangajin articles on amazon:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Japanese-Manga-W...750&sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Basic-Japanese-T...750&sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Basic-Japanese-T...750&sr=8-1

The first book centers on the grammar and the two others on sentences patterns and idioms.

The first link was for "Japanese the Manga Way". Is "Japanese the Manga Way" and this mangajin magazine the same thing? (same author?)

If I have Mangajin's books (http://www.amazon.com/Mangajins-Basic-Japanese-Through-Comics/dp/0834804522/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1206593145&sr=8-1 and http://www.amazon.com/Mangajins-Basic-Japanese-Through-Comics/dp/0834804530/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1206593145&sr=8-2, then is there any reason for me to pick up these magazines?

Also, from the preview on their website, it doesn't look like a whole lot is written in Japanese, which is a big downside for me.

However, my basic questions is: if I have those two books, then should I bother getting the magazines I can off mangajin.com?

There are scans on the internet...somewhere that I've forgotten. All of the issues too.

laner36 Wrote:Is "Japanese the Manga Way" and this mangajin magazine the same thing? (same author?)

Different author (kind of), but close to the same thing, only organized better for beginners. In the foreword to "Japanese the Manga Way", Wayne Lammers (the author) gives credit to Mangajin creator Vaughan Simmons for his ideas and work. Lammers was one of the draft checkers to the magazine, and when it stopped he decided, with the blessings of Simmons, to put a book together that operated on the same principles of the magazine: to teach Japanese through manga.

It's a good book, I have it. It's kind of basic though, but it does really good four-level translations (Japanese script > Romaji > word by word meaning > interpretation/translation).

[Katsuo]

laner36 Wrote:The first link was for "Japanese the Manga Way". Is "Japanese the Manga Way" and this mangajin magazine the same thing? (same author?)

Wayne Lammers is the author of Japanese the Manga Way and was translation editor of Mangajin.

So the style is similar, as are the sources. The book is more recent, and focuses on grammar. The magazine covered a wider range of topics and levels.

[Katsuo]

Ryuujin27 Wrote:Also, from the preview on their website, it doesn't look like a whole lot is written in Japanese, which is a big downside for me.

There are some articles in English only, but most of the magazine focuses on translations of Japanese manga.

Ryuujin27 Wrote:However, my basic questions is: if I have those two books, then should I bother getting the magazines I can off mangajin.com?

I would say yes, because the articles in the two books only make up about 15% of the Japanese material in the magazines (numbers 1-48 only).

Ryuujin27 Wrote:However, my basic questions is: if I have those two books, then should I bother getting the magazines I can off mangajin.com?

The books read more like textbooks, introducing and explaining grammar principles with a frame or two of manga to aid the description.

The magazines have the same articles within, and a number of other articles written in english, but the real focus of the magazine is full manga stories, presented in the original japanese with full translations and grammar notes on the facing page for reference. If this is of interest (and for me it was the main reason for buying) I would say definitely get the magazines.

How many issues of Mangajin were published and how many of them are on sale now?

Here is a site with scanned versions of Mangajin volumes 1-20. Since the magazines are no longer in print, I *think* that that means that this doesn't count as copyright infringement. If it does, though, let me know and I'll remove the link. It was pretty easy to find, though, google "mangajin magazine scans" and there's a blog post that points to the "Spectrum Nexus" site.

http://thespectrum.net/features/mangajin/

Happy reading!

-ang

Well, I think I'll definitely be looking into this.

Also, for fans of Mangajin, you might want to check out the Hiragana Times (http://www.hiraganatimes.com).

I haven't had the chance to peruse their website just yet, but their publication is phenomenal.

I have read both Mangajin and the HiraganaTimes, and I prefer Mangajin mostly because each issue seems so much more substantial. The Hiragana Times issues are pretty thin (literally).

Maybe they've changed, but I was a subscriber 2 years ago, and I thought that HT was worth the monthly reading practice and cover price (it's a bit cheaper than Mangajin was, from what I'm lead to beleive), but it wasn't good as a gaijin's only source of printed japanese material for each month.

Better than the Hiragana Times (though, sadly going out of print this year) is the Nihongo Journal. You can find it on WhiteRabbitPress.com, and a bunch of the websites aimed at hocking Jgo goods to westerners. They have a load of content, and there were translations of each Japanese article into English, 2 kinds of Chinese (simplified and the other one) and one other asian language (Korean? I can't recall...) which could be found at the back of each issue. Plus, each issue came with a CD of a Japanese native speaker reading the articles, and there were practice reading sections for JLPT 3, 2, and 1kyuu. About 3 or 4 times the price of the Hiragana Times, per issue, but definetly a month's worth of reading material for beginners to upper intermediates (well, *I* took about a month to get through all the Japanese, but I also took notes and used it almost like a textbook, so maybe other people will find it easier *shrug* ).

Anyway, though there aren't many pictures in either the Hiragana Times or the soon-to-be-out-of-print Nihongo Journal, I'd say they're a decent source of Jgo for people that are looking for a monthly digest.

just my 2cents,

-ang

In the Nihongo Journal, did they do the same thing like Mangajin and the Hiragana Times do, as in they put the Japanese (plus furigana) as well as the literal, word for word translation underneath the Japanese?

*Edit*

http://www.whiterabbitpress.com/product....t=0&page=1

There's the link for the Nihongo Journal.

From the samples on the site, it doesn't seem to me like they have that literal word for word translation underneath the sentences, which is a shame. However, it still seems like their might be hope, so if you own a copy of this, please let me know if this kind of thing occurs anywhere at all in the magazine.

Other than that, it looks like it still has a lot of stuff, so I might have to go ahead and get it.

They don't put in a word-for-word translation in Nihongo Journal, but in addition to the overall translation you get a vocab section at the bottom of the page, so you get direct translations of those. If you're intermediate level it will definitely be the right amount of translation, beginner might be a bit harder.
Also, are they really going out of print? I've been hearing that for about 2 years now. I know they've published come of the features of Nihongo Journal in compilation type books which are also great.

I don't really know how to judge where I am, in regards to "beginner" and "intermediate." However, I think I should be able to make it through that kind of thing. I wish it had those word for word translations, but vocabulary lists will have to do.

Thanks for the info!