Dear Sensei No.45

Have you ever used authentic manga in your Japanese class? Students are attracted to manga, which contain rich cultural information, but they may find the language level too difficult. In this issue, we’d like to look at manga and show how they can be used as a teaching resource for your senior classes.

Did you know that the 3rd November is Manga Day as well as Culture Day in Japan?
Manga are widely read not only by children but also by adults. 40 % of magazines and books sold in Japan are manga. Manga come in the form of books, or as weekly or monthly magazines (週刊(しゅうかん)マンガ/月刊(げっかん)マンガ ) and you may be surprised to see businessmen in suits reading manga magazines on the train. Manga cover a wide range of topics, and target specific reader groups. For example, 少年(しょうねん)マンガ (boys’ manga) are full of action, with common themes related to sports and school life, and 少女(しょうじょ)マンガ (girls’ manga) contain themes related to romance and friendships. Popular manga sell out quickly, and increasingly, girls are reading boys’ manga.

Many manga are currently available in Japanese, English and bilingual versions. You may choose different versions for different teaching purposes. Here are some suggested tasks and activities.

Introducing Japanese youth culture

Manga contain a wide range of daily life settings.　By reading the English version, students can learn about Japanese youth culture. Students can compare and contrast aspects of culture by discussing topics such as friendship, fashion, sport and romance in Japanese. Students can also introduce and describe each character in Japanese and draw a character map.

Introducing onomatopoeia

Manga is a great resource for showing students how onomatopoeia and mimetic words are used in an authentic Japanese context. Many of these expressions appear in Japanese in the English versions. Students can read a manga in English, find onomatopoeic expressions, make a list of these and give English meanings.

Teaching speech styles

Students can learn casual speech style by reading manga. They can first read the English version of a manga to get to know the story beforehand, and then read the Japanese version to pick up specific examples of speech in Japanese. Students can also white out the bubbles and put in their own words.

The Japan Foundation Sydney Language Centre has a number of suitable manga in Japanese, English and bilingual versions. Please see "Manga for loan" below for further information. You can also contact the library, or visit their website:
http://www.jpf.org.au/library/lindex.html

We have created a 2 page story 「さくら学園(がくえん)」 to help you introduce manga to your students. Here is a diagram showing how manga are read:

Manga is read from right to left.
Start at the top right panel and
read to the left as shown >>

Tasks

Cut the manga story into frames, mix them up and put them in the right order.
Find the following onomatopoeia and mimetic words in the story and guess the meanings.
a.ザワザワ b.ポン c.パシッ d.シーン e.ポッ f.ダッ g.キャーキャー h.ガーン
Draw a map of the characters showing their relationship to one another.
Write a sequel to the story.

This section written by Himiko Negishi-Wood

さくら学園(がくえん)
	Page 1 (1- 8) 1.9MB
	Page 2 (9 - 15) 1.9MB

Some manga fall into the category of 少女(しょうじょ) (girls) マンガ , 少年(しょうねん)(boys) マンガ , and 青年(せいねん) (youths) マンガ , but manga actually cover an enormous range of genres and topics. These include スポーツマンガ、歴史(れきし)マンガ、サラリーマンマンガ、恋愛(れんあい)マンガ、SFマンガ、ホラーマンガ and ギャグマンガ (Guess what they are!). Themes range from sex and violence to character growth and spirituality. 学習(がくしゅう)マンガ are used for educational purposes such as reading the classics and learning history.

マンガ are sold at 本屋(ほんや) (book shops),コンビニ (convenience stores) and 駅(えき)のキヨスク (train station kiosks). But many people read manga by 立(た)ち読(よ)み (lit. standing-reading, browsing in a shop without buying) or by going to a　まんが喫茶(きっさ) (manga cafe).
You can also borrow manga from a レンタルまんが店(てん) (rental manga shop), or share with friends through 回(まわ)し読(よ)み(reading and passing on).

The informal conversational style of manga brings out differences in boys’ and girls’ language.

Words used only by males are　おれ(わたし)、おまえ(あなた)、めし(ご飯(はん))、食(く)う(食(た)べる)、うまい(おいしい)、おやじ(お父(とう)さん),　おふくろ(お母(かあ)さん) . Examples of words used predominantly by females are すてき(lovely) and ～かしら(perhaps).
Sentence final particles ぞ and ぜ are used by males. The female final particle is no longer commonly used by young women, but is used in manga to emphasize a character’s femininity. Examples from the story are 「行(い)くぞ」「おくれるわよ」.
Boys typically ask questions by adding ～か？to the plain form. Girls ask by adding ～の？or just using rising intonation (in actual conversation men also use this soft question form).
To give a command, boys use the imperative form, whereas girls use the て form (e.g. 帰(かえ)れ！/帰(かえ)って！). To express prohibition, boys use ～な, and girls use ～ないで (e.g.　来(く)るな！/来(こ)ないで！).

Expressions used only by males may sound abrupt and rude, so they should only be used in informal situations such as between school friends etc.

Japanese is rich in onomatopoeic expressions, and a unique characteristic of manga is the liberal use of onomatopoeia to express sounds, actions and feelings. Try to match the expression to the picture!
(Answers below)

1.	バシッ	5.	どきん
2.	バン	6.	ぷいっ
3.	ガシッ	7.	にやり
4.	ダッ	8.	ぞくっ

Abbreviations frequently occur in spoken language, and so are often found in manga.

～てる　←　～ている
e.g.「知(し)ってる？」 'Do/did you know that...'
～ちゃう/～じゃう　←　てしまう/でしまう
e.g.「見(み)ちゃった」 'I saw (it, them etc.)!'
～なきゃ/～なくちゃ　←　なければ/なくてはならない
e.g.「もう行(い)かなきゃ」 'I have to go.'
～じゃん　←　じゃない
e.g.「バカじゃん？」 'You stupid fool!'

Here are some suggestions for manga available from the SLC library, which are very popular among young people. You may need to vet the content for use with your classes.

マーマレードボーイ
The theme of this series is high school romance. The library has a matching set of English and Japanese versions of volumes 1-7.

スラムダンク
This manga series is about men’s basketball, played out in a high school setting. The library has a matching set of English and Japanese versions of volumes 1-3.

ラブひな
This series deals with the life and loves of young people living in a boarding house called Hinata. The library has bilingual versions of volumes 1-8.

Answers

1.(e)

2.(d)

3.(g)

4.(a)

5.(h)

6.(f)

7.(c)

8.(b)

This section written by Cathy Jonak & Kazuhiro Isomura