Manga

Som komplement till läroböcker

Författare

Tim Andersson

Summary, in English

This study seeks, with an internet based survey containing ten pages taken from five different manga, to identify if people who read manga (Japanese comics) absorb every part of a presented manga page. It will attempt to see how well they understand various aspects of the Japanese language and what the readers focus lies on within each page, as well as touch upon the subject of using manga as a tool for learning Japanese as a second language. Through the survey it was found that manga is very popular among students of the Japanese language—considering the large number of participants. It was also seen that the participants did not notice every linguistic aspect of the manga they read, and even though most of them claimed to have a good understanding of aspects like gender-coded speech and role language, the results showed that a remarkable number did not grasp the fundamentals that go into choosing what level of gender-coded language should be utilized. About half of the participants felt that the combination of text and pictures helped them understand the context in the cases where they did not understand every word they read, and a majority of the participants did not take the time to look up unknown words while reading. If one wishes to use manga with the intent of improving one’s knowledge of Japanese, being familiar with these aspects of manga is very important. Also worth noting is that manga should not be the sole tool used for learning Japanese. For example, it should be used as a complement to a textbook and one should not consider learning through manga before fundamental knowledge of the Japanese language has been acquired.

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