A Language Dummy's Guide to "Reading" Manga
A couple of months ago, I started to seriously worry about the rather extensive collection of untranslated Japanese doujinshi and manga I've accumulated over the years. (I have manga inside my wardrobe, under my bed and in sky high stacks along the hallway :D) Unfortunately, I've never been very good at learning new languages, I've had to learn English and a little bit of French and Latin, but my accomplishments were... slight;) Still, I decided that this should not *really* stop me from trying to "read" at least a tiny little fraction of the japanese books I own. I usually mangle sentences well beyond comprehension, lol, but that's not really a reason not to try, right? :D
Unfortunately, I can't teach you perfect, fluent Japanese, for obvious reasons, lol, but I can show you my strategy of translating sentences, which works surprisingly well - at least to get the gist of what's going on in the story. Usually I try to read a story on my own before I check the internet to see if someone else has already made a translation. If that's the case, I compare the two and try to figure out my mistakes :D Occasionally, a manga I own also gets licensed, then I get the English translation in this way.
So this is a language dummy's guide to "reading" or "trying to read" manga created by a veritable language dummy. Wish me luck, because I'll need it;)
Unfortunately, I can't teach you perfect, fluent Japanese, for obvious reasons, lol, but I can show you my strategy of translating sentences, which works surprisingly well - at least to get the gist of what's going on in the story. Usually I try to read a story on my own before I check the internet to see if someone else has already made a translation. If that's the case, I compare the two and try to figure out my mistakes :D Occasionally, a manga I own also gets licensed, then I get the English translation in this way.
So this is a language dummy's guide to "reading" or "trying to read" manga created by a veritable language dummy. Wish me luck, because I'll need it;)