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Course · 15 days

Manga Japanese

Panel order, furigana, vertical text and sound words, and how to pick a first book you will finish.

A day is marked done when you pass its quiz at the end: get 5 of its 8 questions right. Miss it and you can take the quiz again straight away.

Unit 1 · Reading the page

Day 1How a page worksRight to left, and the order of everything on itDay 2FuriganaThe reading printed above the kanjiDay 3Bubbles, boxes and shapesSpeech, thought, shouting and narrationDay 4Vertical textReading top to bottom, right to leftPaid plan · coming soonDay 5The typography of emotionEllipses, size, and the small っPaid plan · coming soon

Unit 2 · The written language of manga

Day 6Sound wordsThe written sound of a scenePaid plan · coming soonDay 7Manner wordsWords for how something feels or movesPaid plan · coming soonDay 8Casual speech, written downContractions and character voice on the pagePaid plan · coming soonDay 9Kanji density and who a book is forReading the demographic off a pagePaid plan · coming soonDay 10The vocabulary of manga itselfVolumes, chapters, and where to buy legallyPaid plan · coming soon

Unit 3 · Reading in practice

Day 11Choosing your first mangaHow to pick one you will actually finishPaid plan · coming soonDay 12A method that survives page twoWhen to look up a word and when to skipPaid plan · coming soonDay 13Reading a page togetherA worked example, panel by panelPaid plan · coming soonDay 14Reading digitallyDictionaries, e-readers and vertical text on a screenPaid plan · coming soonDay 15Your reading planReview, and what to read nextPaid plan · coming soon