Z=12: Japanese for foreign mangaka
How did Boichi learn to speak and write in Japanese? Muktar Yusuf
When I moved to Japan, I couldn’t speak any Japanese.
Konnichiwa(Good morning), Arigatou gozaimas(Thank you very much)… these were all I could speak in public.
But even then, I chose not to study Japanese and live in Japan without being able to speak it.
Of course when living in Japan, you definitely need to study and speak Japanese. I know that.
But I once asked a question to myself.
“Do Japanese readers want TO MEET a foreigner mangaka who can speak Japanese well, be funny and charming when speaking, or do they want TO READ a manga drawn by a foreigner mangaka who can’t speak Japanese but can draw fun and exciting manga well?”
I believe they’d choose the later one.
[...]
I first saw Japanese manga at the age of fifteen, and when I started to read Shonen Jump, I was already twenty one years old.
It was too late of a start when compared to Japan’s aspiring mangaka.
So if I decided to spend my precious time learning Japanese, there will be no way to make a better manga competing with those monstrously talented mangaka in Japan.
- To study basic living Japanese, a year
- To speak and communicate in Japanese with Japanese manga editors in the meeting, 3 years
- To write my own story 100% in Japanese, 5 years
If I spent so much times studying Japanese, I’d have that much less time to study and draw my own manga.
With these calculations, I decided to become a foreign mangaka who can’t speak Japanese but a mangaka able to draw a manga that Japanese readers want to read.
This is why I chose not to study Japanese.
But actually I can speak a little Japanese nowadays!!!
I’m working with Japanese staff, so my Japanese speaking skill is slowly getting better.
boichi.com
