Definitely not! English isn't my native tongue, but I can safely say that I know the language much better than most scanlators out there seem to. The grammar is sometimes so awful it makes me wonder whether the translator and editor are doing their work using an online dictionary or something. And the weird bit is, it's English they don't seem to have a good grasp of! I mean, I understand how difficult it is understand Japanese well - but if you're translating from Japanese to English, you have to at least know the latter language properly to compensate for your lack of fluency in the former, right?

I think anime helped me more. I've been messing around translating text on japanese images and manga recently, and I can't count the number of times I've sort of "recognized" a phrase after hearing it or something like it from an anime. Watching anime gave me a sort of ballpark grasp on how sentences work in japanese I think.

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"It is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science."

No. In fact, I constantly see errors in scanlations. And comics generally only give a cursory feel for the language, it doesn't really develop it in the way reading a book would. There is very little room for style in those little bubbles.

No. My english sucks even today. Just read my posts. I am a self-learner on many things (dunno the word in english), so i'm lazy to ready a book that can help me improve my english (my german, my spanish, my japonese, my france... XD). But for some reason I can talk and read in english pretty well. ._. Something that I can't do with the other languages with the same efficience

But I learn many thing non-related to language stuff.

I'm not a native English speaker and I think it does not help that much. It's like everyone says. Sometimes it has errors in words and in word order. Even though, I think the translator do an excelent job. Just that for learning English, is not appropiate. Most of my English was thanks to watching english TV programing and movies, with English audio and subtitles.

On the other hand, most of the japanese words I know are because of the mangas and dramas. I try to learn a word, but is not until I can actually see it being used constantly, I can't quite learn it.

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"I am a colorful fantasy born on dark nights; a delusion of black and bottomless minds; a thought that dies in the morning reborn by moonlight. What am I?"
- A Night of a Thousand Dreams

No. I am a native English speaker, and Japanese raws are horribly foreign to me.
I couldn't learn an Asian language without a proper teacher.

Perhaps if I found translations in French, which I know the basics of...
Hmm. I've never considered learning a another language that way.

Well...first of all...i'd call it American alrdy^_^ If u want a real english - read some books like Terry Pratchett,or Harry potter for example=|
And i think almost all of the translators teams are american,so they are using modern american english.Plus it's easy for most of the people to understand it...(like me)
About awful grammar....i think it's quite hypocritical...it's not that bad,and it happens very rarely...Usually when someone like me(with terrible english) and even more terrible japanese\corean\chinese making some speed-translation once in awhile

But anyway...it won't help u to improve ur English that much...but it'll help to understand some modern parts of it,and atleast will help u to stay on some level of the language knowledge)

P.s. Sorry for my english)

I think it definitely can help, esp. if a person is at the point of understanding some of the language, but not being able to face an entire page of text. (~_~) Discovering that I can actually read a few text bubbles or pages of manga in the original Japanese is definitely encouraging!

Of course it helps if the grammar is reasonably correct (which in my experience with manga translated into English varies a lot, depending on the ability of the scanlators) but even with somewhat messed up grammar, readers can still pick up a lot of vocabulary.

Reading manga can also help keep a language learner interested & practicing, which has got to be better than getting tired/bored of it and quitting or taking a lot of long breaks, or getting frustrated trying to read stuff that's way above your level.

That said...what manga will teach is (generally) casual, conversational use of the language.

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"[English] not only borrows words from other languages; it has on occasion chased other languages down dark alley-ways, clubbed them unconscious and rifled their pockets for new vocabulary."
-James Nicoll, can.general, March 21, 1992

Yeah,exactly my point

I'm a Brit who has recently moved to Japan. I didn't know any Japanese before coming out here and am keen to learn more than the formal speech you get in text books, so I pick up manga from the used book store and translate it myself. At the moment I'm translating manga I already have the translations for, but one day I hope to be able to translate without the backup. The good thing about being in Japan is that if there is anything I really don't understand, I can ask a native for more information so I am learning a lot about the everyday usage of Japanese.

As for the English translations, some of them are perfect, some of them are terrible but translating is hard. So many things can be lost in the translation and it takes so long. I have even more respect for translators now, so can forgive a few grammatical errors or typos.

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The pen is mightier than the sword...and considerably easier to write with.

Nope.
Light novel is a much better source for learning.

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its cold down here fam ~

I think it really depends on how good the actual English in the manga is, some mangas it doesn't make much sense at all what they're trying to say.

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You're not alone. <BR>We are partners. <BR>If you are a witch, <BR>Then I'll become a warlock.<BR><BR>- Lelouch Lamperouge (Code Geass)

Well, my first language is officially english, I would consider my third Japanese, the language in which I attempted to immerse myself in while living in Japan as a child. Well in all manner of frankness the reason why I decided to turn to japanese manga in the first place was because I thought it'd improve my japanese.

Hmm, I guess its a gradual thing. The change hasn't been immense but its helped somewhat. I agree light novels possibly much better but then again because its alot harder to get to understand and thus makes better learning material.

Nope, Anime helps more (since they are speaking). Well, I sometimes read manga in Chinese, it helps a little, but I realize the only words I could translate are those I already know of and I need to use a dictionary to translate the others.

I read manga in RAW Japanese form. It kind of helps,.....but still nothing compared to simply studying since the manga I read generally have rather limited kanji. I find that it does help to improve my comprehension speed though.