On this page: http://www.textfugu.com/season-2/particle-ha/6-4/#top

We see:

“A は B じゃありません

In this sentence, we once again have “A は B” (A is B), but this time we have じゃありません instead of です. This sentence translates to “A is not B.” The じゃありません placed at the end of this sentence makes the “A is B” part negative, making the sentence mean “A is not B.” If we translated this literally, it would be something like “A is B is not” – you can see how that doesn’t work very well in English, but that’s basically what’s happening with the above sentence.”

I studied Japanese a bit before trying TextFugu, so I’m going through stuff that is sometimes review. In my previous studies I covered は, and it was defined for me as “regarding” or “in regards to”. In Textfugu it’s taught as “is”, “am”, “are”, etc., and that’s what I was taught です meant.

In the paragraph I quoted he covers that to some degree by saying they both sort of mean “is”, “am”, “are”, etc., but I wonder if I should still think of は as “regarding”?

Which way is a better way to think of は? Is one more accurate or helpful? Is there a definition that’s better than those two?

Thanks!