i have had many dissapointing answers :(?

Question

i recently asked if it is worth it to learn japanese by using romanji....and quite a few people have gave me some negative comments.

Remember when you were little we learned to speak by listening to what our parents and siblings said.
this is what iam doing with romanji i listen and practice till i get it right and then iam fluent with the phrases a have practiced.
why has so many people put me down by not learning the symbols with speaking?
i didnt learn to read till i was five but i spoke fluently well before that.

iam eager to communicate and talk with a diffrent language because i love diffrent cultures.

it is a shame why people put me down.

what is wrong with what iam doing?


thanks...and happy new year!

Answer 1

There's no harm in starting off using Romaji, no harm at all... but eventually you will have to move on to learning the kana and kanji. I think at the start it may even be a good thing to use the roman alphabet. At the same time, katakana and hiragana are not hard to master- you can get them in a couple of weeks if you really work for it... after that, well, Kanji can take a lot longer, and I think everyone will understand if you don't have the jookyuu kanji for a while.

For a first step then, yes to romaji Japanese learning... but in the long term, you must learn the native scripts- unless, of course, there is a sudden and overwhelming resurgence of the genbun ichi movement (they were the native Japanese who advocated ditching kanji and kana for exclusive romaji use)

Good luck!

Answer 2

Of course if y ou speak English, you should use symbols that make sense to you and not try to learn more things at one time than you can make sense of. One step at a time.

When children learn their first language, they learn to hear and understand, then speak, then read, then write in that order. The same is true when you learn a second language. First listen to a LOT of it...Japanese television, radio, tapes, cd's. Then speak word by word...I used to imitate funny sounding television commercials that were catchy even though I didn't know what it meant...and I said some pretty naughty things but oh well...it was fun. Then look at the alphabet in any writing form you like...Hitagana, Katakana or even some Kanji. I liked Hitagana and picked up a book on it to write the alphabet.

Of course when you write a list of vocabulary to memorize you would use Romanji and next to it you could write the word in Hitagana or Katakana too. Lots of memorizing!

Answer 3

There's no problem with what you're doing, especially if you're in a rush, but...

Hiragana and katakana aren't THAT difficult, are they? I learnt them in one night. And once you've learnt them, you should start thinking in them and using them to help you learn kanji. It helps you to think as the Japanese do, instead of thinking in ways familiar to your native country and then "converting" to Japanese.

I started with hiragana, katakana, and kanji from the very beginning... and things have worked fine for me. Well, I'm Chinese and that gives me an advantage for kanji... but I don't see why westerners shouldn't be on an equal footing for hiragana/katakana.

Oh, maybe medical school training helps =p. They force me to memorise a lot more there than 48 squiggly and 48 angular symbols in a night *wink wink*

Happy new year to you too! In Chinese... 新年快樂！Xin nian kuai le!

Answer 4

Some people are just mean for no reason. Japanese is a cool language. Kabuto means helmet. Ichi means one. Okami is wolf.

Answer 5

there is nothing wrong with what you are doing and I'm sorry to hear about people putting you down. but then if your happy with what you're doing why did you ask for peoples views in the first place

Answer 6

Out of the entire world population how many put you down ?
Exactly!
Ignore them
Good luck with your endeavours

Answer 7

Makes perfect sense to me! We ALL talk before we know how to read!

Answer 8

Hang on - i'm just gonna grab my violin for you!

Answer 9

Take no notice of anyone, you do what you want, good luck

Answer 10

ask an intresting question!