learning Japanese with Romanized alphabet?

Question

From what I understand, Japanese is actually a simple language but VERY different than English. Is it possible to learn japapese through phoenetics? The 'alphabet' is the largeset hurdle. Do people learn it as a communication tool and not learn the writing system?

Answer 1

People do learn it as a communication tool, to be able to say phrases and communicate pretty well with other people. However, if you learn it in romanji (romanized japanese), you will probably have trouble if you are actually going to visit Japan. You can also start out with learning the language phoenetically (which is a natural learning progression of languages, and one that i recommend) and then branch out to writing it when you're comfortable with the spoken language. There are three "alphabets", and you can start out with learning the hiragana system after you are comfortable with speaking some phrases from it. It's the KANJI that most people have problems with. But, if you can handle kanji, you'll find that you can also pick up words from Chinese as well. And that's helpful! :]

Answer 2

It's possible to learn only to speak and listen by using "romaji" or roman letters.
The alphabet is actually not that hard. There are only 40-some characters of hiragana, the same number of katakana and some of them are very similar to each other.

The kanji are more difficult because there are a couple thousand. But you can learn a few hundred of the basic ones. It sounds like a lot, but it's really not that hard. Think of all the symbols you already know? Street signs (by shape alone) all the characters on a keyboard (26 lower case, 26 upper case, 10 numbers, at least 20 symbols, etc...)

Answer 3

Depending on what your goals are, just studying the spoken word with roman letters rather than learning the writing system is an option, but keep in mind that there are some things in Japanese that cannot be correctly transcribed with roman letters. If you go the no kana rout you should make sure to study with a cd or a native speaking teacher to make sure you learn to pronounce things in a way Japanese people can actually understand.

Answer 4

It's possible. The Plimsleur system has cassettes and CDs that teach only phonetically, but Japanese has two alphabets, hiragana and katakana and neither are particularly difficult to learn. (The Kanji, or Chinese characters are more difficult.)