Learning Japanese using without learning writing system?

Question

I understand that speaking and writing Japanese are two different things. Can you learn using the roman alphabet (Hepbern system)? I've looked at some books and a lot of them romanize Japanese. Is this a common way to learn to communicate in Japanese? I won't be writing any letters soon. Just want to understand and speak.

Answer 1

yes, that's a common way to learn. the beginning level texts are written in roman script, but that's usually for the very first semester. After that you graduate to the phonetic katakana and hiragana which are pretty easy. In intermediate, you'll learn the most basic kanji, ideographs. It takes Japanese children through 6th grade to learn the standard 880 or so required for basic literacy. Japanese high-school students struggle through learning a thousand or so more and getting the strokes in the right order and knowing the two, three or more different readings for each symbol based on context.

Answer 2

You can, but I seriously recommend learning the writing system, at least hiragana and katakana. You don't need to know the kanjis (the really hard stuff) at all, since you can communicate with Japanese speakers through the hiragana and katakana scripts, and most textbooks that feature kanji will offer you furigana (the hiragana and katana transcription) above.

If you just want to get a basic knowledge, then just using the romanized alphabet is okay, but if you want to go any further (which will be necessary if you want to say a range of things more than just "How are you? I'm fine. The book is blue."), you'll need to know hiragana and katakana to read the later textbooks.

I know it's scary, but actually, learning hiragana and katakana is VERY easy; it's like the roman alphabet, and you just need to memorize them, practice writing and reading them, and it all comes together very quickly.

I highly recommend you try getting them under your belt, rather than spend time searching for materials that are romanized.

Good luck!

Answer 3

You can do it that way and in terms of developing oral fluency it can really speed up your language aquisition time. It might be useful to at least learn katakana if you have any plansto come to Japan in the near future, but the spoken language is actually very easy. There are very few exeptions to gramatical rules and a great number of English borrowings have found their way into the language. If you're really seriuos about becoming fluent in Japanese you will have to study the written language some eventually, but if you just want to hang out and chat with Japanese people Hepburn is not a bad way to go. 90% of the true difficulty with Japanese is in the writing system after all.

Answer 4

As others have said learning hiragana and katakana is a MUST. But i think learning at least a 500 kanji is a must as well. Kanji is not just a cool replacement that you can write for Hiragana you know.It's been a part of this culture for so long you can't just part them. There are a lot of people around who learns Japanese without any knowledge of kanji and i mean a LOT!! It's not that hard to memorize the first 500 i mean. You can't expect to learn a language without putting some effort into it.

Answer 5

Well I am a Korean linguist and I suggest learning the writing system. This would help you to more accurately pronounce the words.
If you are going to Romanize I think you need a tape or cd or even a native speaker so that you can ensure that you are pronouncing things correctly.

Sometimes a minor error can really mess up what you are trying to communicate.

Answer 6

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