Don?t Take The Romaji Short-Cut When Learning Japanese

This is an issue many Japanese learners come up against, particularly if they live outside Japan. After all, If you are not in the country, it seems difficult to justify the huge amount of time that learning Japanese characters seems to require.

So what are the problems in using Romaji (Roman letters, like the characters you are reading right now) for studying Japanese:

1. Mother-Tongue Conflict

The associations your brain will create between Japanese words written in Romaji and English words (or those of your mother tongue) greatly increases the risk of mispronunciation. Japanese symbols will have none of these associations for you. The very fact that they are completely alien helps you to start your language learning experience from a blank sheet. Your chances of being able to gain the correct pronunciation soar.

2. Show Me The Romaji

Your textbook may be in Romaji, but you will be very hard-pressed to find any real examples in Japan. Of course, you can see a fair amount of reasonably understandable English, but not Romaji. And watch what happens when write some Japanese in Romaji and show it to your native speaker friend: They have a really hard time deciphering it, because Japanese people just don't it.

3. Today's Crutch Becomes Tomorrow's Burden

If you decide to continue your studies in Japanese, you will eventually need to start to grapple with the characters themselves anyway. In my opinion, it is harder to leave the crutch of Romaji behind than it is to bite the character bullet at the beginning of your studies.

As you can see, there are serious problems with using Romaji when you start to learn Japanese. So what is my advice to learners? Well, it really depends on your motivation and needs:

1. The Serious Student

This could be a person who is going to be living in Japan for a period of time, whether as a teacher or a businessperson, or someone who travels regularly to Japan for meetings.

If you are in this group, you should first master hiragana and katakana before you even start with any other aspect of the language. Then, when you do begin, you can dive right into a "proper" Japanese textbook.

Hiragana and katakana are not at all difficult to learn. I learned them part-time in a couple of weeks. Even kanji can be learned fairly rapidly by a motivated and well-organized student with the right tools.

2. The Hobbyist

Perhaps you don't have a burning need to learn Japanese. You are doing it for pleasure, or because you are planning on visiting Japan.

If this is you, then your options are more varied. However, even in your situation, I would not suggest starting with a Romaji textbook. Instead, I would recommend you begin with the spoken language. If you are wondering how you can do this if you are not in Japan, check out the Pimsleur method. Sure, it is a little expensive even second-hand. The point is that you will be able to speak and understand enough for a short trip. Once you have completed the course, you can then decide whether you wish to stop there, or continue studying in a more serious manner - in which case you then follow the Serious Student method I mentioned before.

Learning to speak and listen will keep your language-learning fun, whilst not undermining any future serious study by getting you used to the Romaji crutch.

So whatever your motivations are and whatever your needs, if you can avoid the Romaji crutch, you will pick up the language better and be well-placed to make rapid progress in the future.

About the Author

Stephen Munday lives in Japan and is the creator of http://www.japanese-name-translation.com/ where you can download images of over 2,200 names in kanji or get a romantic calligraphy gift.

This article is © Stephen Munday 2005. Permission is given to reproduce this article in whole with the URLs correctly hyperlinked.

---

Japanese Kanji Learning: Short-Cuts to Rapid Mastery (Part 2)

In Japanese Kanji Learning: Short-Cuts to Rapid Mastery Part 1,... Read More

Whats In A Word? More Than You Realize

What's in a word? Apparently more than we might want.For... Read More

Learn Italian for Free

Italian is one of the most widespread languages in the... Read More

Speaking Spanish To Increase Mind Power

Our "mind power" is largely in the way we use... Read More

Learn Italian in Italy

You can combine your love of the Italian language with... Read More

How Ronzoni Italian Foods Helped My Dad Learn English

My dad likes to say, he was made in Italy,... Read More

Online IELTS Preparation - Why Does It Make Sense?

Because IELTS is a difficult test. While most agree that... Read More

7 Words Americans Should Stop Using Until Further Investigation

Relationship: Here is a word that is used to qualify,... Read More

Japanese Kanji Learning: Short-Cuts to Rapid Mastery (Part 1)

What? Kanji can be learned quickly? This seems an impossible... Read More

Uncommon Facts / Rules of English Language

English is an international language. It has so many grammar... Read More

Show Me the Bunny: Language Acquisition

Some children are really funny about experimenting with speech. Nonetheless,... Read More

Mexican Living: Todays Obsession

I would like to talk about one of my many... Read More

Learning a Foreign Language: Learn from the Blind

In a previous article, you read that to establih your... Read More

How To Learn Spanish Quickly and Easily

Spanish is a very useful language to learn as it... Read More

English Language Sputtering Online Like an Old Ford!

Sad, but true. Just about everywhere you look online, the... Read More

Bridging the Language Gap Using Bilingual Picture Books

There are more than 39 million Hispanics live in the... Read More

Learn to Speak Basic Chinese (Mandarin) Words and Phrases

The Chinese Language and dialectsEach province, each city and even... Read More

Don?t Take The Romaji Short-Cut When Learning Japanese

This is an issue many Japanese learners come up against,... Read More

Learn Korean: Part 1 - Asian Languages and Language Families

So, you have always been fascinated by Asian culture have... Read More

GROUSE ... GROUSE ... GROUSE!!!

I realize that we here in the United States consider... Read More

Teaching English in Greece - What Do You Need to Know?

The employment situation can be quite uncertain for newcomers to... Read More

Learning French in Paris

Nothing can be more frustrating than to be in France... Read More

English Slang For Perplexed Tourists

I watched the British version of 'Big Brother' recently. That's... Read More

Can You Understand English?

There is a lot of talk about making English the... Read More

Aphasia: The Cruelest Language Barrier

Imagine the following scenario: You wake up one morning and... Read More

Learning a Foreign Language: the Psychological Factor

When it comes about learning a foreign language, many people... Read More

Learn Korean: Part 2 - Social Status in Culture

Part 1 of this series covered the language and language... Read More

Second Language Competence Beneficial but often Misunderstood

Second language learning has associated with it many types of... Read More

Learning a Foreign Language: Why Should you Learn Words You Never Use in Your Mother Tongue?

Imagine a child sitting in front of a desk, his... Read More

Chinese Pinyin or Hanyu Pinyin Overview

Chinese Pinyin is the romanization of the Chinese "written sound".... Read More

What Does an Interpreter Do?

Many people get confused as to the difference between an... Read More

English Has Come A Long, Long Way...

I often wonder what would happen if Shakespeare were to... Read More

Teaching English in Mexico: A Decent Living?

What's more disappointing than a person who makes a promise... Read More