Learning Japanese

[kb3laz]

Ok I want to take up Japanese as a second language but my school does not offer exactly what I want. From the research I have done what my school offers is Kanji, and I wish to learn Romaji (at least from what I read thats what I want). From what I can see Romaji is Japanese translated into English characteristics and Kanji is symbols. With it being in English text format it would make it more simplistic for me to learn pronunciation and proper grammar. The reason behind wanting to learn Japanese is that I have to learn a secondary language to graduate and Japanese culture interests me. So why not learn the language for the culture in which interests me the most. So I figure if I can learn it this way on my own it wolnt be so tough to learn Kanji.

If I am looking in the wrong direction or I am misinformed please point me in the right direction. Any suggestions on my next step on materials that will help my learning experience would be much appreciated.

Thank you and 73 de KB3LAZ

[kb2vxa]

Well the first thing you should do is get rid of that ridiculously long signature tag in a language few of us understand. It serves no purpose but to clutter up your posts. Speaking of purpose, what purpose does it serve reading and writing Japanese in a form few Japanese can read or write? Easy for you, difficult for them, serves no purpose other than your own. Maybe that answers your question, maybe not.

[kb3laz]

Well the first thing you should do is get rid of that ridiculously long signature tag in a language few of us understand. It serves no purpose but to clutter up your posts. Speaking of purpose, what purpose does it serve reading and writing Japanese in a form few Japanese can read or write? Easy for you, difficult for them, serves no purpose other than your own. Maybe that answers your question, maybe not.

Ok Ill get rid of the sig, I was wondering how long it would take for a comment.
However my question is not answered.
When you say few of us can read do you mean you can read it?
and as for being able to read romaji the forums I was at earlier many could read it. I was told it was just a way to learn to speak it. That the pronunciation is the same as the symbols, was I misinformed. I just downloaded a few programs like a dictionary and a sentence structure diagram. Now most of your post seem to be helpful so maybe Im mistaking you but this seems like I have offended you. If so I apologize. I want to learn something new. So do you have any suggestions.

Oh and I forgot as for the purpose yes it is my own to be blunt.
This is just a learning experience I wish to peruse, thats all.

[KB1NIV]

You should take the kanji courses that your school offers to fulfill your second language graduation requirement. Romajii is an english phonetic equivalent of what words in Japanese sound like. It was developed by the U.S. army for use during the occupation after WWII.

I am assuming that the kanji courses will also teach you hiragana and katakana, the two Japanese syllabary, to start with and then will move on to the kanji.

The Japanese language has nothing in common with the English language. The grammar is much much different and there are many different words for what would be considered the same thing in English; Japanese is a more subtle language with nuances and shades of meaning that don't occur in English.

Hopefully your school will have a native speaker as an instructor so that you learn correct pronounciation and phrasing.

It will be more difficult to learn Japanese using hiragana, katakana, and kanji during your initial studies than to learn using romaji. However, as another poster pointed out, if you want to really communicate in Japanese with a native speaker via the written word you will find that romaji just won't cut it. It is sort of like the difference between learning Morse code by counting dits and dahs and learning by internalizing the sounds. In summary, you should learn Japanese the way the Japanese themselves do. :)

[N9XR]

You should take the kanji courses that your school offers to fulfill your second language graduation requirement. Romajii is an english phonetic equivalent of what words in Japanese sound like. It was developed by the U.S. army for use during the occupation after WWII.

I am assuming that the kanji courses will also teach you hiragana and katakana, the two Japanese syllabary, to start with and then will move on to the kanji.

The Japanese language has nothing in common with the English language. The grammar is much much different and there are many different words for what would be considered the same thing in English; Japanese is a more subtle language with nuances and shades of meaning that don't occur in English.

Hopefully your school will have a native speaker as an instructor so that you learn correct pronounciation and phrasing.

It will be more difficult to learn Japanese using hiragana, katakana, and kanji during your initial studies than to learn using romaji. However, as another poster pointed out, if you want to really communicate in Japanese with a native speaker via the written word you will find that romaji just won't cut it. It is sort of like the difference between learning Morse code by counting dits and dahs and learning by internalizing the sounds. In summary, you should learn Japanese the way the Japanese themselves do. :)

Yeah. Romanji is fairly worthless to you.

It will allow the reader to speak the words in (mostly) the European languages. These languages can be French, Spanish, English, or many other languages that they want to phonetically spell out. I guess it will also help you on the computer if you have Japanese XP installed.

But it is not much help to non-Japanese.

[N9MOQ]

Well the first thing you should do is get rid of that ridiculously long signature tag in a language few of us understand. It serves no purpose but to clutter up your posts.

If signiture files bother you as much as they did me, just go to:

USER CP and then EDIT OPTIONS.

Under THREAD DISPLAY OPTIONS, uncheck the "SHOW SIGNITURES" box.

Now you will never have to see those annoying signiture files ever again.

[KB9BVN]

Ok I want to take up Japanese as a second language but my school does not offer exactly what I want. From the research I have done what my school offers is Kanji, and I wish to learn Romaji (at least from what I read thats what I want). From what I can see Romaji is Japanese translated into English characteristics and Kanji is symbols. With it being in English text format it would make it more simplistic for me to learn pronunciation and proper grammar. The reason behind wanting to learn Japanese is that I have to learn a secondary language to graduate and Japanese culture interests me. So why not learn the language for the culture in which interests me the most. So I figure if I can learn it this way on my own it wolnt be so tough to learn Kanji.

If I am looking in the wrong direction or I am misinformed please point me in the right direction. Any suggestions on my next step on materials that will help my learning experience would be much appreciated.

Thank you and 73 de KB3LAZ

Learn Arabic or Farsi or Persian....you'll be able to use it more.

[NA4BH]

Check out Rosetta Stone software. I just invested, and invested is the key word, in the Italian Language software package. Wow, you have no other choice but to learn the language that you have chosen. I have only had this for about one week and was thinking today, "What if this had been available thirty years ago". Learn a new language every couple of years? Geeeze, I would have real smart brains now........ :D :D

[W2LYS]

Learning Japanese, I think he's learning Japanese, I really think so!

[nq6v]

"I thing I'm turning Japanease, I really think so."

Gee, I wonder ..... Who will prefect time travel?

[kd8dey]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IHL4j91FrQ :D