Romaji vs. Kanji

[kanjisan1981]

Konnichi-wa,

watashi wa Kanjisan1981 desu.
Yoroshiku onegai shimasu.

I am new to japanesepod101.com and enthusiasticly did
the first 6 to 7 lessons. I believe I can self introduce myself
now (tried it to a japanese guy which I know and he understood
just complained Hajimemashite is only for meeting first time)

So far I made a little progress in speaking since I can listen to audio and
read Romaji. I first thought I'd skip Kanji reading. Do you guys think that's
clever?

So I thought at least I should try to read and looked at the kanji close ups.

I have a question. Can anybody tell me how to learn to read the Kanji?
Well I look at the Kanji and Romaji but how does it compare? How are the characters and sylables connected? Sometimes the number of characters and sylables do not even out.

So Thanks for giving me a starter help in this case.
If it's wise to try Romaji only and skip reading Kanji please tell me also.

THanks
Kanjisan1981.

[Squarezebra]

No, its really not clever to skip reading real japanese.
If you are serious about learning japanese then knowing how to read hiragana, katakana and kanji is REALLY going to help.

You start by learning hiragana, and you can learn that here: http://japanese.about.com/od/writing/u/Writing.htm#s2

on the same page you can learn katakana and some simple kanji.

Then you just build up from there. Get a basic Japanese Textbook like Genki or Youkoso to teach you all the basics in an integrated way.

Don't take short cuts ... they ALWAYS lead you to a dead-end.

[kanjisan1981]

thank you Squarezebra.

I think japanesepod101 offer Kanji and Romaji.

So, what is Hiragana and Katakana ?

I need to learn Kanji from japanese.about.com then romaji and the rest from japanese101.com?

Don't take short cuts ... they ALWAYS lead you to a dead-end.

Okay that convinces me. Will check the japanese.about.com

Thanks

Kanjisan1981 ( P.S. choose this nickname before I learnt never to refer to yourself with san)

[Squarezebra]

I'm not going to explain the difference between the different scripts to you because there are almost a thousand different places on the web where people have wrote about and made materials for this.
When I first started out I used these 2 resources to get me going:

1. You can learn all 3, hiragana, katakana and FEW kanji at japanese.about.com

2. The fantastic guys over at Thejapanesepage.com have also created lots of different beginner materials that cover the basics of reading japanese so be sure to check those out.

Heres a quick exmaple of how the different scripts look.

Hiragana: ひらがな
Katakana カタカナ
Kanji 漢字

The best introductory grammar page on the web is probably Tae Kims Guide to Japanese (just google it), but i 100% recommend you nail hiragana first.

Peace

[kanjisan1981]

thanks for your reply.
you see I am looking serious at learning japanese.

one last question:

the lesson notes on japanesepod101.com have
kanji - kana - romaji - english

I know now there is

Kanji, Katakana, romaji and Hiragana.

What is Kana?

Kanjisan1981

[Squarezebra]

kana is the collective term for both hiragana and katakana.
So basically there are 2 groups of characters in Japanese: Kana (the syllabries which are hiragana and katakana - "kind of" synonomous with an alphabet), and then Kanji. Everything that is expressed in Kanji CAN be expressed using kana (almost always hiragana), but not everything in kana can be expressed in kanji. You'll understand this more once you start reading properly about the different character sets.

Romaji isn't really japanese, and you should try to forget about it as fast as possible.
The hiragana in the jpod pdfs is basically the same as the romaji but its real japanese. Once you have learnt and are comfortable with kana there will be absolutely NO reason for you to refer to the romaji dialogue ... if you do need to it will be because you haven't learned the kana. If you can't read a particular kanji then you look it up in the kana section.
Romaji useful at the very beggining to help you get some idea of japanese pronunciation. The main use of romaji, and the reason why Japanese people learn the roman alphabet (i think) is computing. Its tempting to stick to romaji, and many beginner textbooks are littered with it, but ultimately it only slows you down.

[Javizy]

Check out http://forum.koohii.com/index.php for tips on learning kanji, and general study techniques. Definitely give Remembering the Kanji a go, and download Anki as soon as you can and start using flashcards to remember words and review kanji. It's good because you can set yourself achievable goals. For example, if you do X number of new flashcards per day, you can meet your goal in Y number of days. It's not at all unrealistic to expect to be reading to a very decent level within 2 years if you're committed to it every day. Of course, you need to learn kana first

[kanjisan1981]

... but I am a little bit confused.

Do I get this right, the propper way to learn japanese is

1. learn Kana and Katakana (Hiragana) for about 1~2 years
2. learn Kanji for another year
after completed step 1+2 (three years later)
3. listen to the japanesepod lessons in order to practise spoken language

I thought of progress as motivation. And the jppod audio lessons gave me a
quick start and the ability to self intro and speak about yourself and others
and some indispensible wods and phrases within really short time.

thanks again for your replies and comments so far.

Kanjisan1981

[Tangram]

You should learn the kana alphabets as soon as possible. Then, when learning Japanese, do not use romaji at all. Not one little bit. Learn kanji as you can, even from the beginning.

[kanjisan1981]

okay that seems acceptable.
theres not so many letters in the kana alphabet i guess.

There is no way to learn kana from jppod101 ?

Best way to learn it is japanese.about.com ??

[Tangram]

A great way to learn kana is to go to www.smart.fm.

[Javizy]

... but I am a little bit confused.

Do I get this right, the propper way to learn japanese is

1. learn Kana and Katakana (Hiragana) for about 1~2 years
2. learn Kanji for another year
after completed step 1+2 (three years later)
3. listen to the japanesepod lessons in order to practise spoken language

I thought of progress as motivation. And the jppod audio lessons gave me a
quick start and the ability to self intro and speak about yourself and others
and some indispensible wods and phrases within really short time.

thanks again for your replies and comments so far.

Kanjisan1981

1. Learn kana for 2 weeks.
2. Learn kanji for 6 months with Heisig.
3. Learn to read for 18-months - however long it takes.
4. Practise/learn all other elements of the language simultaneously.

[kanjisan1981]

that post was really helpful.
Thanks for put me in the picture.
So I look at Kana now.

The Ha as in Hajimemashite is は　.
The Wa in Watashi is わ.
Why is the wa as in (watashi wa )
same with the Ha as in Hajimemashite and not
same with the Wa in Watashi ?

[jaypunkrawk]

A great way to learn kana is to go to www.smart.fm.

Wow! Thanks for mentioning this site! I checked it out today. Pretty dang cool! http://www.readthekanji.com is another good site for learning kana and kanji.

[daraconn3460]

that post was really helpful.
Thanks for put me in the picture.
So I look at Kana now.

The Ha as in Hajimemashite is は　.
The Wa in Watashi is わ.
Why is the wa as in (watashi wa )
same with the Ha as in Hajimemashite and not
same with the Wa in Watashi ?

I can't answer your question "why?" but I can reassure you that you've identified one of the very few kana irregularities. Basically the topic marker "wa" is written "は" but pronounced "わ". The object marker "o" is written "を" but pronounced like "お".

Apart from these two idiosyncrasies, kana is a highly phonetic writing system - i.e. there is a good mapping from speaking to writing and vice versa.

Don't be disheartened if learning kana takes more than the 2 weeks mentioned above. I've been learning Japanese for many years and I still sometimes get mixed up between "sa" and "chi" for example.