Japanese Practice Through Skype?

[harryhogue]

Konbanwa,

Harry desu. I am very interested in practicing beginning Japanese with someone through Skype. I would love to practice with someone who is open to correcting me, who can handle me making mistakes, and with someone who, when writing, would not mind reading/writing in Romaji, as I am blind, and, although I can get a Japanese synthesizer to read Kanji (did I spell that correctly?) I have no idea how to write this using a western-style keyboard. I am open to writing using Kanji, should someone know how to write this using the standard U.S. keyboard.

I apologize if this needs to be in a different forum. I freely provide my contact details below. I am 24, going into a master's program, I live in Arkansas, and recently finished a post as adjunct instructor of Spanish at my local university. Domo arigato!

Skype: harryhogue

E-mail: .

[untmdsprt]

Hello,

Have you tried posting this on Englishpod101? Most of us learning Japanese never want to bother with romaji because it defeats the purpose of being able to read Japanese. On the other hand, native Japanese already know how to read Japanese so they don't mind to type in romaji. I'm sure you could find a language exchange partner. You may find out ways to type kanji and get the right one. From my studying, I've found that there are a lot of kanji that have the same pronunciation.

On a side note, have you thought about learning the Japanese braille system? It might be worth your time.

[harryhogue]

Hello,
I ahve thought of learning tenji (Japanese Braille), but have found no resources from which I could study myself. If anyone has a blind Japanese contact, I welcome the connection, as I do not have one. It would make my own notes to myself more meaningful, as I, at present, must write Romaji for all phrases/etc I wish to remember. Thanks.

[Javizy]

Most Japanese type in romaji using a standard keyboard. You use something called an IME to convert it to the appropriate Japanese script. Windows comes with a built-in one you can activate through the Control Panel.

I'm wondering how you would select the correct kanji when presented with a list though. For example, かえる can be written as 変える, 帰る, 変える, 返る, 替える, or 買える, depending on the meaning. However, the majority of the time, the first conversion option will be correct, and even resorting to typing in kana using occasional spaces is probably preferable to romaji (this is what they do in children's games and comics).

[harryhogue]

Hello,

I realize it has been several months since you wrote, and I am just now getting into the forums and have recently joined with a payed membership to become more and more serious about my Japanese studies. I wanted to comment on selecting identical kanji (that is kanji with identical pronunciations but not identical visual representations). I believe the only way to do this without being able to visually view the kanji and only using a speech synthesizer, from my limited experience, is to trust that the IME will get it right. When getting to a point where writing may matter and meaning is truly important, I would have someone review my writing to ensure there were no mistakes of this kind (much as you would do in English before submitting an important document to check for spelling errors and the like).

I appreciate your feedback, again, and I do apologize for the lengthy delay in my response. This is a wonderful community and a wonderful resource.

Most sincerely,

Harry Hogue