Lesson notes

[KristinaIngham]

Why can't you put the kana and kanji together, like furigana? It's very annoying to have to jump around to locate the pronunciation of kanji. And get rid of the romaji - it's most unhelpful because the eye is always attracted to what is easier, but it makes it harder to use the hiragana in the long run.

[Squarezebra]

On the one hand you ask them to make it harder by removing on romaji, and on the other hand you are asking them to make it easier by tieing the kanji and kana together... make your mind up.
In the long run, its actually more beneficial for you in the current format. You are less likely to look at the kanji if its accompanied by furigana (if you're the type of person who automatically goes for the easy route).
Furthermore, text in the wild isn't going to be flooded with furigana beyond children's material; this is good practice for you.
And on the question of romaji... nobody is forcing you to look at the romaji .. you have to be self-disciplined. There are many people who pay for this service and want it though ... they have to cater for everyone.

[KristinaIngham]

To me these are two different things, not a matter of hard or easy, or discipline. I have a limited amount of time and would rather not waste it hunting for the hiragana pronunciation of a kanji. At the moment, they aren't catering to everyone, because they are leaving me out. I've have read at least 2 other sources that say using romanji is bad. Anyway, 石に三年。

[Squarezebra]

If you do things that way I can almost guarantee your reading fluency will develop at a much slower rate. The search for readings and learning to parse Japanese text on the fly is an INCREDIBLY important part of the reading process. And the wonderful thing is, although its slow and hard at first, it does get much easier.

Furthermore, I know romaji is bad for your health; its common knowledge. BUT, there are many who choose to rely on it. It's usually tucked away at the end of the transcripts so there's really very little reason to read it if you're determined not to.

[martinelectric8416]

As someone who is struggling to learn to read, I half way agree with the furigana idea-- that is half way in either direction. I don't mind the romaji being there, but I don't use it. I, too find the romaji hard to read and make sense out of, unless I've written it, and I already know what it's saying. In that case (such as if I'm writing out a speech to be read in public), I will use the romaji, because it's easier for me to read the sounds, and I already have the meaning. Trying to read something from someone else in romaji is tough!

When reading learners' texts, I often find myself kicking myself, because I'll be giving myself eyestrain and taking extra time to read the furigana, when I already know that kanji. That's frustrating! I do it a fair bit if I don't recognize the kanji in the first glance. On the other hand, with a new kanji, I, too don't really like having to leave the text to figure out how to read it. Some books for older kids here in Japan have furigana on a kanji the first time it appears in a page or chapter, and then the rest of the time it comes without it. That could be a possibility, but it won't change much if the kanji is only used once. Also, it could be possible to only put furigana on new kanjis, and leave the more basic ones without. That might be a help.

[kagawashaun]

Getting rid of the Romaji is ridiculous. Don't look at it if you don't want to use it. It's that easy. It's like complaining about a song with bad lyrics. Don't listen. Let people who want to use the Romaji use it, and you can read the Hiragana/kanji.

I like to use the Romaji as I'm interested in parsing the sounds of words. I'm not bothering to learn Kanji at the moment (I know, it's awful huh?), and I can already read Hiragana and Katakana just fine. But, in the kana everything is mashed together and I want to be able to tell easily where the word breaks are and then tune my ear to catching specific words. Romaji helps with this as I can easily see the word breaks. If I need to see what a word is doing or the Romaji is weird I look at the kana to see how it actually is.

[kageri]

for me putting the kana and kanji together as furigana would be a bad idea. I like to try to read the kanji-only text first, and only if I can't read something I go over to kana. Having furigana would automatically lead to follow the kana above the word before even trying to read the kanjis. the learning-effect wouldn't be as good as it is right now.

for romaji: I don't care if they are there or not, because I don't use romaji. But I guess for some people it could be a good idea to print the lessons without romaji, because it's tempting to go the easier way. If there weren't romaji, the learners would be forced to use kana, what IMO the better way is.

[Kiliman]

I had actually posted about this a while back.

I don't think anyone is advocating removing the Kanji only dialog. I think people would like to replace the Kana only one with Kanji + Furigana.

As for Romaji, I'd rather not have it, but as long as it's kept separate from the rest, that's fine with me.

Anyway, I have created a sample document that includes the Kanji only transcript on the left, and the Kanji + Furigana transcript on the right. The document is in landscape, so you can either cover the right hand side while reading the Kanji, or fold the paper in half.

I setup the spacing so that both halves align themselves exactly. This way if you're reading the Kanji side and need help with the reading, you can look in the same location on the Furigana side. This is MUCH easier than parsing Kana only text.

Also, I only display the Furigana the first time the Kanji is displayed in the transcript. This way as you read further, you're encouraged to remember the Kanji.

Anyway, the link to the test document is:
http://www.systemex.net/files/japanesep ... naTest.pdf

Let me know what you think.

キリマン