kanji page at Facebook

[rshiplett]

I have started a little kanji page at https://www.facebook.com/kanjirecog

Facebook is waiting for another 18 "Like" visitors before taking me up a level.

I am aiming at some kujugo markup for simple self-study web pages without the use of romaji (but I may add it for users who just need it ... but maybe only for Grade 1 study material and not above ? )

[community.japanese]

rshiplett-san,
kon'nichiwa!
Wow, that's a great page! Thank you for sharing the info here
I liked the stylish 書 as your profile pic

For us Japanese, romaji is really difficult to read. It takes probably 3-5 times longer time
if we read a sentence in romaji comparing to the sentence in normal Japanese (hiragana, katakana and kanji).
So, "kanji without romaji" is a great naming and makes sense.
People usually need to learn hiragana and katakana before moving on to kanji, so I don't see why you
need romaji. Probably just to make sure the reading with proper sound?
Like you wrote, only the first grade should be enough anyway.

Typical problem of romaji is that, depending on mother tongue, romaji spelling could lead to the
different (wrong) pronunciation.
(i.e. If the learner is Italian, romaji "che" seems like "ke" to them. If the learner is Spanish, "ja" might
be confusing with "ya". etc. etc.)
So, it'd be ideal if learners can stop using romaji as soon as possible

Natsuko (奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

[watertommyz9255]

Romaji should only ever be used to learn the 46 sounds of either hiragana or katakana in my humble opinion. Even British English is different from American English, so even English speakers can get confused very easily.

[community.japanese]

Hello watertommyz9255
Thank you for telling us your opinion. Of course, Romaji helps learners to read.
However, each language has each phonetics.
When you see ‘e’ at the end of a word in English such as kite, you don’t pronounce ‘e’ and ‘a’ is pronounced ‘ai’ however, in Japanese it’s read ‘kite’ literally.
Also we use ra ri ru re ro in the Japange language. However, Japanese らりるれろ sounds are actually different from ra ri ru re ro. If you depend on Romaji, your pronunciation may be worse.
I can understand memorising hiragana and katakana is hard but four skills, reading, writing, listening and speaking are related each other so I recommend you to use hiragana and katakana.
Yuki 　由紀
Team JapanesePod101.com

[watertommyz9255]

Yes, つ and ち also gave me as much trouble when I was first learning hiragana but after that, it isn't so bad. I'm still not sure if I'm saying the らりるれろ section right, but I assume I'll eventually get it right the more I practice, and mimic native speakers!

I learned つ by saying Eight Suits over and over, faster and faster and then dropping any pause between the words, and repeating. I still have trouble hearing it sometimes in the longer words, but my ears have gotten used to that one.

[community.japanese]

Hello watertommyz9255 san,
I can see you are really studying hard. ほんとうにすごいです。You are extremely great.
One student told me he had recorded his Japanese speaking. Then he compared his pronunciation with Japanese native speaker’s pronunciation. It might be a good learning strategy.
Yuki　由紀　
Team JapanesePod101.com

[watertommyz9255]

ありがとうございます

I'm trying to get into a routine of learning at least ten words a day! I'm always sure to listen to at least twenty minutes of Japanese, too. I'm trying my best.

[community.japanese]

Hello watertommyz9255 san,
Practising everyday is important.
I think you are really trying your best.
Ganbatte kudasai.
Yuki 由紀
Team JapanesePod101.com