Learn how to transcribe Japanese using the Latin alphabet
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Intro |
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| Michael: What types of Japanese romanization are there? |
| Risa: And which one is the most common? |
| Michael: At JapanesePod101.com, we hear these questions often. Mark Lee finds the Japanese writing system a bit difficult. When studying, he still prefers to use the Latin script to take notes. He asks his teacher, Tomoko Tanaka, |
| "How do you write "ocha" in romaji?" |
| Mark Lee: 「お茶」はローマ字でどう書きますか。 ('O-cha' wa rōmaji de dō kakimasu ka.) |
| Dialogue |
| Mark Lee: 「お茶」はローマ字でどう書きますか。 ('O-cha' wa rōmaji de dō kakimasu ka.) |
| Tomoko Tanaka: O-C-H-A です。 (Ō-shī-eichi-ē desu.) |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Mark Lee: 「お茶」はローマ字でどう書きますか。('O-cha' wa rōmaji de dō kakimasu ka.) |
| Michael: "How do you write "ocha" in romaji?" |
| Tomoko Tanaka: O-C-H-A です。 (Ō-shī-eichi-ē desu.) |
| Michael: "O-C-H-A." |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: In this conversation, we hear Mark Lee say, |
| Risa: お茶はローマ字でどう書きますか。(‘O-cha' wa rōmaji de dō kakimasu ka.) |
| Michael: which means, "How do you write "ocha" in romaji?" to which Tomoko Tanaka responds, |
| Risa: O-C-H-A です。 (Ō-shī-eichi-ē desu.) |
| Michael: "O-C-H-A." |
| Michael: In this lesson, we'll focus on the most common form of Japanese romanization, known as |
| Risa: ローマ字 (rōmaji). |
| Michael: Romaji is the transliterated form of Japanese, which means the Latin alphabet is used to represent Japanese sounds. This makes it easy to read (even if not understood), among non-Japanese speakers. Japanese language learners will notice this online, in-app, and in textbook language learning resources as they work to master the language. It's a great way to double-check your reading skills, whether that be in Katakana, Hiragana, or Kanji if the romanized version also appears side by side. As you learn Japanese, romaji may be helpful as you become better acquainted, little by little, with the Japanese writing system. However, it's best not to rely on romaji too much since it's a far less common native Japanese writing form. |
| Michael: In content geared towards native Japanese speakers, romaji is most often used to bridge the gap between foreign, Latin-based languages and Japanese. In some cases, you may see Romaji used alongside other Japanese writing systems to cater to non-native speakers. Romaji is also used in acronyms, like NATO, as well as corporate brands or international businesses. Oftentimes, romaji is also used to represent foreign language words, names, or places. |
| Michael: On a separate note, when it comes to numbers within a text, especially a horizontal text, Arabic numerals are used instead of Kanji numerals. |
| Michael: There are several different systems of romaji. Arguably, the two most-often used systems are the Hepburn system or |
| Risa: ヘボン式 (hebon shiki) |
| Michael: and the Kunrei system or |
| Risa: 訓令式 (kunrei shiki) |
| Michael: The Kunrei system of romaji is the system taught to Japanese children in elementary school. |
| Michael: There are a few variations of the Hepburn system. This site and our lesson notes use Revised Hepburn, which is the most common form of romaji used today, and is also used by the Library of Congress. |
| [Recall 1] |
| Michael: Let's take a closer look at the dialogue. |
| Do you remember how the teacher spells the word in Japanese "O-C-H-A." |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Risa as @target-teacher: O-C-H-A です。 (Ō-shī-eichi-ē desu.) |
| Michael: Here you can see how three kana are rendered through 4 letters. The kana |
| Risa: お (o) |
| Michael: corresponds to the vowel o. Next is the combination of two kana |
| Risa: ちゃ (cha) |
| Michael: which corresponds to c-h-a. |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: In this lesson, we learned that romaji is the romanization of the Japanese written language. It is useful at the very beginning because it helps you read and get started with Japanese pronunciation, even before you've learned the Japanese writing. However, at the same time, romaji is only a representation of written Japanese, and therefore should not be used as a primary reading method when learning the language. |
| Expansion |
| Michael: Japanese is written without spaces between words, which might scare the learners, but in romaji each word is written separately. |
| Cultural Insight |
| Michael: Most Japanese devices use romaji input. If you plan on typing in Japanese, you will be using romaji, which will automatically turn into hiragana, katakana, or kanji characters. For example, if you want to type "mountain" in Japanese, |
| Risa: やま (yama) |
| Michael: You type it as "y-a-m-a," in romaji. And it will turn into |
| Risa: やま (yama) |
| Michael: in hiragana or kanji. In this way, you can type in Japanese even if you don't know how to write kana or kanji. |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Risa: またね！ (mata-ne!) |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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