tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33409496.post834063171854682953..comments2008-08-04T16:07:45.247+09:00Comments on My So-Called Japanese Life: Katakana EnglishUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33409496.post-71076016427452861022007-04-14T10:50:00.000+09:002007-04-14T10:50:00.000+09:00Furigana?! Ooooh, so that's why she's writing that...Furigana?! Ooooh, so that's why she's writing that. My Japanese language teacher always writes small (I sit in the back row) hiragana next to the Kanji. I thought she was being nice for us slackers...I mean students. <BR/><BR/>Roy, Thanks for the tip about pronouncing "ra ri ru re ro". While we started using hiragana and katakana, I still have trouble pronouncing that set.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33409496.post-9852540664451888022007-04-13T18:51:00.000+09:002007-04-13T18:51:00.000+09:00While I realize such comments are probably made so...While I realize such comments are probably made somewhat tongue in cheek and aren't meant to be offensive (I think), they do show a certain lack of depth of consideration. <BR/><BR/>A 20-year-old Japanese person has spent 12 years being educated in Japanese language. You've spent your time working full-time and pursuing other interests (such as web design, photography and writing your blog). It's also a lot easier to learn languages as a child. I have a student who lived in the U.S. until she was 3 and you can really see how she has an ear for English that people who learned English either only in Japan or later in life do not have. <BR/><BR/>You make good points about using romaji for learning Japanese. I guess it's the flip-side of learning English via katakana. Just as you can't really know proper English using a Japanese phonetic alphabet, you can't learn proper Japanese using an English alphabet.Sharihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17419851636570519145noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33409496.post-56673408360601753712007-04-13T14:49:00.000+09:002007-04-13T14:49:00.000+09:00Someone recently asked me how long I've been in Ja...Someone recently asked me how long I've been in Japan and when I said almost 20 years, they replied "Oh, so your Japanese should be as good as a 20 yr old" It made me depressed ;-)<BR/><BR/>As a Linguistics major may I also add that ROMAJI is one of the reasons why some native English speakers have bad Japanese pronunciation. For example, there is no "r" equivalent in Japanese and the proper "ra ri ru re ro" pronunciation is actually closer to "da di du de do" and the sound represented by "u" in Japanese has less lip rounding than "u" in English. People should never learn Japanese using romaji.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com