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Originally Posted by Veespin
MMM, no where in that picture does it show romanized Japanese -- unless it is behind that glare which I can barely make out "AKIHABARA.".
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Actually, yes, in the glare, it shows Akihabara written in romaji. I would also say that saying "3F" and "4F" is a way of denoting floors in a building that is more common in Japan than it is in the US.
My point still stands. In this little pic I found after a 10 second search is a Japanese store-front with no less than 14 usages of ABCs in projecting information, and information that isn't necessarily being directed to foreigners, but to Japanese natives.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Veespin
Just so you know, normal Japanese writing does NOT use "all four alphabets." I wouldn't even consider romaji as an "alphabet", because it not originally Japanese. Officially there is only 3, and those three are used the most.
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Whether romaji came from Japan isn't the issue. Kanji didn't come from Japan either, but you wouldn't say that Japanese don't use it every day.
The sentence I translated yesterday was from a manga where someone was talking about how children's presents had become more complicated than the Japan of the past. 「今の子は XBOX のソフトしか欲しがらない。」
All kids today want are Xbox games. (or something close to that). It stuck out when I say Gaberdeen's statement that all four writing systems (not "alphabets") were not used at all simultaneously, where there is a perfect example of that exact situation.
I don't think I tried to claim that Japanese words romanized using the alphabet was common, but you see names of train stations, as well as shop names often in romaji. This isn't uncommon on menus, too.
Most Japanese sentences would be a combination of kanji, katakana and hiragana. I simply said it wasn't uncommon to see all four used, and a typical Japanese is not intimidated by the English alphabet, so it is wrong to assume that any usage of the English alphabet we do see in Japan is for foreigners' benefit.