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Nyororin (Offline)
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04-13-2009, 03:59 AM

Quote:
Originally Posted by jesselt View Post
I never said that you were saying that Japanese was easier >_>

I was just point out that "Because hiragana/katakana are ALWAYS pronounced in the same way. There is no need for worries about "spelling", silent letters, dropped consonants, blended sounds, etc etc etc that are oh so very common in English" isn't exactly true seeing as Hiragana isn't always pronounced the same way and there is a form of silent letters. Both languages are difficult in their own ways, but I was just showing that English doesn't have "just 26 letters" and Japanese isn't always spelling error free.
A native child, growing up around Japanese, is usually able to hear those "silent" letters. は is an exception, but it is much much easier to remember one or two exceptions that a whole sea full of them. おお versus おう is the biggest one that catches kids (こおる vs こうる, etc), but it isn`t exactly an exception.

You`re speaking of the problems for non-native learners. I am talking about native acquisition.

Either way though - "spelling" mistakes have little to do with reading proficiency. I am sure that you are able to read much more than you can spell with confidence. And as in 99.99 percent of the time hiragana/katakana is indeed read with the same sound, it is not a stretch to say that it`s always read in the same way. Even with the very very few exceptions, you would still be able to understand what was being read *if* you were a native speaker.


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