[Nyororin]

Originally Posted by Sashimister

lol Sounds as if I had said something unreasonable.

If the majority of JF members agree with you on the romaji issue, I'll be more than happy to get the heck outa here as I have much more than a single member's influence on the language section as of now. Endorsing the use of romaji, which has nothing to do with Japanese, is the last thing I want to do. I'm not a vendor of fake fur.

You said nothing unreasonable, and I don`t recall ever saying that romaji should be an ok way to write in Japanese.
I don`t think that anyone is endorsing the use of romaji, and we certainly don`t want you to leave. And this most certainly isn`t just you.

My opinion on what might need a little more thought are threads that have this sort of pattern - obviously not in these words, but in feeling;

OP; Hey, anyone know what "nanika nanika arigato" means?

A: Not another romaji user! Ugh. Why don`t you try writing it in REAL Japanese?

OP; I don`t know any Japanese, my friend just wrote it at the end of a letter to me. But I do want to learn!

A, B; Well nobody is going to help you as long as you don`t write it in kana, because romaji isn`t real Japanese. Why don`t you even bother to try to learn yourself?

OP; Fine... Is this right? なにか なにか ありがと

A, B; Look! You wrote it wrong. That`s because you were using romaji - it screwed you up. That`s why we always say not to use it!! You`ll never learn right as long as you use it!

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I understand impatience with romaji. I understand not liking it. It is great to get people off of romaji ASAP. I`m all for that... But there are a lot of users who come with a question, and instead of getting a kind answer - the first response they get is something telling them that they aren`t worth anyone`s time unless they write in kana. This sounds very cold. And there are quite a few who leave almost immediately after getting that sort of response.
It`s easy to become short tempered when it is something you`re telling people everyday, but these are all different people. They may be taking high school Japanese classes which don`t really study kana (for some idiotic reason). They may have be in some other course that uses romaji - I know of some university level textbooks entirely in romaji (Why, I couldn`t tell you...)
Or maybe a self study with a crappy book that doesn`t stress the need to learn kana first and foremost.

All of these are flaws with books and methods - not necessarily a flaw with the person wanting to learn. But unfortunately when these people are mixed in with "memorized 3 phrases from anime!" people, it`s far far too easy to place the blame on the individual.

I personally think it would be a great idea for someone like Sashimister to make a nice thread explaining why we should all use kana - and we can link to that post when a new user asks something using romaji so that impatience doesn`t leak through. And also so that no one feels they are being personally attacked. (Because I know that no one is, but impatience and exasperation can feel that way if you`re a new user and it`s the first response you get.)

Romaji should be avoided at all costs... Too many people do not know this so need to be taught, not scolded. The scolding should be reserved for repeat offenders.

ETA; Wow, there were a number of new posts while I was typing that up. But I think I covered everything and nothing needs to be added.

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