Quote:
Originally Posted by DanielSheen
I am from Canada. Its impossible to teach pronounciation from reading a paper DEFINATELY. We are making a instructional video to replace that section to avoid the problems with pronouncing. I belive thought once someone knows the proper pronounciation of something, they can read it properly. Romaji or Kana, same thing, its both a little image, once you know how to pronoucnce it then you know how to. You can't learn to pronounce by looking at a word thought, which is why we are making a video for that section. I belive once that is up, then there wont be much confusion.
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My response would be if you are going to learn pronunciation by (relearning) romaji, you are better serving yourself by simply learning hiragana.
Even with proper pronunciation, romaji is more difficult to read than hiragana. Anyone who doesn't think so hasn't mastered kana.
Japanese has a beat that is timed out by the characters. Two kana is two beats. Three kana is three beats. This is important when we get to long vowels and small つ. However, that vital point is lost in romaji. You cannot see the "beats" for proper pronunciation, because there is no visible distinction between the kana and they are not all the same length. (Some are one letter, some two, and some three.) In kana there are right there, like notes on a music sheet.