Quote:
Originally Posted by ShinJon
As of the fact, I just wanted to ask that which system is the first thing to study and memorize from Japanese? Let me know, thanks!
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Every text book on Japanese that I've seen (about 4-5), they start you off with romaji. Then hiragana. Then katakana. Then kanji.
Japanese people learn in this order: hiragana, katakana, kanji (with kanji actually being taught a little bit starting with hiragana), then romaji.
A lot of people here are anti-romaji, and I think that's justified. I think learning katakana before hiragana is an interesting approach, but I'm not sure what the more experienced would have to say about that. If you're hell-bent on focusing your studies on writing, then you might as well learn kanji as early as possible. I personally think that it helps to have a decent handle on the language before tackling kanji, though. To get a decent handle of the language, you'll have to be immersed, or semi-immersed (living in Japan or living near a lot of Japanese people).
Don't get a textbook just to learn hiragana/katakana by the way. Just look up some charts on the internet and you'll find plenty of resources.
Note: We had a conversation on stroke order here recently-- it focused mainly on the importance of "stroke order" for kanji. Most people felt that it is important. I think that the stroke orders of kanji becomes a lot easier to understand if you know the stroke order of hiragana/katakana... so you might want to take the extra time to find a resource that shows you the proper stroke orders before you practice writing them the wrong way a thousand times (which if you're going to practice writing them, you might as well learn the stroke orders).