[RobinMask]

Originally Posted by masaegu

Thanks for the nice words, romaji-lovers!

What would you advise an English-learner from Japan if he asked you to correct his English sentences right below?

「ユーガイズアービーイングソーアンリーズナブル。ア イムリアリーディスアポインテッド。」

Would you be willing to correct that? Would you even care to read it for that matter? Will this "English-learner" be communicating with anyone effectively if he kept writing English like that just because it's easier for him to write English with kana as the Roman alphabet looks so strange and foreign to him? Would you call yourself elitest/purist/fanatic if you thought English should not be written in kana?

If you just said to yourself "no" a couple of times, then why the heck should I or anyone else not say the same to romaji-users? Wrong is wrong. Weird is weird. Let's start thinking things in relative terms and, most of all, be fair, dudes!

You raise an excellent point, but I think the crux of the matter is why a person is learning Japanese, and the answer to this could justify the use of romaji in learning.

I personally want to become fluent, I also want to read/write, and so I use kana whenever I can and get textbooks in kana, and if I was to use romaji extensively in commuinicating then yes it would hold me back. You would be right in such an example, the use of romaji would not help such a person at all, they wouldn't be able to progress as easily or at all.

However what about the person who just wants to be conversational? What about a person who wants the oral skills for a holiday, or visiting friends, or just to converse on a daily basis? In this case their priority isn't writing or reading, it's speaking. In this case I would justify the use of romaji, because the time and effort it would take to use kana would be counter-productive to that individual's needs. Romaji is sufficient for a casual learner or one only interested in speaking.

If we take your example I would ask why is the Japanese speaker learning English and how. If he/she is learning with or from other Japanese natives, and if he/she has the priority of speaking English without the written skills, then why would them speaking only in kana be an issue?