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JohnBraden (Offline)
Busier Than Shinjuku Station
 
Posts: 1,110
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Madrid/Misawa/Chicago
06-24-2011, 11:26 AM

Quote:
Originally Posted by RickOShay View Post
Not at all. This is not the alphabet that you are thinking of.. .i think. This is romaji.. the romanized version of Japanese letters, so honestly when you take English phonetics out of the picture it is really just about learning 26 new characters and their associated sound in Japanese.. not too much to ask of kids who are learning tons of new kanji all the time anyway, I would think.
I guess you are right. After all, if they watch any television in Japan or go outside to play, they see the English alphabet every day. As Nyororin explained, and I totally blanked out on that one, they must learn romaji to "translate" those words.

As far as romaji, yes, I do know what it is. I am taking the basic Japanese course at a Japanese cultural society here and the text we use is the Romanized version.
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