About The Japanese Writing System.

[dogsbody70]

I use this book and similar in order to trace and practice writing the letters


Let's Learn Hiragana: First Book of Japanese Writing: Amazon.co.uk: Yasuko Kosaka Mitamura: Books

[JustinRossTso]

Ack!!! I'm sorta confused from reading this. I don't want to start a new thread... so...

What is Kanji used for? What is Hiragana used for? and What is Katakana used for?

From what I understand is... Hiragana and Katakana is like syllables where you can spell out words, or read words that you've never seen before.

Kanji is... just the characters?

Which one is most useful or what order of things you should learn the writing in? I doubt that learning just Romaji would help all that much for writing.

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And... on a side note! From reading this... I would say that stroke order IS important... just like any other Asian character based language.

I'm Chinese... but I don't really know how to write, so when I do the improper stroke order people can either laugh that I don't know how to write, or say how ugly my characters are.

English... I think there is a specific way to write each letter, but I never follow it. When I do though, my letters come out beautifully!

Just like Guitar or any other thing! If you don't have a method, it is less efficient/slower/uglier.

Yeah... that's my take on the stroke order!

[KyleGoetz]

Originally Posted by JustinRossTso

Ack!!! I'm sorta confused from reading this. I don't want to start a new thread... so...

What is Kanji used for? What is Hiragana used for? and What is Katakana used for?

From what I understand is... Hiragana and Katakana is like syllables where you can spell out words, or read words that you've never seen before.

Kanji is... just the characters?

Which one is most useful or what order of things you should learn the writing in? I doubt that learning just Romaji would help all that much for writing.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And... on a side note! From reading this... I would say that stroke order IS important... just like any other Asian character based language.

I'm Chinese... but I don't really know how to write, so when I do the improper stroke order people can either laugh that I don't know how to write, or say how ugly my characters are.

English... I think there is a specific way to write each letter, but I never follow it. When I do though, my letters come out beautifully!

Just like Guitar or any other thing! If you don't have a method, it is less efficient/slower/uglier.

Yeah... that's my take on the stroke order!

Hiragana should come first. Then katakana. Then kanji.

I think a simple way of explaining kanji to someone who speaks English is this: treat kanji like you would Greek and Latin roots in English. You don't have to know what "anti~" and "un~" mean to speak English, but knowing them makes your language abilities much better. Indeed, without knowing them, you'll probably come off as uneducated or speak with very few words.

[JustinRossTso]

Originally Posted by KyleGoetz

Hiragana should come first. Then katakana. Then kanji.

I think a simple way of explaining kanji to someone who speaks English is this: treat kanji like you would Greek and Latin roots in English. You don't have to know what "anti~" and "un~" mean to speak English, but knowing them makes your language abilities much better. Indeed, without knowing them, you'll probably come off as uneducated or speak with very few words.

Oh! Okay, thanks for clearing things up. Time to learn!

[CoolNard]

I personally find the strokes very complicated to master. I'm writing in reference to hiragana, since I've just started attending classes. The order of strokes in Japanese characters can be similar to Chinese characters, which makes it a tad easier for us to overcome the order bit. What I find difficult is the almost congruent-like strokes when juxtaposing one Japanese character with another. Japanese also has many cursive and intertwining strokes, which make it harder to perceive, for people unaccustomed to the language.

In emphasized pertinence to Romaji, my teacher said there are special highlights and pitches with which one should enunciate the words. But I digress. To date, I'm still full of questions, though I understand the foundation of the writing system now.

[KyleGoetz]

Originally Posted by CoolNard

In emphasized pertinence to Romaji, my teacher said there are special highlights and pitches with which one should enunciate the words

What does romaji have to do with pitch?

[CoolNard]

Originally Posted by KyleGoetz

What does romaji have to do with pitch?

There are lines or small symbols, within a word, depicting if the pitch should be high, low, long or silent. For example, the "o" at the end of "ohayo" is supposed to be prolonged, when you say the word, so they add a sort of mini hyphen on top of that "o" to show that. "Z" and "J" are also pronounced the same way and according to my teacher, people use them interchangeably.

[KyleGoetz]

Originally Posted by CoolNard

There are lines or small symbols, within a word, depicting if the pitch should be high, low, long or silent. For example, the "o" at the end of "ohayo" is supposed to be prolonged, when you say the word, so they add a sort of mini hyphen on top of that "o" to show that. "Z" and "J" are also pronounced the same way and according to my teacher, people use them interchangeably.

No, romaji has absolutely nothing to do with pitch. Pitch is not prolongation, and everything you posted after the first half of the first sentence has nothing to do with pitch.

[CoolNard]

Originally Posted by KyleGoetz

No, romaji has absolutely nothing to do with pitch. Pitch is not prolongation, and everything you posted after the first half of the first sentence has nothing to do with pitch.

Well, I didn't personally propose this co-relation. My teacher did. He said we had to pronounce certain words high-pitched or low-pitched when their pronunciations are prolonged to sound nice and formal. Besides, I disagree with you, pitch (as a part of tone) can be prolongation, or may be inherent within the latter. In this case, I was speaking with regard to macron diacritics.

EDIT: See tone marks.
Romaji - Definition