Why is Romaji important?

Since my background is in Sociology, I have been writing a lot about Japanese culture. In this posting, I wanted to shift my focus back to Japanese language. There are many articles which focus on negative aspects of learning Romaji. Romaji is Romanized characters, which represent Japanese Hiragana and Katakana.

For instance, あ is a. く is ku. Most Japanese books show Hiragana and Katakana along with Romanized characters. There are reasons that I emphasize the importance of learning Romaji as well as Hiragana and Katakana. As a Japanese teacher, I advise learners to memorize all three writing systems. (Hiragana, Katakana and Romaji) But I understand that some people just want to learn survival phrases and expressions. I have worked with people who are interested in learning conversational Japanese. I still think it is best to learn all writing systems, but to me, the most important thing is for students to enjoy what they learn. I definitely wouldn’t have had this level of flexibility if I was teaching a class.

Romaji is essential because you use Romaji to type Japanese characters including Kanji on your computer. Without knowing how to accurately type Romaji, you won’t be able to write emails in Japanese on your computer. Whether you are learning Japanese for fun or business purposes, it is important to first learn Romaji for two reasons. One is an obvious reason but it is easier to learn Romaji. For those who are learning Japanese for fun, I am not going to tell them to learn Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji. If they are truly interested, they would probably want to learn later. So if you are learning Japanese to prepare for an upcoming trip, I advise you to first learn Romaji. I have already mentioned the second reason that I advise learners to focus on Romaji: So that you can type Japanese characters on computers.

But it is still essential to learn Romaji as well as Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji, if you are serious about advancing your Japanese. For beginners, I usually advise them practice reading Hiragana and Katakana. You don’t have to learn how to write these characters right away. It can be overwhelming. So I want them to take one thing at a time.  Learning a foreign language is pretty much a lifetime process, so it is important that you feel comfortable with what you are learning. I am still struggling with English. I still make basic grammar mistakes, but it is getting better, I hope.. :>