Japanese Language
Why You Should Never Learn Japanese with Romaji
Some argue that beginners to the Japanese language can skip the writing system and just use romaji. Here’s why that’s never a good idea.
February 22, 2024
Some argue that beginners to the Japanese language can skip the writing system and just use romaji. Here’s why that’s never a good idea.
We typically write them in katakana now – but these Japanese words originally had kanji. How many of these can YOU read?
Earlier this year, a group that aimed to replace the Japanese writing system with the Latin alphabet admitted defeat.
The story of how modern Japanese came to assume its current written form – and how kanji nearly got left on the cutting room floor.
How Japanese writing and Japanese written speech differed in the Edo period – and how pronunciation came closer to what’s spoken today.
How did the written Japanese language assume its current form? We look at the language’s earliest written forms – Chinese kanji and manyogana.
A brilliant author. A tragic trajectory. A powerful legacy. Learn more about the writer whose works inspired one of Kurosawa’s most famous films.
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