Hiragana or Kanji

[Gogs]

Hi folks,

I'm a wee bit confused and would apprciate some advice.

I've started to teach myself Japanese with the assistance of the Rosetta Stone software, a Grammar book and, of course, this web site. I've done the first unit of Level 1 (of the software) in Romaji and am now going back over it learning the Kanji. In addition I'm learning 5 of the Level 4 Kanji from this site every couple of nights.

I seem to be doing quite well but I'm slightly concerned that I may be missing some vital background by not doing Hiragana first.

To finally get to the point my question really is.... should I stop learning Kanji and concentrate on Hiragana first? Or am I okay to carry on the way I'm going?

Thanks

Gogs

[randomperson]

the answer is yes, if you can't read hiragana. if you are relaying on the romaji you should stop that now.

and in the words of tony" NO ROMAJI", learn hiragana before going to kanji. (tony will be here to give you the bloody rant smily to make it more right)

[tanuki]

Definitely! Learn hiragana first! Like, right now.

[richvh]

Yes, you really need hiragana. There are things that just are never written in kanji in modern Japanese (particles, flectional endings) and other things that are rarely, if ever, written in kanji. Also, because of the shear number of kanji, the task of learning enough to be literate takes years, but learning all the kana takes mere weeks. Ideally, after learning the kana, you should learn vocabulary in parallel with kanji, and enough grammar to start tying said vocabulary together into sentences.

[Gogs]

Guess thats me told then

[datdo]

I learned hiragana but I still rely on romaji for the yomi for kanji. (my patience grew too thin to learn the same sounds again). So basically, learn katakana too for the onyomi even if it kills you. I've heard that katakana is considered to be one the most boring scripts because most ppl learn hiragana first...

[randomperson]

i think its more boring because its not as used as more and its all "blocky"(i dont like blocky things, even with kanji).

[tanuki]

I don't find katakana boring. It's the best for writing when you're angry(you know, like slashing your pen) because of it's edginess. Try writing in hiragana when angry!