romaji

[fmaanimefreak]

Hi I was just wondering, do japanese students learn romaji as a normal lesson in school? Because I noticed alot of american things were not written in katakana, but the way we (in an english speaking country) write it.
Ex:
on the Apple computer japanese website, I noticed that alot of things were written just as I would normally see it here in America, like iTunes, Mac OS X, iPod, Quicktime, even the words Store, and Pro.

So, how would a japanese person be able to read these if they are written in a script they do not know how to read or write.

btw: I know that in some sites they put the regular word, and then how to pronounce it in katakana, but on some they have nothing.


This was just something that was bugging me for a long time, and couldn't find an answer elsewhere.

[Harisenbon]

Children learn romaji in school from (I believe) 4th grade. In addition, English is a required subject in Junior High and High Schol, as well as often being taught in Elementary School. Thus, the average Japanese person's exposure to written English is actually very high.

[Takeo Saeki]

I was confused about that before too. I didn't even know about romaji until quite recently. So whenever I watched a Japanese movie or something and saw romaji, it puzzled me a little because I thought Japanese people only knew how to write in Katakana, Hiragana, and Kanji. Thanks Harisenbon for the explanation.

[skrhgh3b]

Harisenbon wrote:
Children learn romaji in school from (I believe) 4th grade. In addition, English is a required subject in Junior High and High Schol, as well as often being taught in Elementary School. Thus, the average Japanese person's exposure to written English is actually very high.

Meanwhile, the average American person's exposure to written Japanese is limited to the Matrix movies

[Harisenbon]

And even then, the kana is written backwards.

[spank]

So I guess that Keanu Reaves (aka Neo), was able to upload a program into his cerebral cortex allowing him access to thousands upon thousands of kanji within a nano-click?

That movie trilogy was such Hogwash. And the nerve of those Wachowski Brothers to insult us by claiming that those nefarious computer AI systems would be dependent on mirror-imaged katakana to describe a computer generated construct suitable for human habitat?

grrrr......