Is it ok to learn only romanji?

[Bishounen]

Watashi wa namae khalil. watashi wa romanji ga daisuki. i only know romanji. is it ok?

[richvh]

"Watashi no namae wa khalil desu."
Ultimately, not learning Japanese characters will hinder your learning.

[Machina Maw]

Unless you want to retard your proficiency level, it's much better to learn kana and kanji. Especially if you travel to Japan one day; because, surprise surprise, no one writes in romaji. It's much easier to learn kanji/kana in the long run.

[kotori]

Is it OK to learn only romaji? Depends. Why do you want to learn japanese?

Do you want it to be a cute party trick? Amuse your friends with a few sentences (JUST like in a REAL Anime!!)? Then learning romaji is perfectly fine. You'll get what you want, then you'll quit. But you'll never actually learn japanese.

If you want to study the language, you'll have to study it all. If you want to know Japanese, then hiragana, katakana, and kanji are part of the package. The illiteracy rate is extremely low in japan. If you can speak but not read, you're considered pretty stupid.

I guess if that's what you want, though.... no one has the right to force you to be smart.

Romanji 4 eva!

... ow.. that hurt.... *limp... limp...*

[tanuki]

The answer is easy: NO.

Oh, and it's incredible that no one said this yet: it's not romaNji, it's romaji (or roumaji, rômaji...).

[nick-san]

I had the same question a while ago. Just romaji helped me a little bit but once i learned hiragana i expanded my vocabulary quite a bit and now i can understand a little bit.

watashi wa skushi wakari mas (was that spelled right?)

[sgtkwol]

I gotta say, typing romaji can be a lot more convenient, then I convert it to hiragana using my M$ Word macro...anyone interested? I'll send a copy if anyone wants it. Ultimately, you do not want to use romaji to study Japanese use Toyota and トヨタ as the example. Use romaji and you'll gravitate towards saying toy-oh-tah, use kana and you get to-yo-ta.

[kotori]

why bother typing romaji, converting it in an external program, then copy-paste when you can just type romaji and have it converted on-the-spot with an IME? Seems like a lot of unnecessary work.

[GyakuGirePanda]

ローマ字は役に立たないよ。

[kanadajin]

Romaji Can seem kinda fun, But it could be a hazard to you. Because of the different spellings. Like in romaji You can type konnichi wa but in kana its konnichi ha.

[hamsterfreak4evr]

no.

[Bishounen]

But i my browsers cant read japanese hiragana,kana,kanji.... what should i do?

[kotori]

make it so they can? Google for your operating system to install eastern asian fonts, or simply check this site's FAQ.

[Machina Maw]

nick-san wrote:
I had the same question a while ago. Just romaji helped me a little bit but once i learned hiragana i expanded my vocabulary quite a bit and now i can understand a little bit.

watashi wa skushi wakari mas (was that spelled right?)

I think what you mean to say is - 私は少し分かります。Watashi wa sukoshi wakarimasu. *I small bit understand*

How about;
日本語はちょっと分かります。
Nihongo wa chotto wakarimasu.
(I) Understand a little Japanese. ("I" is understood)

[CajunCoder]

Why does everyone come here introducing themselves as "namae"? I see this mistake so often, I can't help but wonder if there is some textbook to blame out there.

"watashi wa namae bob desu" means literally "I am name-bob", which makes no sense.
In an "A is B" sentence, wa always seperates A from B. Watashi wa Bob desu = I am bob.

Anyway, as for romaji, RUN AWAY!

When I first started out, I also was scared by kana, and wanted to just stick with romaji. I soon found, however, that is not a good idea. Romaji builds many bad pronunciation habits, is hard to read, makes conjugations and words hard to understand at times (especially japanesified english words), and keeps you completely illiterate. If you're going to be learning japanese, written language is your best ally because of the internet. If you cant read and write in japanese, you deprive yourself of a great learning resource. And don't expect japanese people to be able to converse in romaji. I even have a hard time reading it sometimes.

Even "romaji" is misspelled in romaji. If anything, it should be properly spelled "roumaji".
Also, look how hard it gets to read - this is a possible conjugation for the verb "harau": harawarenakerebanarimasendeshita. Good luck reading that in romaji :p

Do not be afraid of written japanese. Infact, run towards it with open arms! You can easily learn (or become pretty familiar with, at least) most hiragana within 3 days. You can learn both hiragana and katakana easily within two weeks, or even less if you put in the effort. Just don't be lazy - write all of your notes and such down in kana, and don't fall back on romaji. Plowing through and using it both in reading and writing is the key.

As for kanji, learn it through context. You'll be surprised how much you learn without any effort when you start using and reading it.