Romaji

[jChester]

Sorry if this is the wrong area to post this, I tried;)

What is Romaji? The word comes up a lot when browsing through the Hiragana, but I am not exactly sure what it means.

Thanks,
J Chesss

[kempokatt]

It's a way to write Japanese using "roman" (yes, english is based on the roman alphabet) alphabet.

[Harisenbon]

And it is the tool of the Devil.

The utter tool of the devil.

[jChester]

Do the Japanese use it?

[Harisenbon]

Only when they want to write in English, but don't know the word. Romaji is difficult for Japanese people to read, usually.

[jinksys]

Taken from WIKIPEDIA http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanji
Rōmaji (ローマ字 "Roman characters", sometimes misspelled romanji in English), is a Japanese term for the Latin alphabet. Rōmaji are often used in Japanese text for abbreviations, metric measurements, to put emphasis on a word or phrase and to clarify the spelling of foreign names.

In English usage, rōmaji usually refers to the romanization of Japanese words that would usually be written in kanji or kana. Japanese may be written in rōmaji for many reasons: street signs for visiting foreigners; transcription of personal, company, or place names to be used in another language context; dictionaries and textbooks for learners of the language; or even simply for typographic emphasis.

There are a number of different romanization systems in use; the three main ones are Hepburn, Kunrei-shiki (ISO 3602), and Nihon-shiki (ISO 3602 Strict). Hepburn (long-vowel omitted) is the most widely used. Modified Hepburn, which uses a macron to indicate some long vowels and an apostrophe to note the separation of easily confused phonemes (for example, the name じゅんいちろう is written with the characters ju-n-i-chi-ro-u, and romanized as Jun'ichirō in Modified Hepburn) is widely used in Japan and among foreign students and academics.

[zengargoyle]

and you might as well learn rōmaji anyways since you'll most likely be using it to type japanese on your computer. for example: i type [nihongo] and it comes out like that, turn on the IME and type the same thing and it comes out like: 「にほんご」 and then hit an arrow key or two and it becomes: 「日本語」.

so unless you have a true japanese keyboard and want to learn different keys for everything... rōmaji definately comes in handy!