We can distinguish two main functions of romaji, namely phonetic transliteration, and syntactic transliteration. The first tries to mimic what Japanese sounds like to the western ear. The second tries to mimic the order that is found in the kana tables. Romaji can,to a degree, accurately reflect the pronunciation of Japanese, thus making it easy to read as the reader’s brain can instantly turn the words into internally vocalized words. It can also,to a degree,  accurately reflect what the kana is supposed to look like. However, Japanese   with written romaji becomes hard to read because what is written and how it should be internally vocalized are two completely different things.

So why use romaji to teach Japanese, when one can use Japanese script instead? I guess the idea is that the phonetic scheme lets non-Japanese readers understand written “Japanese” easily without having to know how to read real Japanese to make sense of it.  However, why would you want to understand written Japanese without having to know how to read real Japanese?
Students of Japanese learn romaji because they don’t really want to learn Japanese or they have the false idea that romaji is Japanese. In the end it is either poor teaching on the part of the teacher or laziness on the part of the student. The idea that kana is difficult to learn is also false. Learning kana, Hiragana and Katakana, is not something that will take months, if one will be studying Japanese anyway. It takes about a week to memorize hiragana to a level that continued practice (which is what someone who’s studying will be doing anyway) and exposure to Japanese texts will perfect for you, even if you don’t really try.
Ideally, students should never be exposed to romaji at all in their educational material, save when the pronunciation for the kana is explained. However, when it is used, it should be remembered that students will understand that Japanese written in western letters does not accurately reflect the way it is written in Japanese.

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Firstly, there’s the plain/polite form of speech called “teineigo” which is principally determined by the absence or use of desu and masu. This is the Japanese you generally learn in text books and at private colleges. Secondly, there’s the use of humble and honorific forms of speech, called kenjyougo and sonkeigo respectively, when dealing with vast social status differences between the speaker and listener or speaker and subject. These two ‘degrees’ are independent of each other, in that one can be plain humble or humble polite, as well as plain honorific and honorific polite, should one want to explore the full range of options.
 

How and when to talk plain or polite, and when to be humble or when to be honorific, depends very much on the concept of in and out group, as well as familiarity. In ones familiar in group, one can talk in a plain and informal manner, while talking to someone who is part of ones formal in group, or part of an out group, typically warrants polite speech. When one talks to someone in ones out group that is of clearly higher social status and you wish to acknowledge this fact, humble and honorific speech is typically used as well as polite form.

As a non-native speaker there will be no expectation of you to speak polite Japanese, by Japanese. However, when you first met Japanese they will most likely speak to you using polite Japanese. In particular, phone calls and talking to staff in any customer service role you will find particularly difficult. You will be lucky if you understand anything at all.

As a beginner you will only want to concern yourself with teineigo – the use of desu and masu. Unless you intend to go to Japan for business and are determined to speak Japanese while doing business then I wouldn’t worry about learning kenjyogo or sonkeigo for the time being.

There are two kinds of Japanese adverbs. There are adverbs and then modified adjectives that play the role of  adverbs.The first kind are words that have always been adverbs, and the second are adjectives that are placed in a particular inflection so as to act adverbially. You will understand. In fact you are probably already using these adjectival adverbs.

Japanese Adverbs

The first type of adverbials are mostly quantifiers. Words such as sukoshi, meaning “a little bit”, zutto, meaning “very much”/”throughout” or tokidoki, meaning “sometimes”.

Here is a list of a few more;

Daibu – greatly
Totemo – very
Taihen -  very, awfully

Adjectival adverbs
The second type can be constructed out of either verbal adjectives, or noun adjectives. However, the way they are inflected to become adverbs is different for the two.

Verbal Adjectives
Change verbal adjectives to the ku form and  then it can be used as an adverb. For instance, the verbal adjective hayai, meaning “early” can be made an adverb by dropping the i and adding ku, resulting in hayaku. This can then be used with for instance the verb for “waking up”, okiru: hayaku okiru – to wake up early.

Here are a few more;
hidoku – appallingly
sugoku -  terribly, amazingly
yoku – well
tsuyoku – strongly

Noun adjectives
Noun adjectives can be turned into adjectives by instead of adding na as suffix, adding ni as suffix. For instance, kirei is a noun adjective meaning “pretty”, kireini is an adverb meaning pretty. If we pair this with the verb for “to split”, wakeru we get niwakeru meaning “to cleanly split” (such as a piece of cake spilt among children)

nazen ni – completely
amari ni excessively
migoto ni – astonishingly
hijyou ni – extraordinarily
yakeni – horribly

I hope this helps. Now you should know a few more adjectives than just tetomo.

Japanese soon compliment Japanese speaking foreigners on their…”speaking ability” in social situations. They will most likely compliment your ability after you have exchanged greetings. This happened to me the first time I came to Japan and started working in a restaurant. A customer complimented on my Japanese. I didn’t understand what she was saying. Once I found out what she was saying I felt like a fool and pretty embarrassed. Keep this in mind when you meet Japanese.

Common Japanese Greetings

Push the play button below and repeat the greetings after Kaoru Sensei. Try to get your pronunciation to sound like Kaoru’s.

Konnichiwa.	Good afternoon
Konbanwa	Good evening.
Ohayoogozaimasu.	Good morning *
Ohayoo.	Good morning.
Oyasuminasai.	Good night.
Oyasumi	Good night.
Jyaa ne	Bye
Mata ashita	See you tomorrow
Mata ne	See ya later

Bowing: Instead of shaking hands , the Japanese bow. They also express gratitude, apologies, and requests by bowing. There are different ways of bowing depending on the situation, shown by how deeply you bend forward.

Gifts: It is customary to bring a gift, such as a box of sweets with you, when you visit your acquaintances or those to whom you feel some obligation. When offering a gift, Japanese will usually say something along the lines of “this is just a little something” which expresses a self-effacing attitude.

Meishi: In business, people exchange name-cards when they are introduced. This card is printed with name of the person, the company and his or her title on it. Japanese love to give their business card. I seem to accumulate hundreds every year.

Katakana is the second Japanese alphabet used to express non-Japanese words in written Japanese. The other alphabet is called Hiragana. Then there is Kanji. Hiragana is the basic alphabet that children first learn in order to read Japanese. As students progress, Katakana and Kanji is then introduced as the student’s vocabulary expands. For foreign students it makes sense to approach reading Japanese in the same way. Please visit our sister site ReadHiragana.com to learn how to read Hiragana.

Katakana Words

Katakana is not just about English loan words.It also used for onowords, emphasizing words in manga and children’s books that would normally be written in Kanji or Hiragana, terminologies in the fields of study like science and medicine, and foreign names. If Kanji represents the traditional “language culture” of Japanese, then Katakana represents the modern and evolving “language culture”. In fact, Katakana is very much a part of the modern evolving culture of Japan as new words named after or tagged to new trends and cultural discoveries are usually always based on English words and written in Katakana.

Why is it import to learn Katakana?

Katakana, like Hiragana, is indeed worthwhile learning as it ensures you are speaking Japanese correctly. Often English native speaking students of Japanese make the mistake of half learning Katakana or skip learning it all together. Making the assumption that you can get by because most Katakana words are English loan words is a big mistake. If you can’t read atakana you can be sure that you’re not pronouncing words well. If your pronunciation is slightly off you will have trouble being understood. So please come and visit us often. You can also sign up for a sample of our video course that helps you master and read Katakana fast. Juts fill in the forum below and check your email.

Learning katakana is not only about “loan words”. If Kanji represents the traditional “language culture” of Japanese, then Katakana represents the modern and evolving “language culture”.

Katakana is used for:

1. Onomatopoeic words

2. Emphasizing words that would normally be written in Kanji or Hiragana

3. Foreign names

4. Terminologies?- words and phrases used in a particular subject or field.