This topic contains 9 replies, has 6 voices, and was last updated by Peter Aybar 12 years, 5 months ago.
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May 13, 2013 at 10:43 pm #40018
so i’m excited to finally start using this instead of rosetta stone but is kanji really what is usually used in japan?
May 14, 2013 at 2:18 am #40020I for one do not really understand your question.
May 14, 2013 at 2:57 am #40021Naah, kanji is just a formality nowadays, the Japanese use Engrish.

Anyway, what exactly did you mean?
May 14, 2013 at 3:43 am #40022What kind of stupid troll question is that lol. I am not even going to answer it…
May 14, 2013 at 5:43 am #40023But don’t you still see it written everywhere as well as English?
May 14, 2013 at 6:07 am #40024I was joking about the Engrish.
Kanji is a fundamental part of the Japanese writing system. Trying to read something written in only hiragana is a good way to give yourself a headache. The answer to your original question is; yes, kanji is usually used in Japan.
May 14, 2013 at 6:14 am #40025OK thanks. Yeah I know kids learn hiragana first but it limits your speechspeech
May 14, 2013 at 7:02 am #40026Does Rosetta Stone not use kanji? Don’t tell me you *paid* for that… :P Kanji is as vital to Japanese as the latin alphabet is to English.
Also, “question” isn’t the most descriptive thread title – I didn’t know what I was getting myself into by reading it! It’s funny, the URL shows this is the 4th thread on this forum with the title simply “question”, when will people LEARN!?
May 14, 2013 at 6:55 pm #40030I have to admit I’m not clear on how kids learning hiragana first reflects on the use of kanji – kids learn hiragana first because without it, there’s no context for the kanji. Basically, hiragana have inherent sounds, but no inherent meaning. Kanji have inherent meaning, but (for the most part) have multiple readings.
The English equivalent is that hiragana are like letters and kanji are like words – you teach the letters before you teach the words, because otherwise there’s no way to explain how words work. Trying to write Japanese without using kanji is like trying to write English without using words – just handfuls of letters that happen to make the same sounds. To someone listening to them spoken, it’ll probably make sense, but someone reading it would struggle to make heads or tails of it.
And as analogies go, that one’s fairly terrible, but it’ll do…
May 15, 2013 at 7:46 am #40031No its good. Thank youyou
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