Day 7

Sunday for me here today, and after some ribbing from our pal Andy, and a polite nudge from Reiko, I decided to use my time today to practice some hiragana. It goes without saying that it IS best to be able to write these in my sleep; it’s certainly not the first time I’ve gone through this exercise. The trouble is, after years of starting and stopping, I forget them just like a practiced Japanese person might forget how to write certain kanji. The suggestion to do this came after both Andy and Reiko saw me writing out in romaji the things I was hearing in the lesson modules and with Reiko’s recordings to assist me with the translation exercises. It’s good advice.

The typical advice to avoid romaji, though, is because it can mess with one’s pronunciation. This is true of course when you are just starting out… particularly given how poorly it’s referenced in the most common textbooks. My use of romaji these past few days, however, is to remove a block to forward movement and not as a sound crutch. My pronunciation is actually quite good (as Andy attested when he reached out to me) and most folks here in Japan think I’m a good speaker simply because of that skill. Being a musician helps, and I’ve been around the tone of Japanese for seven years now, so that helps even more. I can actually hear stuff and speak stuff pretty well. And, as I commented yesterday I know how many words are pronounced, but not what they look like on the page. 

What I cannot do, though is READ, or WRITE (yes, even hiragana), OR string string together a sentence. Because my focus is on those three things, and I cannot write out my kanji or hiragana so well at this point, I don’t want to slow down my effort even more just to do that. My pronunciation is on point. I’m not worried about romaji any more than I would be worried about using phonetics to spell out names at a graduation ceremony with vast numbers of international students. It’s an assist.

I include these details because if you live here in Japan and feel the same way, I would certainly understand your desire to do the same, and would not object in the least. Move forward. That is the goal.

And, maybe use your Sundays to do your writing drills. I’m gonna have to do the same with kanji as well, but there is only so much time in the day. This Sunday, hiragana, next Sunday kanji perhaps. Stick to your goal and keep moving forward. Work what works, and don’t put too many darn roadblocks in front of yourself or you will never keep at it.

Peace. Tomorrow is another day! Go.

Doc

Time spent: 23 minutes
Completed Anki deck: no
Start time: 8:13pm
End time: 8:36pm