Introduction to Japanese Writing Discussion

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I am very exited to start! I just got this and am exited to have started after getting back from Japan in October 2012.

Also, as Delirium noted, there are far more kanji than the 2,136 stated in the text. Educated Japanese adults often know more, up to 3,000-3,500 or more. I think it's great that they get to all 2,136 important ones for us here though! I'm excited to start!

As mchj2468 mentioned, there's four parts to Japanese Writing. However, the 2,136 Kanji to learn are NOT the only ones out there. In reality, only 1,945 are usually used, and the other 191 are occasionally used. There's also the Jinmeiyou (人名用; Person Name Use) Kanji which are specifically for names. [Jinmeiyou include characters which are and are not part of the Jouyou (常用; Common Use) set.] Roumaji (ローマジ) is only useful when it is used correctly, but doesn't work properly with homonyms (of which there are several). As you learn how to use Kanji more and simple things less, you'll understand why they are used.

When they mentioned ro-maji, I thought they were going to ruin my whole language learning experience. I absolutely hate ro-maji. I'm hoping that if they do use ro-maji that it is seldom used or not used at all. To you Japanese language learners out there, I can't stress enough how important learning hiragana and katakana is. The more you can avoid ro-maji the better. If you do this, you will never regret that you did.

INTRODUCTION TO JAPANESE WRITING: 1) Kanji (pictographic characters from China, 2,136 of them to learn.) 2) Katakana (Used for the pronunciation of foreign words.) 3) Hiragana (Base writing system) 4) Rōmaji (Something like phonetics)