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Wednesday, January 17, 2018

Japanese - three kinds of writing

Problem
I thought Japanese would be easy to learn. Its symbols are the same as Chinese, although the words are different.  I am trying to learn the traditional Chinese symbolic writing you see on signs.

Now I discover that there not one, not two, but there are three kinds of Japanese writing. I was in Tinycards, from Duolingo, when I read the warning that a set of cards were in Katakana script. I thought, ok, what's that, and what is the alternative?

The three kinds of writing are
katakana (a kind of simplified symbolism for sounds)
romanji - writing in the familiar roman alphabet I am using now - like Times New Roman font, which is the easiest for English speakers like me

Useful websites:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_writing_system
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katakana
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanization_of_Japanese

Author
Angela Lansbury

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