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eheh, so... sensei, when's the next lession?
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さ、 せんせい、 いつ次のレッスンでありますか。
Sa, sensei, itsushi no resson de arimasu ka? (So, Sensei, when is the next lesson?)
Anyway, I'm a student too, and I'm just going to say that if you really do want to learn the language, you really will have to memorize hiragana and katakana (and yes, kanji). Romaji are very rarely even used in Japan, and are only really used to aid beginning students in learning to start reading and pronouncing Japanese correctly.
But anyway, just so you know what on earth I'm talking about...
Japanese uses four major forms of writing. They are hiragana, katakana, kanji, and romaji. (Thankfully Tifa already explained more or less how to properly pronounce most of the sounds in Japanese).
Hiragana are the most basic form of writing in Japanese. Here's the Japanese word for Japanese (language) in hiragana:
に ほ ん ご
ni ho n go
'Nihon' means 'Japan', and 'Go' means 'language'.
Hiragana are entirely phonetic, and entirely intuitive once you've memorized them. Children's books and older video games are composed almost entirely of hiragana, making them easy to read if you're just beginning, and good for practice.
Here's some more words in hiragana:
ありがとう (Arigatou, 'thank you')
おはよ (Ohayo, 'good morning')
こんにちわ (Kon'nichiwa, 'good afternoon' or just 'hello')
こんばんわ (Konbanwa, 'good evening')
Next come katakana.
Katakana are used for foreign words and names, as well as onomatopeia and sound effects (the Japanese are in love with onomatopeia, as can be seen by the wide range of them in manga). The Japanese are no stranger to loanwords, as there are entire dictionaries devoted to words in katakana.
Here's my name in Japanese:
エ リ ック
e ri kku
That's Erikku, for Erik. The Japanese don't really have sounds for most other cultures' names, so they make due with what they have, and try to sound out the words of other languages with their own syllables. Here's some more examples with names and loanwords:
ジョー (Joo, Joe)
ロバート (Robaato, Robert)
マリア (Maria, Maria)
アレックス (Arekkusu, Alex)
イアン (Ian, Ian)
See what I mean here? In Japanese, the 'er' sound (like in Robert) is imitated with a long 'aa' sound. The 'l' sound in 'Alex' becomes an 'r'. There are many substitute sounds in Japanese, because of this, many sounds in Japanese are considered to be the same (it isn't as if they can't pronounce these sounds at all; they just aren't used to it. It's just like a native English speaking person learning Spanish and trying to roll their Rs). Other names, such as Ian and Maria, just fit perfectly when they're transliterated into katakana.
Now some loanwords:
パン (Pan, from the Spanish 'Pan', bread).
エネルギ (Enerugi, from the German 'Energi', energy)
キス (Kisu, from the English 'kiss')
Now, here come Kanji.
Kanji are the scariest part of learning Japanese...not only are they monsters to read and write properly, unlike kana, they're symbolic, instead of phonetic.
Remember 'nihongo' (Japanese language) in hiragana?:
にほんご
Now here's the same thing, but in kanji:
日本語
ni hon go
'Ni' means 'sun' or 'day', 'hon' means 'origin', and 'go' of course means language. Japan is the land of the rising sun (Sun origin), and this is its language.
That's not phonetic at all, is it? Kanji are made even scarier due to them being clustered together, and meaning different things and being pronounced different ways depending on context. Kanji were originally Chinese characters (those who know Chinese will have a major advantage in learning Japanese because of this, since the kanji have the same meanings), which were borrowed in Japanese (China had a great influence on Japanese culture).
Here's a basic sentence in hiragana:
はじめまして、 わたしはエリックです。
Hajimemashite, watashi wa Erikku desu.
Nice to meet you, I'm Erik.
However, with kanji applied...
始めまして、 私はエリックです。
The kanji near the beginning is 始め 'hajime', meaning 'begin', 'hajimemashite' is a formal phrase for introducing yourself to someone for the first time.
The kanji in the middle is 私 'watashi', meaning 'I' or 'me'. It can take on many different forms depending on your tone, but we'll use the formal 'watashi' for now. It can also be 'boku' (masculine and casual form), 'atashi' (feminine form), 'ore' (extremely informal form), and 'ware' (extremely formal and archaic form), for example.
Next, and finally something easy, are romaji. Romaji ('Roma' means 'Rome' and 'Ji' means 'characters'), are just roman letters (like the English alphabet). All of you have been using romaji this entire thread, so you probably don't need to know how to use them.
Well, here on I go rambling. Well anyway, if you all really want to start studying Japanese, the best way to go about it is to take a formal class.
