Just as you thought you’ve got it..

Well, I’ve finally completed my Hira/Kata self-taught training and now can effective read most of the Japanese words, especially during lunch and reading the menues.

Now comes the shocker.. Just when you thought that you can pronounce and read Japanese with Hira/Kata… you realise that more than 50% of the written forms are in Kanji!! Now, of course, I know more or less what that Kanji means, but how do you actually pronounce them? You can’t go to a restaurant and start speaking in Chinese, although some Japanese may know that actually Chinese pronounciation of those Kanji words. Damn, another road block to ordering food!

Thus I am forced to quick get an electronic dictionary and a pretty good and basic one too.. Casio XD-470 (12,800 yen).

Then, the next thing you know, another percentage of the spoken language are English words written in Japanese! For example, if you order hot coffee, you can tell them you want “hotto”, instead of “atsui”. Or you can easily order “aisu lremon tii” without diving into you dictionary.. And you thought that you wanted to learn Japanese and you ended up equally well-off with just broken English!