Re: Beginner Question about Kana/Kanji/Romaji

Ben Finney wrote:

The kana, on the other hand, have no pre-existing sound association in
your mind, so you can learn the sounds without so much influence from
the sounds you learned for the latin alphabet. This benefit only
accrues if you actually do dissociate the kana from the romaji in the
early stages: by listening to a native speaker pronounce them (and,
ideally, correct your speech), *not* by looking at a romaji equivalent
in a table.

After everyone has said "hoo-hah" at you for overstating your case, I will say that I think you are essentially right. I believe that it isn't so much the brain "knowing" how to pronounce the old symbols as it is unlearning concept of diphthongs, and learning the limited set of sounds available in Japanese. A common alphabet with different pronunciation does interfere with language learning, but having a distinct character set per language doesn't fix everything.
KWW
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