Text: The Dangers of Romaji

The main reason I'm typing up this deviation (on the spot, mind you!) is from a shocking post on Yahoo Answers in which a person advised AGAINST learning hiragana and katakana and to ONLY learn romaji! This deviation will (hopefully) explain why that is the worst idea ever O_O

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Their original advice:
"The best route to take is for the reading and writing side, focus on Roumaji, which is the romanized version of Japanese, and put most of your focus on speaking. I urge you not to focus on reading and writing Hiragana, katakana and kanji in the beginning, just focus on Roumaji and speaking and listening.

In any language at the end of the day you'll ALWAYS be better of to be able to listen and speak than to read and write. So focus on those." - (keeping it anonymous for protection)

There are loads of things wrong with the quote above, but let's talk about the positives of romaji first.

Romaji is wonderful for beginners and very helpful in learning the alphabets in general. Memorization of the alphabets takes lots of practice and often times you'll need romaji to help push you along. BUT once you learn that a letter of kana is associated with their romaji, leave that romaji and move on. (あ = 'a'. Once you remember that, stop using 'a' and use あ.)

Now, why romaji is bad.

First of all, it's a clutch. You will never fully learn Japanese if you keep using/reading/writing/etc romaji. Every time you use it, it's like taking a step to the side instead of taking a step forward. You can never advance if you can't get rid of your clutch.

It's also a very lazy habit to keep. And to be lazy when learning a language = very bad! Learning a language takes a lot of hard work and dedication and if you're not up to it, it can be nearly impossible. Forcing yourself to read the kana or kanji can greatly help you remember how to read/write in future situations.

There are textbooks that use it! Yes, many of them use it, and sometimes (very scarily) they'll use it throughout the entire book! That is, however, NO excuse not to learn the kana/kanji. This is the fault of the author(s) (yes, I blame them, that is a terrible way to teach Japanese!) Don't let romaji distract you. Like the above, force yourself to read the kana/kanji.

But I use romaji in my lessons. Yes, I know, and there is a very specific reason. As much as I'd LOVE to only use kana/kanji, I know many people don't have the language pack installed. So I use the romaji because they can't see the characters on the screen (it's displayed as a box). However, again, I will not take that as an excuse either.

Japanese people (surprise!) don't use romaji 99% of the time. So if you ever go to Japan, and all you know is romaji (hopefully you can at least speak), then you're going to find yourself quite lost! If they don't use it, why should we?

All it really is, is cheating. If you keep going back to romaji as a default, then you're not really learning! It will halt your progress in the language and make it more difficult for the transition to happen later on. You'll become too dependent on using the romaji and/or too scared to move on.

It can really block your understanding of the language. Learning the kanji can be extremely helpful in understanding why things are the way they are. And if you only know romaji, that knowledge cannot be attained.

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As for the second part of their advice; speaking/listening being easier than reading/writing, that really depends on the person. For myself, I find reading/writing SO much easier. This is because, for me, I can actually take my time. I can really focus and take things in little pieces. I can go at my own pace. As for listening/speaking, you gotta be fast and take things in quick. Think on your feet. I'm just not that kind of person. I'm sure loads of people are, but not me! I won't let this stop me from learning and practicing more speaking/listening as that is half the language! All it means is I have a long road ahead of me

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Conclusion/TL;DR:

You're going to have to use kana/kanji sooner or later, so why not start now? Stop using romaji and start really learning Japanese!