[8] With Glomaji, You Can Teach Yourself Japanese Sounds and Characters

How to Input 金融 (kinyu) in the Alphabet

As there are several Romaji writing systems, some words aren’t converted correctly if you type in the wrong Romaji spelling. For example, if you type 金融 (kinyu) in Romaji, it’ll be converted into記入. That’s where Glomai (global Romaji) comes in. It’s a writing system that faithfully reflects Japanese sounds. You type “kinnyuu” for 金融.

Toukyou Instead of Tokyo

Japanese names for places and people written in English don’t properly represent Japanese sounds. For example, Tokyo would be pronounced ときょ, Osaka would be おさか, Ichiro would be いちろ if those names were pronounced in Japanese as they are written. With Glomaji, you type in toukyou, oosaka and ichirou respectively, as they would be pronounced in Japanese. In Glomaji, the first letters aren’t capitalized.

Type in Nihonnjinn for 日本人

In Glomaji, all you have to do is input Japanese words as they are pronounced in Japanese. If there are two ways of writing the same thing with the alphabet, the English style takes precedence. In Romaji, nihonjin is used more often than nihonzin. In Glomaji, however, you type in nihonnjinn. The sound of the n can change depending on the letter of the alphabet that comes after it (example: kinyu), and that’s why you always type nn for ん.

Correct Conversion into Japanese

With Glomaji, the letters of the alphabet that you input will be converted into the correct Japanese words. As long as you know which letter(s) of the alphabet represent which Japanese sound, you can convert anything correctly into hiragana, katakana and kanji. English speakers can use Glomaji without learning how it works. What’s more, the vocabulary flashcards in Glomaji are in alphabetical order. You can learn the correct pronunciations and spellings at the same time.

You Can Teach Yourself (Japanese) Characters

You can always check whether the alphabetic script you enter on your PC or smartphone is based on correct Japanese pronunciation by converting it into hiragana, katakana or kanji. Glomaji is a new writing system the Hiragana Times advanced back in 2011. Although it hasn’t yet been widely adopted, it’s expected to become a tool for learning Japanese characters in these times of globalization.