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So I want to learn to speak Japanese, no deadline or anything that requires me to learn it, just want to know the world a bit better.

The biggest issue I've had when it comes to trying to learn is finding someone to answer my questions but that's another story.

My current question is that if I want to speak Japanese, is it required/vital that I learn to read/write it as well? I tried out lingualift's free trial for Japanese learning and it started off with having me write hiragana after some filler.

My goal is to just be able to have a simple conversation "How are you? That's good." "What would you like to eat?" "Where is the station?" with someone. It's not set in stone that I'll ever be engaged in Japanese much either, which is why I'm curious on if I really need to write & read it.

Anyone that can give me insight for this question; Thank you! It means a lot.

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  • No, it is not required but you may get stuck at a certain level when it becomes difficult to find learning materials that don't use the Japanese writing system(s). We have a question about this over at Language Learning Stack Exchange. – user18139 Oct 5 '16 at 17:07
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For your goals, I don't think reading and writing is necessary. You can use Romaji (Latin letters) to remember the pronunciation and use your ears for the rest.

However, if you ever want to use any kind of dictionary, you'll at least need Hiragana.

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