I’ve always written the particle as “wa” when using Romaji (by the way, it’s “Romaji,” not “RomaNji,” as I’ve seen a few times in this thread). Any Japanese language books I’ve ever seen use “wa” instead of “ha,” too. When writing Japanese on a computer, you have to write the particle as “ha” in Roman letters for the correct hiragana to show up, so that may be part of the reason for people using “ha.”
One last question… What are the general rules for use of the second-person pronouns anyway? Apparently they aren’t really used all that much in normal Japanese, so my teacher didn’t cover them much, but I find myself having to resort to them every now and then, and would really appreciate a bit of info.
Thanks!
For second-person pronouns, at your level and at your age (I’m guessing, early twenties?) you can get by without using them at all, just use the other person’s name or title if he/she has one. Let’s say you want to ask your teacher: “Are you going?”, the most natural way to say it would be: Sensei ha(wa) ikimasu ka?. Other examples:
Kentarô, eigo jôzu desu ne.
Suzuki-san mo Amerika ni itta koto arimasu ka?
Younger men very, very rarely use “anata”. Use “kimi” when talking to kids or your girlfriend and use “omae” with a lot of caution, which is to say, at your level, don’t use it at all. In all those cases, though, I would still use the person’s name.
As for me using “ha” for “wa”, I guess it comes from typing a lot in Japanese, I’ve never given it much thought.