From the website of 読売新聞(Yomiuri しんぶん) I have found several interesting usages of カタカナ. Most of them are loan words referring to foreign names and concepts. Interestingly, it seems that the technological advancement which spreads globalization culturally, politically and economically, also creates a new category of カタカナ in Japanese language. Because many words associated with communication technology are inevitably presented in the form of カタカナ.
The word データペース is an online archive of the publication the newspaper has even published, including images, articles, CD and DVD resources. And most of the data is digitalized.
2. プリペイド, prepaid, よみうりOnline
プリペイドappears in a cellphone advertisement. The company, Hanacell, guarantees its cellphones can be used conveniently in America with all the similar services one has in Japan.
Hi there, my name Kevin Craven, and I'm currently studying abroad in Japan.
ReplyDeleteI think you present a good point about katakana for communication-related terms being indicative of globalization through communication technology.
Some communication-related words, however, aren't borrowed. Cell phone, for instance, is 携帯電話（けいたいでんわ）. I really don't know why certain modern items have gotten their own names and others haven't. I can't imagine it's just because cell phones are more important than other things; "personal computer" (パソコン）and "internet" (インターネット) are, as far as I know, always katakana. It'd be an interesting topic of conversation or research.
My favorite katakana word related to communication: 飲み二ケーション. It's not in the dictionary, but it is a real term. It pretty much refers to people talking over drinks, with the drinking enhancing the talking.
Enjoy your Japanese study, and as always, がんばってください！
Hello. My name is Hitomi and I study English at my uni.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your opinion.
There are many English Japanese in Japan.
So I confuse the words sometimes. "Is this word English ro Japanese?"
I think kinds of most of technical words use English.
I think Japanese words is difficult because there are 漢字(kanji) カタカナ ひらがな.
cheer, Hitomi
Hi!
ReplyDeleteMy name is Megumi and Japanese univer sity student.
My opinion is same as your opinion.
Many words of カタカナ is loan words, but some word are not same English words, so sometimes we use wrong English.
Are you confused in カタカナ and ひらがな？
よくかんがえてありますね！:)
ReplyDeletetrue, true, instead of inventing
new JP words for those technological terms,
JP people just translated them into katakana.
It is funny because this actually helps some
JP people to learn the Eng vocabs rather quickly.
They might not know how to spell "prepaid" in English but when they heard someone saying "prepaid", they would know what they are talking about. So i guess katakana can be useful in the particular way.
hello.i'm hayato,a japanese student.
ReplyDeleteExactly,your opinion is right.
カタカナ is an important communication tool.
Sometimes,カタカナ is more possible to understand than 漢字(kanji).
For example,soccer is displayed サッカー in カタカナ,and 蹴球(syuukyuu) in 漢字.
japanese say サッカー,few japanese say 蹴球.