Tofugu - Latest Comments in Strange Katakana Words

Re: Strange Katakana Words

Akinyele Sanchez Brandley — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 04:46:15 -0000

Katakana sucks!!!!!

Re: Strange Katakana Words

Peter Payne — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 02:32:18 -0000

Excellent post, will tweet.

Re: Strange Katakana Words

Sergiu — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 02:48:08 -0000

I was looking for some katakana words and I found you... again... :-))

Great article, Michael! Thanks! ;-)

Re: Strange Katakana Words

Jtiger87 — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 10:21:09 -0000

Just have to correct you here. ローマ字 is the "latin alphabet" . Or is often called the "Roman alphabet"... and English happen to be one of the languages who elvolved from it. =) (But I guess you know this by now, since it's 2 years ago since you wrote this. lol) Never seen it called 英字　though..

Re: Strange Katakana Words

Rorobeautiful Sunshine — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 23:14:55 -0000

um wow so im a beginner at this nd im totaly confussed is there a video of this cuz i learn by sight

Re: Strange Katakana Words

Rorobeautiful Sunshine — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 23:14:54 -0000

um wow so im a beginner at this nd im totaly confussed is there a video of this cuz i learn by sight

Re: Strange Katakana Words

gec — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 22:10:08 -0000

More interesting: what languages and words do the words come from (i.e. zubon is obviously not English). Check out the origin of カチューシャ (alice band) for kicks.

Re: Strange Katakana Words

Jonadab the Unsightly One — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 07:16:55 -0000

Interesting. I wonder how old the word マンション is. Depending on when it came over, the meaning might make more sense than you think. (The English word mansion has shifted meaning significantly over the last several hundred years. It used to refer to any place where somebody lived.)

Re: Strange Katakana Words

nagz — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 10:37:41 -0000

bioluminescent frogs? if they eat lots of fireflies they glow (true)

Re: Strange Katakana Words

TwoBlue — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 23:35:09 -0000

Enjoy part twoooo!

Re: Strange Katakana Words

Ellydishes — Wed, 05 May 2010 09:57:58 -0000

This is really fun, although I wish more of the actual origins of the words was explained. It helps me remember 外来語 much easier. Anyway, for those interested here are a couple explanations:

ズボン - I've been told this is from the French word jupon, bizarrely meaning petticoat
マント - This is from an English word "mantle," which refers to a heavy cloak worn a long time ago
ホッチキス- From the company Hotchkiss, which makes staplers.

Re: Strange Katakana Words

Jenny — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 23:46:12 -0000

Most Japanese think all katakana words came from English to begin with. I did a class of "katakana is NOT English" and purposely didn't put any English words on the board. I even threw in "made in Japan" katakana words. Needless to say it was a real eye opener for my students, and for the Japanese teacher I worked with.

The new one I had to learn was パティシエ（pâtissier). Students get all upset because I have no clue as what it is because they think it's English. >_<

Re: Strange Katakana Words

Name — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 12:29:05 -0000

Wow I love the styling and formatting of that language chart. Do you think we could get larger high res versions of that Chart and a Hiragana one?

Re: Strange Katakana Words

bambz — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 09:51:13 -0000

ai..aisheteru..

Re: Strange Katakana Words

caughtredhanded — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 13:14:31 -0000

Yea, when are they?

Re: Strange Katakana Words

Philip Seifi — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 05:05:30 -0000

Same here... as one learns more and starts using Japanese the order of preference generally quickly changes from "romaji > kana > kanji" to kanji > kana > romaji". IMHO romaji should be avoided at all costs and the first thing a student should learn is hiragana/katakana (http://nihongoup.com/ ^^). As for kana-only text - it's extremely hard to read, especially if it's written without spaces and is more advanced in content.

Re: Strange Katakana Words

Gakuranman — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 20:46:16 -0000

Haha, really? I thought cats go ニャンニャン and dogs go ワンワン in Japanese :p (source, mangy cats and wild dogs).

Re: Strange Katakana Words

Gakuranman — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 20:44:20 -0000

Thanks ^^. I had fun designing the vintage-style presentation. Look out for more vintage fugu and schoolboy coatman in the future!

Re: Strange Katakana Words

Gakuranman — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 20:43:01 -0000

Thanks for the comment! Maybe you can make one of our future lessons in late July! :p

Re: Strange Katakana Words

Gakuranman — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 20:42:29 -0000

Cheers!

Re: Strange Katakana Words

Gakuranman — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 20:42:14 -0000

How about Bs? :p

Re: Strange Katakana Words

Gakuranman — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 20:41:45 -0000

Thanks! Interesting point about x-rays, that :)

Re: Strange Katakana Words

Gakuranman — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 20:41:26 -0000

Thanks for the correction! It is probably more correct to say that English is the alphabet used the transcribe the English language ^^;

These days I appreciate kanji much more and hate romaji like the plague though :p

Re: Strange Katakana Words

Gakuranman — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 20:39:31 -0000

マスコミ is written in part 2 over on http://gakuranman.com/unusu...

Re: Strange Katakana Words

Gakuranman — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 20:38:01 -0000

Thanks for your input! I learn new things every day ^^