Katakana English
Ever since I went back “home” for a visit, I feel like I have been noticing more of those little bits of Japan that annoy and bother me. It is almost like two weeks away was enough for me to forget about them, only to come back and see them again with fresh eyes.
One of the things that has been annoying me most is the prevalence of katakana English and how it makes communicating in English, or in Japanese for that matter, difficult.
First of all, what is katakana English? Quick answer. In Japanese there are three writing systems. Kanji – those chinese characters that you see people getting tattooed on their bodies even though they are unclear as to what they really mean. Hiragana – a phonetic alphabet (much like the roman alphabet) used for spelling out words, however unlike English, each character has a specific sound attached and that sound never changes. Katakana – another phonetic alphabet, however this one is used solely for words borrowed from foreign languages.
Since the Japanese phonetic alphabets do not allow consonants to be blended together, the English words that they use can end up coming out a little funny. Each consonant must be paired with a vowel. It is not possible in Japanese to have a single consonant alone (except for n), so when you have a word like HAT, and that word is translated into the Japanese syllabary it becomes HATO. Other examples are, fried potato=furaido potato and juice=jusu.
Now, I have no problem with the fact that Japanese is a different language and that they, as a result, have different sounds. What drives me nuts is the complete lack of understanding of the TRUE ENGLISH (or other language) word when one of these words comes up in conversation.
This week, for example, I have been doing a lesson on map reading and giving directions with my first-year students. On the map there are a variety of establishments, one of which is a Cinema. Now, I picked this word because I knew the students should know it because they have the same word in their katakana vocabulary, although it sounds very different ( Shi (like she) ne (the sound a horse makes-only short) ma (same sound as the beginning of margarine) ). Despite the fact that the Japanese language borrows this English word and uses it quite readily in their daily vocabulary, each of my students looked at the word “cinema” on the page with complete befuddlement. They have completely lost sight of the fact that the words in their katakana vocabulary are actually from other languages, mostly English, so much so that they cannot recognize the actual word when they come across it.
And the problem doesn’t stop with cinema.
They do the same thing with names as well. Today a student wanted to know how to spell “Marilyn Monroe,” however she was so busy pronouncing the name in this katakana style (Meririn Monoro) that I was completely unable to understand what she was trying to ask. I really wish that English was taught in a way that helps students separate English from katakana so that they are able to speak more naturally. I do try to do this in my classes, but I can’t change all of Japan in just a year (or two) with only 800 students. Alas….