| Katakana |
| Katakana is the Japanese alphabet used to write foreign (in particular English) words that have been adopted into the language. Usually this means that words written in katakana are fairly easy for foreigners to understand, however, due to pronunciation difficulties and shortening of words, sometimes it is almost impossible to understand the resulting "Japlish". It can be particularly frustrating when Japanese people can't understand why you don't understand your own language due to the fact that they have unrecognisably shortened the words to make them easier to say! Here are some such katakana words... |
| Paasu kon (personal computer) No-to (notebook) No-to paasu kon (laptop computer) Puri Kura (short for Print Club - the photo booths that make pretty little stickers of you and your friends) Rimushi-n (Limousine, or so you would think! Imagine buying a ticket for a limousine to the airport. You would expect a huge luxurious car to pull up, complete with sofa, tv, minibar, chauffeur etc, right? Wrong! A "limousine" is a coach!) Ho-doburu It took me an age to work this one out, but it is in fact "Hors d'Oeuvre"!!! Mai Bu-mu (My boom) Used to talk about things you like, eg "Mai Bu-mu is gardening" = "I'm into gardening" |