Katakana Analysis Draft

The first katakana word I would like to discuss is the word トナカイ which means "Reindeer". Based on Google translate this word seems to be commonly written in katakana and not hiragana, even though it has kanji counterpart (馴鹿) with the same pronunciation and meaning.

I found this word from the anime "Usagi Drop" in the special episode 2. The episode is about Christmas and Santa where Reindeer is mentioned. The link to this episode is http://anilinkz.com/usagi-drop-ova-special-2 where the word is mentioned at 2.55 and 5.20 minute.

(On the side note, this anime is very good. Highly recommended if you have not watched it yet.)

I think this word is a loan word from foreign language, presumably non-English. Unfortunately my knowledge of any other language is nearly non-existent so I am not able to pinpoint the exact origin. Some Wikipedia search on name etymology and local names of this animal does not help either. There is a class of loan words from non-English language, for example アルバイト (part time job, from German), so this is probably not very surprising.



The second use of katakana I would like to discuss is how people's first names are sometimes written in katakana. For example the following youtube video is a song by Utada Hikaru https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Q5-4yMi-xg. Even though it is nice, there is nothing particular about this song but I want to draw attention to the title of the video where Utada Hikaru is written as 宇多田ヒカル. Note that her first name is written in katakana even though it is a perfectly Japanese name. I found this way of writing names to be quite common.

I think the reason for this is to emphasize the first name as separated from the last name. This might be because if everything is written in kanji or hiragana it might be ambiguous to tell apart the first name from the last name. This is just a speculation though.



Different textbooks explain katakana differently. I think this is because katakana has a wide range of usage, some of which are subtle or difficult to understand for new learners of Japanese. Many textbooks introduce katakana as a way to write loan words which is the first function we learn. The more advanced features such as onomatopoeic words or emphasized words are left until fairly advanced stage in learning Japanese because they require substantial familiarity with the language to understand.

私の好きな食べもの

私は食べものの中に日本のりょうりが一番好きです。日本のりょうりがぜんぶ好きです。たとえばおすしやおさしみやとんかつやそばが好きです。プリストンにたくさん日本のレストランがあります。

さくらエズプレスはいいレストランです。さくらエズプレスがウィタスプーンにあります。食べものはまあまあおいしいですが、古くて、大きいです。それから、オーナーはやさしいですよ。オーナーとはなするのはとてもたのしいです。

友すしもいいですよ。ナスサウにあります。食べものはふるくて、おいしいです。そして、オーナーはたいわん人だから、私のたいわん人の友だちとよくいきます。

一番好きなレストランはすしパレスです。すしパレスがケンシントンにあります。ビュッフェですから、しょっとたかいです。でも、食べものはとてもいいです。友だちとよくこのレストランにいきます。

PE Goal Statement

Specific goals for this semester:

Listening
- There are a number of pairs of kana that I can never tell apart by listening (for example, か and が, さ and ざ, し and ち, つ and す, etc). This problem should definitely be fixed.
- Learning more vocabulary would be useful.

Speaking
- I think my pronunciation is okay, but fluency is a big problem. This will need more practice.

Activities
- Go to office hours more often than last semester.
- Self-study the vocabulary.
- More speaking practice in general. Maybe at the language table or with Japanese colleagues.


A long term goal is to achieve the level of command and fluency that I can use Japanese in any daily life situation. Of course this will not be achieved by the end of this semester, but hopefully it will be somewhat closer.