4 ms·

First thing that caught my eye is how 地図 (map, in Japanese) is annotated マップ (transliterated “map”, from English). This language is out of control!

simias 3y ago
That's gikun (義訓), a fun feature of Japanese that's often used and abused in popular culture. For those not familiar there are explanations and examples in this article: https://morg.systems/Gikun https://morg.systems/Gikun
- ehnto 3y ago
  I've been using Morg's anki decks, The Morg Way, highly recommended so far.
- lbotos 3y ago
  Thanks for sharing this link -- Lots of great Japanese language learning insight on that domain!
- kiisupai 3y ago
  Many thanks for this link. It's been something that has confused me during my own attempts to read manga.
deleted 3y ago
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ehnto 3y ago
If you have an interest in Japanese but can't commit to learning it, you can have a lot of fun by just learning Katakana (the alphabet used for foreign words like this). You see english words like this all the time, I used it multiple times a day there and it's a neat party trick to read them. I still catch lots of words in the wild even here in Aus. Surprisingly useful if you travel there! Want some coffee? Well gosh, that's コヒ (kohi). Need a bathroom? Look for トイレ！(toire). Worth noting these are more than annotations, they are loan words and are part of the language in daily life. It's easy to know if you are looking at katakana, and if it is you can expect to be able to sound it out to a foreign word, commonly english. It's very different stylistically to the other two scripts, hiragana and kanji. Much sharper, more masculine but still simple looking.(kanji) 漢字, (hiragana) ひらがな、 (katakana) カタカナ.
- Cerium 3y ago
  Katakana is also a useful skill in shopping situations. You can often confirm that a product is what you want by reading the katakana on it. This is helpful not only in Japanese stores, but some Chinese situations where Japanese products are popular (eg: health related products).
- qingcharles 3y ago
  I always think of this as the dirty little secret of Japanese - that it includes so many English words "hidden" in katakana. If you learn katakana and walk around Tokyo you can probably read about 25% of the text ^_^

simias 3y ago

That's gikun (義訓), a fun feature of Japanese that's often used and abused in popular culture. For those not familiar there are explanations and examples in this article: https://morg.systems/Gikun https://morg.systems/Gikun

ehnto 3y ago
I've been using Morg's anki decks, The Morg Way, highly recommended so far.
lbotos 3y ago
Thanks for sharing this link -- Lots of great Japanese language learning insight on that domain!
kiisupai 3y ago
Many thanks for this link. It's been something that has confused me during my own attempts to read manga.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

ehnto 3y ago

If you have an interest in Japanese but can't commit to learning it, you can have a lot of fun by just learning Katakana (the alphabet used for foreign words like this). You see english words like this all the time, I used it multiple times a day there and it's a neat party trick to read them. I still catch lots of words in the wild even here in Aus. Surprisingly useful if you travel there! Want some coffee? Well gosh, that's コヒ (kohi). Need a bathroom? Look for トイレ！(toire). Worth noting these are more than annotations, they are loan words and are part of the language in daily life. It's easy to know if you are looking at katakana, and if it is you can expect to be able to sound it out to a foreign word, commonly english. It's very different stylistically to the other two scripts, hiragana and kanji. Much sharper, more masculine but still simple looking.(kanji) 漢字, (hiragana) ひらがな、 (katakana) カタカナ.

Cerium 3y ago
Katakana is also a useful skill in shopping situations. You can often confirm that a product is what you want by reading the katakana on it. This is helpful not only in Japanese stores, but some Chinese situations where Japanese products are popular (eg: health related products).
qingcharles 3y ago
I always think of this as the dirty little secret of Japanese - that it includes so many English words "hidden" in katakana. If you learn katakana and walk around Tokyo you can probably read about 25% of the text ^_^