Mmm, ke-ki! |
To start off with, here are a few random examples...
1) ke-ki = cake
2) miruku = milk
3) chokore-to = chocolate
4) resutoran = restaurant
5) su-pa-ma-ketto = supermarket
6) uirusu = virus
7) mo-ningu ko-ru = wake up call (morning call)
8) pe-pa- tesuto = written exam (paper test)
9) kurisumasu = Christmas
10) rabu reta- = Love letter
"I 'rabu' you!" Not having a letter L or V can make it hard to express love! |
Moving on, here are the Japanese loan words for a few sports...
11) tenisu = tennis
12) pinpon = ping pong (table tennis)
13) kuriketto = cricket
14) futto boru = football
15) ragubi = rugby
16) sunu-ka = snooker
17) sakka = soccer
18) gorufu = golf
19) bokushingu = boxing
20) badominton = badminton
Kinkakuji Temple in Kyoto. Definitely worth checking out if you ever visit Kyoto. |
Finally, here are the Japanese words for a few countries...
21) Ingurando = England
22) Sukottorando = Scotland
23) Ue-ruzu = Wales
24) Airurando = Ireland
25) Amerika = America
26) Kanada = Canada
27) Furansu = France
28) Itaria = Italy (Italia)
29) Oranda = Holland
30) O-sutoraria = Australia
Strictly speaking, Japan has known of these countries for quite some time, so I'm using 'modern' in a very loose sense of the word!
Editor: "Charles, that a katana, not katakana." Charles: "Close enough." |
I learned katakana myself when I visited Japan, and I can still remember most of the katakana symbols. It came in useful years later when I was back in England and I met a girl with a tattoo written in katakana which read 'Chris' (or kuri-su). At first I was tempted to show off and ask her, "Who's Chris?" so that she would think, "Wow! Impressive! He can read Japanese!"
However, I then had a better idea and was tempted to ask her, "Who's Paul?" and nod at her tattoo to make her think, "Paul? Oh no! The tattoo artist has made a mistake! It's meant to say Chris!"
Anyway, if you ever go to Japan then I recommend learning katakana because it comes in quite useful if you want to play childish tricks on people with tattoos.
You can find more Japanese themed blog posts below:
Modern Japanese words
10 interesting Japanese words and expressions
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