I get it. A lot of languages have loanwords. But Japanese seems to have a bit too much of them. Google says that almost 20% of the words are loanwords. I get that things like computers, TV or other modern things are difficult to convert into Japanese but basic things like “door”, “pen”, “class”, “leader” and stuff are just English. Don’t they have their own words for it? I just think that it is a shame that there are so many loanwords in Japanese. Maybe someday in the future Japanese will be just English but with additional vowel at the end and Japanese accent.
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i think you missed the other thread from 2 hours ago on this very topic. also every language has loanwords
English uses like 80% loanwords.
You say that you understand that a lot of languages have loan words, but I don’t think you really understand the extent of it. English is a Germanic language, so you might expect it to have largely Germanic vocabulary. However, only about [a quarter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language?wprov=sfti1) of words in English are of Germanic origin, with more than *half* coming from French and Latin. The only thing that separates these loanwords from Japanese ones is how long they’ve been in the language. These words have been in English for so long, they’ve become just as English as any other word. And the same thing has happened with Japanese, not only with more recent English loan words, but also with vocabulary of Chinese origin.
Don’t forget that Kanji, one of the most important concepts in the Japanese language, **is not from Japan**. Chinese Hanzi, along with a huge number of words, were imported into the language. And yet these words are unmistakably Japanese. Besides, is it even a bad thing that languages borrow from each other this much? I find linguistic purism to be a rather dull point of view.
There was Meiji and then there was the post-war occupation: two huge influxes of Western stuff of all sorts, much of which was English and American.
>Maybe someday in the future Japanese will be just English but with additional vowel at the end and Japanese accent.
No, it doesn’t work that way. Is English just French but with lazy vowels?
Even if クラス *is* in use other terms like 学級, 授業, 教室 (depending on what exactly ‘class’ means in English, it has a fair few meanings) are still more common
This is just a personal idea that just came to my mind, as a Japanese person, but Japan used to be closed off from the rest of the world for about 200 years in Edo Era, so when different cultures arrived from other countries in Meiji Era, I think everything was totally fresh and stimulating for Japanese people at that time.
(Well, we had trade with the Dutch all through the period of isolation though.)
I don’t know if it’s only because of that, but I think there is a tendency that people who can jump on the latest information are cool.
Many Japanese people are timid, but they might be curious. Just like cats.
I think you can think the same with words; people think you are knowledgeable when you say, “This is how they say it overseas,” or they simply enjoy the sound of a word that has never existed in Japan before.
I think that’s why most Japanese people wanted to use English words, and eventually they took root all over Japan.
If you hadn’t known that, you might have been ridiculed for not knowing such a thing at that time.
Plus, Japan used to be a strongly male-dominated society, but I think we have gradually learned how we should think and live from other countries and how society should be, so in that sense, I think our culture has naturally adopted English words.
Sorry for my novel and sorry if my English is terrible lol
basically Japan’s specialty is importing things from elsewhere and “Japanifying” it
no matter what it is, they can make the uniquely Japanese version of it.
They have a very strong cultural identity but can always bring new things into it.
This is their superpower.
I feel like just linking [my reply from two hours ago](https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/z2yypd/comment/ixj1f8a/?context=3), since (aside from the beginning which specifically addresses computer terms since that’s the context the OP was asking about) it could pretty much serve verbatim as a reply to this.
But instead, I’ll give the “greatest hits” version:
* No, loanwords aren’t “just English”. They’re loanwords, they’re borrowed into Japanese. They’re pronounced differently and often take on different nuances or completely different meanings.
* Yes, there are often native Japanese synonyms, and loanwords-vs.-native-words are used with different nuances or in different contexts.
* Plenty of loanwords are coined in Japanese or from languages other than English and will be misunderstood or entirely unintelligible to someone who assumes their meaning based upon English.
And I just have to address this:
>Maybe someday in the future Japanese will be just English but with additional vowel at the end and Japanese accent.
This is completely inaccurate (not to mention kind of insulting and actually kinda “orientalist”/racist from a certain perspective). The presence of a few (or even more than a few) loanwords doesn’t mean that Japanese is “just English with a funny accent”.
Japanese grammar, sentence structure, speech patterns, idioms, etc. are all entirely separate from “English”, and the simple fact that many native English speakers — including many people on this sub — find Japanese to be an incredibly challenging language to learn should be clear evidence of this.
戸、万年筆、学級、指導者
60% of Japanese vocabulary is borrowed from Chinese.
And the 〜10% or so of western loans aren’t just from English but also Dutch, German, Portuguese, French, etc.
Also, I feel like a lot of the hate for English loan words has to do with how ugly they sound and how much they stick out like a sore thumb. I can understand this, but it’s also important to keep in mind that lots of those loan words have been so heavily Japanized that they don’t even sound like they are loan words. Things like スクショ、サボる、パワハラ、マンネリ, etc are not recognizable as being originally from English (save for the fact that they’re written in Katakana) and blend in pretty seamlessly with other Japanese vocabulary, IMO.
Wait till you learn about English