Are u guys still struggling to read english words in katakana? Its so frustrating for me to read them most of the time. At this point,i would rather learn world’s hardest kanji over learning how to read katakana. Like, captain cook in n4 was spelled like クっク. I was like “who the f is captain kukku?”.
20 comments
Try reading this rap lyric:
マチガイナサスギル
ヤバスギルスキル モツ オレ
キューガマイクロフォンニギル
リアルダトイイキル
ナカセルフリーキーフロー
ハズサネーフリーキック
ステージワカス
メイジンヤゲイニン
ツドッチャオドラシチャオウカ
ゼンイン
イッキニコッチニスイッチ
ライムノウチアイジャ
シネエゼクリンチ
ハンパナイ アッタマリ
マタパーティカッサライ
マッタナシ
タイトナラップトワイドナ
バクオンデユラスゾ
タイムフォーサム
アクション！
Watch it in action here, in this specific timestamp: https://youtu.be/ErEagALVBKA?t=174
I don’t sure, if I am advanced enough to answer the question, but I shall try.
Firstly, not “クっク”, but rather “クック”, I presume.
Secondly, it depends on the actual word. As English is not my native language, names/places can be troublesome sometimes, although context is helping. It sometimes depends on how good I do know corresponding names/places (+possibly their English names) and can “think them off”. As for common words… Well, I have remembered some wasei eigo, so now it is not really challenging. Just words, I guess? Still, while I can understand many of them just while reading, I have troubles of remembering them for an active use. My writing/listening skills are not as good as reading one, though.
I’m not advanced, but man, I struggle with even reading romaji when on the bus or in tourist pamphlets. Sometimes I’ll see a name of a place while in the bus, etc be unable to read it in Romaji, see it in Kanji and instantly understand and read it. Then, the romaji becomes comprehensible lol.
Katakana though, that is just hell.
There are two types of Japanese speakers/learners who I believe are simply above all other humans as living beings: The ones who pass Kanji Kentei stage 1 and those who can understand Katakana loan words without even the fraction of a struggle.
I struggle with Katakana loanwords _each time_ no matter what. It’s slightly better when I am back in Tokyo/Japan and I see what’s currently en vogue in the Katakana loanword business but man… it is a constant struggle. 🥲
I’ve noticed that Katakana seems to use “っ” to almost negate the vowel attached to the forthcoming consonant kana so クっク would be pronounced “kuuk” and then saying it out loud at a normal speed really helps to figure out what they’re trying to say.
These words are loan words with often different meanings in Japanese. If you stop treating them as English words it will feel a lot better
No, but I have to say Arthur is wild. Aasaa.
Except for that not much problems.
What’s really hard is when the loan words are from French or German or Portuguese. I find loan words in a Bakery or fancy food section of the department store to be baffling.
Ones that get me every time are words like ガラス (glass, as in a window) and グラス(glass, as in a glass of wine). Also オークション(auction) and 億ション (100,000,000 yen condo.) Breaks my brain every time!
This week I heard ウエハース.
The trick was to stop thinking of them as being English words in Japanese. They’re Japanese words, so integrate them into your studying like other words and you’ll recognize them without effort. By tricking yourself into thinking you “already” know the word and don’t need to study it you’re adding an unnecessary layer of translation every time you encounter it.
I had to fill out some self intro sheet at work and it asked for your favorite celebrity/character. I wrote “Gudetama” in romaji. My coworker came to peek at my sheet and she spent a could couple of minutes squinting at it before saying “Mrggy, what is this American character? Good — Gow day–Gunde? 何これ?” She cracked up when I read it aloud. She couldn’t believe that she hadn’t recognized it at romaji.
So yeah, Japanese people have the exact same issue lol.
Not really… Maybe thanks to video games.
ミスド
Mr. Donut cafe lol !
No, katakana reading is as quick as anything else for me. It comes with practice.
what about when they apply the phonetics to english and then abbreviate it? like in パソコン, totally blew my mind
i’m not a native english speaker, so i think it’s even harder in my case
I don’t live in Japan but I’m “advanced” in that I can read/listen to most things without needing a dictionary. I have no trouble recognizing an English word written in kana. If it’s a name that isn’t common it can be hard to recognize, though usually that’s because I’m not aware of the name in English in the first place.
That’s spelled wrong. クック the tsu can’t be hiragana.
My favourite is サーティワン👀
Not because it’s hard to read but because I was mindblown as to why that’s the part of the logo locals decided to focus on 🤔
Having grown up in Australia, it took some effort to first see the 31
https://www.31ice.co.jp/
totally agree:
having passed **Kanji Kentei level 1** to know a thing or two about the “hardest kanji”,
i have a panic attack each time i have to read some technical manual
littered with katakana words
(hence there is no way i would use any software with a Japanese interface)