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Hi guys,
I started studying Japanese about a couple of weeks ago. I am getting ready for my third trip to Japan, and this time I decided I want to be ready, and don’t feel too intimidated with the language. So I decided to learn a thing or two in Japanese which somehow led me to this website and now it feels like I want to learn more and more.
Anyway, I got both hiragana and katakana under my belt (also joined Wanikani for kanji and vocab) and today I had my first OMG moment. Katakana, it seems to me, is opening another big door for understanding Japanese.
I was just checking Skytree website (to find out which floor Pokemon shop is for my kids) and found out that I can figure out most of the navigation links in Japanese… I know there is a English version of the website, but I wanted to have a go in Japanese… Piece of ケーキ :-)
Few examples:
アクセス – Sounds like Access
フロア – Sounds like Floor
カフェ＆レストラン – Awfully similar to Cafes and Restaurants
サービス- I couldn’t quite figure this out but after clicking, I think it means Services
フード＆スイーツ – Food and Sweets maybe :-)
ショップオープン情報 – Could it be Shopping without those kanjies?Just figuring these out gives me hope that all the hard work (yes, it is hard work) will pay off at some point.
Indeed. Japanese uses so many wordds loaned from English, that once you’ve learnt katakana, understanding a whole lot of things is a breeze. On my first visit to Japan many years ago, before I started learning Japanese, we visited a Subway for lunch on the first day – I was concerned about how we’d order, until I realised that pretty much the entire menu was English transliterated into katakana, which made things so easy. It makes me wonder why TextFugu teaches katakana so late.
ショップオープン情報, by the way, is “shop opening news” =)
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