Literary Work: エリちゃんは犬が欲しいですよ！

 東京の中で、女の子が一人ありました。彼女の名前はエリでした。エリちゃんは８歳で小学校生でした。いつも犬が欲しかったです。でも、エリちゃんのお兄さんは動物にアレグギーがありましたから、犬を飼っていませんでした。

キンコンカンコン〜 夏休みが始まりました！

エリちゃんは早く歩いて帰りました。家に入ると、両親が待っていました。三ヶ月の前にお兄さんは卒業しました、そしてコロンビア大学へ勉強に行きました。

エリちゃんは「ただいま！」と言いました。お母さんは「お帰り、エリ」と言いました。「パパとママはプレゼントがあります。」

「プレゼント？私に上げます？」

「はい、エリちゃんのプレゼントです。でも、ここでありません。さぁ、車で行きましょう。」

家族は車に入りました。「目を閉めて、エリ！」

車を止めると、エリちゃんのお母さんは「今、目を開けてもいい」と言いました。

エリちゃんはびっくりしました！ペットの店に来ました。

「犬を買いに来ますね！」と言いました。両親を笑いました。

ペット屋の中で動物がたくさんいました。犬や猫やネズミや兎がいました！エリちゃんはあひるをみました！犬の所へ行きました。

   

犬を泣きました。「ワンワン！ワンワンワン！」大きいの犬は「ヲオオオオオオオン」と泣きました。エリちゃんは「ちょっとこわい！」と思いました。
上から三段目でかわいい犬がいました。泣きませんでした。エリちゃんは「ね、ママ！」と言いました。「この犬はどう？」
「ん、いいですね。」エリちゃんの両親は店員と話しにいきました。エリちゃんは犬と遊びました。そして、エリちゃんの両親とエリちゃんとエリちゃんの新しい犬に帰りました。

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Explanation of katakana used:

エリ: while it is uncommon, some Japanese people are given katakana or hiragana first names

アレグギー (allergy): this is a loanword from English

キンコンカンコン: this is an onomatopoeic description of the sound of a school bell 

コロンビア大学 (Columbia University): katakana is used because Columbia is a foreign name

パパ and ママ: because Eri is a little girl, she still calls her parents papa and mama instead of moving towards using other words like 母 or 父. These are technically not Japanese words, though, so they are represented in katakana.

プレゼント (present): this is a loanword from English

ペット屋 (pet store): this is a combination of a loanword from English (pet) with the Japanese 屋 (store)

ワンワン and ヲオオオオオオオン: these are onomatopoeias for the sounds that the dogs in the shop made

The katakana used in my piece represent many of the ways katakana is used, including names, onomatopoeia/sound effects, and loanwords. I did not present an example of emphasis because it seems to be used most often in printed media that relies on appearance, such as advertisements or manga, and not in stories.

カタカナ Analysis (Final)

The two examples that I am choosing are the Kamen Rider "cider" cans and the AKB48 single 「上からマリコ」

In Japan, "cider" refers to a soft drink similar to Sprite (according to Wikipedia). Drinks like cider and ramune seem to have been introduced to Japan in the late 1800s¹. This makes the use of katakana seem appropriate, as the style of drink was foreign, as opposed to creating a new Japanese word for it. Because it is not a necessity or something that you might use frequently (ie. 冷蔵庫 for refrigerator), and because it does not have an already existing Japanese analogue product (ie. 車 for car), using an English word in katakana would communicate that the drink was new and foreign-influenced to consumers. An alternative might have been to use kanji with readings that came out to サイダー (as Coca-Cola did in China) but that seems more commonly used in Chinese, where there is no option to use a writing system that is purely syllabic.

As for マリコ, I assume that since she is a decently well-known, but not the most famous member of the singing group, ＡＫＢ４８, people would not recognize her as 麻里子. Also, while the song is ostensibly about Mariko, since she won the contest², for pop music's sake it is better that is not specifically about her and more generally about girls (or a girl) named Mariko in general. This is common in American music as well - even if a song is clearly about a person, generally they are given some kind of anonymity or generalization to make it less specific. An example is Hey There Delilah, which is written about a certain person but does not feature any personally identifying information about her (other than her location in New York City). The song does reference similar facts about Mariko (a point of the lyrics seems to be her age³, as she is older than the other active members of AKB48), but otherwise it could be about anyone. Katakana allows 上からマリコ to be about a general, fictional girl named Mariko rather than Shinoda Mariko herself.

One of the textbooks claimed that katakana usage with loanwords makes things look foreign and thus modern or cool. Whether this is really true I'm not sure but I do think there has been some movement towards using katakana more liberally in things targeted at young people, such as in magazines like egg and Myojo. In these magazines, katakana use isn't just because of the subject area, but is a conscious editorial decision for the interviews and photo spreads. Because of this, people may assume there's a certain youthful connotation in using katakana instead of hiragana or kanji in certain situations. (Sometimes this is also just to avoid using kanji that young people don't recognize, which is apparently a trend - people don't have to know as much kanji because they are mostly writing it on computers or on phones.) This probably backfires sometimes (just as overuse of "chatspeak" by adults or marketers in English usually turns off the target audience of teenagers) but is now embedded in the culture.

I think katakana is also important for emphasis. In English, to emphasize something we may deliberately use only lowercase letters or ALL CAPS a certain section of writing. This could be a kind of equivalent. Often times I see a word in katakana and also in large print and with sparkles or some other pattern around it in a magazine or on TV, which would also help to emphasize the text.

But the textbooks all designated katakana as the writing system for loanwords, which is probably where most foreigners will encounter it the most - the first time they may use it is to write their name or home country's name. Others mentioned the use for onomatopoeia, but a Japanese learner is less likely to see this unless they are a more active media user, reading or watching Japanese programs, and they are even less likely to use it in this context. Thus I think while the textbooks may not represent the full extent of katakana usage, they are doing a decent job of explaining the most important uses for their audience.

カタカナのAnalysis

1. Choose at least 2 katakana words/expressions that you found and think about what kinds of effects / purposes there may be in these words/expressions writing in katakana instead of hiragana or kanji.
2. Also, think why there are such effects/purposes.
3. Think about why each textbook is different in explaining katakana, and why the textbooks explained katakana in the manners that they did.

The two examples that I am choosing are the Kamen Rider "cider" cans and the AKB48 single 「上からマリコ」In Japan, "cider" refers to a soft drink similar to Sprite (according to Wikipedia). Drinks like cider seem to have been introduced to Japan in the late 1800s by Westerners. This makes the use of katakana seem appropriate, as the style of drink was foreign, as opposed to creating a new Japanese word for it. Because it is not a necessity or something that you might use frequently (ie. 冷蔵庫 for refrigerator), and because it does not have an already existing Japanese analogue product (ie. 車 for car), using an English word in katakana would communicate that the drink was new and foreign influenced to consumers. Alternately, they could have used kanji with readings that came out to サイダー (as Coca-Cola did in China) but that seems more commonly used in Chinese, where there is no option to use a writing system that is purely syllabic. As for マリコ, I assume that since she is a decently well-known member of a famous singing group, AKBのマリコ would be more recognizable than 麻里子. Also, while the song is ostensibly about Mariko, since she won the contest, for pop music's sake it is better that is not specifically about her and more generally about girls named Mariko in general. This is common in American music as well - even if a song is clearly about a person, generally they are given some kind of anonymity or generalization to make it less specific. An example is Hey There Delilah, which is written about a certain person but does not feature overt references to her specifically. Katakana allows 上からマリコ to be about a general, fictional girl named Mariko rather than Shinoda Mariko herself.

One of the textbooks claimed that katakana usage with loanwords makes things look foreign and thus modern or cool. Whether this is really true I'm not sure but I do think there has been some movement towards using katakana more liberally in things targeted at young people, like certain magazines. Because of this, people may assume there's a certain youthful connotation in using katakana instead of hiragana or kanji in certain situations. This probably backfires sometimes (just as overuse of "chatspeak" by adults or marketers in English usually turns off the target audience of teenagers) but is now embedded in the culture. I think katakana is also important for emphasis. In English, to emphasize something we may deliberately use only lowercase letters or ALL CAPS a certain section of writing. This could be a kind of equivalent. Often times I see a word in katakana and also in large print and with sparkles or some other pattern around it in a magazine or on TV. The textbooks were all designated katakana as the writing system for loanwords, which is probably where most foreigners will encounter it the most - the first time they may use it is to write their name or home country's name. Others mentioned the use for onomatopoeia, but one is less likely to see this unless they are a more active media user, reading or watching Japanese programs, and they are even less likely to use it in this context. 

カタカナ

カタカナサンプル①です。

「ソ・ラ・ノ・ヲ・ト」はアニメです。

説明：

Katakana is used here for artistic effect/personal preference.

質問：

Why use "(w)oto" instead of "oto"? It is definitely supposed to be 空の音... does making the "wo" sound better? Is there meaning in the show? (I didn't watch it.)

カタカナサンプル②です。

友達はM2Mで「仮面サイダー」を買いました。

サイダーの缶（カン）で漫画の絵がありました。カタカナもありました。

説明：

Katakana is used here for the loanword "cider" and for onomatopoeia in the manga panels.

質問：

American cider and Japanese cider are very different. How did "cider" begin to be used for this purpose?

今日それだけです〜

Edit:

カタカナサンプル③です。

これはAKB48のシングルです。「上からマリコ」

(The CD is difficult to read, so I used a screencap from a music show instead)

説明：

Katakana is used here as a personal preference. Shinoda Mariko's first name in kanji is 麻里子. However they chose to write it katakana. Perhaps this is to avoid having to use ふりがな in order to tell people who were not familiar with her how to read her name.

質問：

Is it at all common for Japanese celebrities to switch to a katakana name if their name is not easily read? (Akanishi Jin [赤西仁] sometimes has his name read as "Hitoshi" by accident). How about if it is a common and not easily misunderstood name? (Like Utada Hikaru?)

イェール

こんにちはみんなさん！
今日はNew Haven, Connecticutにいます！私のかれしはイェール大学に通っています。今私達は宿題をします〜ちょ楽しいねw。コネチカットは優しいです。でも建物が短いです... 空を見える！ハハハハ〜ニューヨークの方がいいと思います。コロンビアやイェールはイビー・リーグのメンバーです。

明日私は帰ります！

好きな物２

こんにちはみんなさん！明日は週末ですね〜頑張ります！
今日の天気がすごいです！今NEWSの「SUMMER TIME」を歌います。ちょっと恥ずかしい〜歌うのが好きですけど歌が苦手です。夏の前に君に会えたから〜

今日のトピックは：好きなスポーツ
私の一番好きなスポーツはバレーボールです。高校で三年間をしました。 一番好きなプレーアーは日本の木村沙織（きむらさおり）です。オリンピックで応援します。昨晩私はコロンビアのバレーボール部に行きました。ちょへたです（ー＿ー）この夏に練習しません。

最近サッカーを見るのが好きです。なでしこジャパンが大好きです！アメリカのチームがあまり好きじゃないです。男のチームも好きですが女のチームの方が好きです。子供のときにサッカーをしました。今走るのが嫌いからサッカーをしません。

私の好きなチームはいつも日本のチームですね〜面白いw
今週末New Havenに行きます！日曜日に帰ります。じゃ、またね〜

好きな物 1

最初のポストです〜よこそ！！
今日のトピックは：好きな物 １。

音楽
一番好きな歌やアチストが知りません。でもこのスタイルの方がいいと思います。
今日本で韓国の音楽がとても人気ですね。私も韓国の音楽が好きです。好きなグループスはKARAとU-KISSとSS501です。日本でKARAの歌がいつも人気と聞いていました。

日本の音楽も好きです。J-POPとJ-ROCKが好きです。えんかがあまり好きじゃありません。ちょっとつまらないと思います。たぶんKAT-TUNと嵐は一番好きなグループスですが私の一番好きな日本語の歌はD'espairsrayの「凍える夜に咲いた花」(こごえるよるにさいたはな）です。D'espaのHIZUMIの声はすごいです！

今NEWSの「チャンカパーナ」を聞いています。NEWSはジャニーズのグループです。時々ジャニーズのダンスと歌詞はちょっと「cheesy」です〜でもいつも楽しいです！

アメリカの音楽も好きでもそれちょっとつまらないですね〜

みんなさん、コメントください！文法は私の短所です。てつだってください＾＾