the joys of katakana

Of the Japanese language katakana is my least favourite. Katakana is the most simplified of the 3 scripts they use (the other two being hiragana and Kanji...also sometimes Romanji, their name for the Roman alphabet).

Katakana has a number of uses, such as:

•onomatopoeia, sound words like ピンポン! (ping-pong) The sound of a doorbell.
•for foreign words. For example, コーヒー (kohi), 'coffee'.
•to emphasize words in sentences, much like Western italics.
•to represent foreign accents in comics.
•sometimes to write personal names, if the kanji is unknown.
•to throw off any foreigners learning the language.

The main reason I don't like it is that the katakana words come from a variety of languages and after you mouth it out, usually syllable-by-syllable in my case, you have to change the pronunciation to English and try to match it to a word in our dictionary. Sometimes it's easy in the context, but sometimes the words are changed greatly to make it easier for Japanese people to say it. For example, テレビ (te-re-bi), is 'TV' or 'television', but it sounds totally different. Another weird one is パーソコン (paa-so-kon), or 'personal computer'. Also you'll notice just how similar the two characters for 'so' ソ and 'n' ソ are. Not to mention the similarities between 'shi' シ, and 'tsu' ツ, or 'ku' ク, 'ke' ケ, 'u' ウ, and 'wa' ワ.

Also, sometimes Japanese people will think that the word comes from English when instead it comes from another language entirely. Students sometimes try to use these words in English, saying for example 'gerende' for 'ski slope'. I still haven't been able to figure out which language says 'gerende' for ski hill. Anyone have any idea?

Most menus are also written in Katakana, especially in any restaurant that serves foreign food. It's pretty funny to read the menu like a 3 year-old. "Se....no, no no, 'su'....supa....supageee. Ah! Spaghetti!") Man, who would have thought being partially illiterate could be this much fun?!

Here's a chart of the syllabary:

ア a イ i ウ u エ e オ o

カ ka キ ki ク ku ケ ke コ ko
サ sa シ shi ス su セ se ソ so
タ ta チ chi ツ tsu テ te ト to
ナ na ニ ni ヌ nu ネ ne ノ no
ハ ha ヒ hi フ fu ヘ he ホ ho
マ ma ミ mi ム mu メ me モ mo
ヤ ya ユ yu ヨ yo
ラ ra リ ri ル ru レ re ロ ro
ワ wa (ヰ) wi (ヱ) we ヲ wo
ン n

Also my name is written in katakana: グルーム