As a Japanese learner, katakana is a godsend. It’s like reading a scientific paper in English and having all the Latin in italics, as an indicator that “don’t worry this is a foreign word, you’re not an idiot for not recognizing it.” Especially because most katakana words are derived from English (or words you’d recognize as an English speaker) so it’s just a matter of saying it over and over until the pieces click into place. Example: オーストラリア = Oosutoraria = Oh-s-t-rah-ree-uh = Australia.
Also outside of picture books for young children, Japanese doesn’t use spaces and has way fewer sounds than most languages which results in a LOT of homonyms and similar words that all blends together (see other comment YouTube link). So having three writing systems in one really helps convey meaning and makes reading much faster.
I leaned Japanese in a mixed-nationality school where I was one of the only English-native students. I did not envy their struggles with katakana, as I’m sure the Chinese-native students did not envy my struggles with kanji! (Meanwhile everyone else just struggled lol.)
I thought that would be the case for me too, but man I just hate katakana. I find it so difficult to read compared to hiragana, even after 1.5 year of daily learning
Don’t get me wrong, I still struggle with reading it quickly and fluently compared to hiragana (although that’s often because the words are clunky af loanwords), but I’d still much rather it exist than not. かれはぼうなすをもらったらおうすとらりあに行くつもり is a bugger to read without katakana.
Fair enough I suppose, and yes those words definitely are pretty clunky usually. But I wonder if it wouldn’t be easier if they would integrated spaces?
As a Japanese learner, katakana is a godsend. It’s like reading a scientific paper in English and having all the Latin in italics, as an indicator that “don’t worry this is a foreign word, you’re not an idiot for not recognizing it.” Especially because most katakana words are derived from English (or words you’d recognize as an English speaker) so it’s just a matter of saying it over and over until the pieces click into place. Example: オーストラリア = Oosutoraria = Oh-s-t-rah-ree-uh = Australia.
Also outside of picture books for young children, Japanese doesn’t use spaces and has way fewer sounds than most languages which results in a LOT of homonyms and similar words that all blends together (see other comment YouTube link). So having three writing systems in one really helps convey meaning and makes reading much faster.
Amazing if your fluent in English, but lord have mercy if your main language is anything else!
I leaned Japanese in a mixed-nationality school where I was one of the only English-native students. I did not envy their struggles with katakana, as I’m sure the Chinese-native students did not envy my struggles with kanji! (Meanwhile everyone else just struggled lol.)
I thought that would be the case for me too, but man I just hate katakana. I find it so difficult to read compared to hiragana, even after 1.5 year of daily learning
Don’t get me wrong, I still struggle with reading it quickly and fluently compared to hiragana (although that’s often because the words are clunky af loanwords), but I’d still much rather it exist than not. かれはぼうなすをもらったらおうすとらりあに行くつもり is a bugger to read without katakana.
Fair enough I suppose, and yes those words definitely are pretty clunky usually. But I wonder if it wouldn’t be easier if they would integrated spaces?