BY MAKOTO HASE
Our mother tongue is Japanese, and it is at the base of the Japanese culture because a language is an indispensable fact of its culture. However, a lot of foreign words are used in Japanese spoken on television, in newspapers and daily conversation. It is a fact there are innumerable, so called "loan words" such as "tempura," "kamera(camera)," "baiorin(violin)" in Japanese which took many years to become Japanese words. These days, so many foreign words of obscure meaning are used as "Katakana words" before we notice, and more of them are flowing into Japanese daily. It seems that we cannot explain our ideas in our mother tongue Japanese without using new Katakana words. This phenomenon is a crisis for Japanese culture.
Such underlined words as, severe[ ], trauma[ ], and accountability[ ], with Japanese pronunciation appear frequently in Japanese conversations. Why are foreign languages used so often in Japanese? I think it is because people are under an illusion that speakers who use Katakana words are intelligent. Moreover, another reason is that mass media and advertisements, which are sometimes our source of knowledge, use the new Katakana words of obscure meanings. People hear unknown ﾒwordsﾓ without understanding the meaning well and those ﾒwordsﾓ become rampant around us like flu . Worse, the government including the Ministry of Science and Education, the section that takes care of our mother tongue, uses new Katakana words in their documents.
Actually, Katakana words are really annoying for us majoring in foreign languages. Katakana words often prevent us from having a smooth conversation with foreigners. For example ﾒtraumaﾓ; foreigners donﾕt understand our Japanese pronunciation of it ; [to-ra-u-ma] and it is hard for us to hear natives pronounce it [ ]. The other problem is their meanings, which sometimes swerve greatly when they are introduced from foreign languages. For example ﾒmansion," inJapanese means "a high-rise gathering house, so-called apartment," while, in American English, it is a "luxurious residence." So, foreigners often cannot understand or misunderstand "loan words" spoken by the Japanese.
As time passes, it is natural that we mint new words and the new expression from the trend of the times and accept "loan words" from foreign culture. Isn't it possible to mint new Japanese words from foreign words without using Katakana words so easily? If we can use such newly minted Japanese words when importing foreign words, it should be wonderful because those new words will add new charm to the Japanese and its culture. Here is a good example in Chinese: when they import Coca Cola, they translated it into ﾒ可口可楽[ ].ﾓ Its pronunciation is the same to Coca Cola and Chinese characters mean "delicious to the mouth." I think it is really an excellent translation, and this translation shows how we can get loan words without losing our own identity.
Only Japanese speak Japanese language as a mother tongue. If we don't put more value on the preservation of its beauty, it will be easily spoiled. One of the causes of corruption is using Katakana words without any principle. If more Japanese people think, ﾒItﾕs natural for Japanese to speak and write excellent Japanese,ﾓ determine to practice that, they will give more foreigners a better impression of the Japanese language and its culture. I hope all the Japanese specially governments and mass media will try not to use obscure Katakana words so easily.