Metalgear132
Photographer with Dreams
- 10 Jan 2007
- 6
- 0
- 11
Do the Japanese learn all the forms of written language in school?
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Yeah, that's what I was taught in my Japanese classes, but it's not true. Come here, and you'll see that katakana is used for many things.Katakana is generally used for words of foreign (non-Chinese) origin
Hi Glenski! It's not that it's not true so much as that what I said was not complete. You are entirely correct with what you are saying, but notice that all of the uses for katakana are special cases.High school graduates are expected to know about 2000 kanji, BTW.
Yeah, that's what I was taught in my Japanese classes, but it's not true. Come here, and you'll see that katakana is used for many things.
furigana (pronunciation characters) over people's names,
sound effects in comics and on TV,
foreign words of course,
even regular words (if you watch enough TV, you'll notice that).
As for that last item, I have repeatedly asked my (Japanese) wife about why they use katakana so often on TV for regular Japanese words. The answer? I don't know.
What shows do you watch? I'll be honest and say that I don't watch a lot of TV, but I've never thought it to be a problem.Mikawa,
I'm sick of so much written Japanese on TV. You can't see 1/2 of the screen.
That's OK. People disagree with me all the time! I was referring to comedy shows where they might do that to someone with Tohoku dialect or something like that.My Japanese wife doesn't agree with you about all the cases of people with funny dialects.
There are plenty of people with funny intonation, but you're right, they don't make it onto TV very much.Besides, with the plethora of Japanese written on TV, are there really that many people with funny intonation?
I didn't say they were rare, though. I just said they were special cases.It's a pretty common thing, so it's not that rare. Neither is manga stuff for sound effects. Heck, ALL of those examples are common!
Well, since I have a Japanese spouse, we have practically everything on TV. I try to avoid watching, but what can you do? Variety shows are the biggest problem, obviously. My wife also likes to watch the programs with travel features, cooking tips, and her favorite talento who roam around the country for various reasons. All have the text on screen.What shows do you watch? I'll be honest and say that I don't watch a lot of TV, but I've never thought it to be a problem.
Ok, I didn't understand you. I thought special case and rare were the same.I didn't say they were rare, though. I just said they were special cases.