Katakana Analysis

ドキドキ　= sound of your heart beating when you get excited (from song)

I picked this word just because it sounded cute! It is written in Katakana because it is an onomatopoeia. It also shows how Japanese people hear the sound of heart beating. For example, Americans hear it as dub-dub, Thai people hear it as toob-toob, and so the onomatopoeia would differ from one language to another.

エネルギー = energy

It is a loanword, so it makes sense why katakana is used in this instance. It also reflects how Japan is being influenced by western cultures to a certain extent. We can see that エネルギー is being used to refer to 'energy', and is supposedly understood by all because the word can be ubiquitously found in food packages which are accessible to all classes of people.

アップル = apple

This word was found printed on a candy package as one of the flavors. It is in katakana because it is a loan word from English. However, it is interesting how the manufacturer did not use りんご　which is a more traditional word. The effect of using its English counterpart is that the product suddenly appears more modern and trendy because it seems that, in a modern world, every educated person should know English. Teenagers in Thailand are starting to mix more English words in their Thai conversation now... so I imagine the same thing could happen to Japanese culture.

As for the question why each textbook explains the meaning of Katakana differently, I don't have any insightful meaning to offer. I think it's quite simple... it's the truth that katakana is most often used for loanwords. So the textbooks offer the same explanation, but phrase it differently. The book called Japanese for busy people offers a more thorough explanation where it includes a broader extent of usage. I have learned that, in the past, Japanese people sent telegrams using only Katakana, that could also be one of the instances where Katakana is used, however it is not very common anymore so I guess the authors can take the liberty to exclude that explanation to avoid unnecessary confusion.

Why I chose to study Japanese

Of all the many languages in the world, why did I choose to study Japanese? Unlike the many friends I have talked to who have some higher purposes that led them to learn the language -- such as doing a Ph.D in comparative East Asian literature -- my reason is quite simple: I have been speaking Thai and English my whole life, now I want to know a third language. Actually, no, that wasn't true. That wasn't the ONLY reason. I feel it was a combination of multiple reasons and life events that brought me to this point.

First, my flights back home to Thailand always have stop-overs at the Narita airport, and the Japanese staffs just kept speaking to me in Japanese. Obviously, I understood none of it. I only knew they were very polite because they bowed and nodded all the time. This made me want to at least understand what they were saying. They seemed so nice!

Second, I used to be an exchange student in the States when I was a sophomore in high school. My host family hosted two students - me and another exchange student from Japan. We fought ALL THE TIME! But somehow, we grew to love each other so much because of that. She called me ‘おねいちゃん (sister)'. And I learned some random phrases from her. For example, when we got on a roller coaster, she would scream, "おがあさん！！”　which she told me meant Mom. I even asked her why she didn't scream for her dad instead?? And before we left the States, we promised to call each other. She taught me to say "あきこは　いますか”　when calling her home in Japan. So that was my very first exposure to Japanese culture and language.

Third, one day last semester (Spring 09) I looked back at my life and how things have turned out. I couldn't help but be amazed at how I have realized many of my childhood dreams. I remember having kept a diary where I wrote down what I wanted to do, and places I wanted to live. One was America.... and through the miracle of life, I am living where I have always wanted to live! Speaking the language that I never thought I could speak before! The other one was Japan. It was one of the dreams longgggg forgotten. Then that day, I just thought, why not make this dream come true too?

For the aforementioned reasons, I decided to give this language a try!