ええがとうた

てんくうのしろラピュタをみました。とてもおもしろかったですよ。にほんごをすこしわかりました。

Recently I watched Hayao Miyazaki's Castle in the Sky (instead of studying like I should be). I was pleasantly surprised to be able to understood some words here and there, maybe if I work hard someday I'll be able to watch it entirely without subtitles.



The story itself was very charming. It had a little kid story's simplicity but was still beautifully made with a lot of action and emotion. One criticism I would have however, would be that the pacing in the beginning was a bit slow and made me bored at first.




 きれいですね。 My favorite scenes were those of the castle. The architecture was very pretty and coupled with the tree roots and the "ruined effect" it was amazing. I'd post a better picture showing how elaborate it is... but I can't find one of a good close-up T.T

Maybe after finals are over I'll watch some more Japanese movies


I mentioned before how Super Junior is my favorite band. Recently they released a new song in Japanese. Also, the name is Snow White, which makes me excited because that's my Chinese name, and the name of this blog because Shiro Yuki is a bit catchier sounding than Melissa's Blog -.-. Super Junior, Japanese, and a reference to my name? Triple win :D. My Japanese isn't good enough to grasp the entire meaning of the lyrics but I recognized some words here and there.

Here's a video with both Romaji and English lyrics if anyone wants to see how much they can understand

Katakana Literary Work [Final]

Reads right to left.

Katakana words used:
ワイワイ- Sound effect for people talking in the background
カチャ- Sound effect for door opening
パタ- Sound effect for falling down
ジーー- Sound effect for stares
チリペッパー- Chili pepper
ニャ- Sound effect for grin
ハンサム- Handsome
ガヤガヤ- Sound effect for excited crowd
アメリカ- America
エ- Sound effect for shock
ギョ- Sound effect for fear
ヒヤヒヤ- Another sound effect for fear
チリソース- Chili sauce

New Word: べんなかいじん- Weird foreigner

Composition 3 [Final]

二十ねんごのわたしはﾆｭｰﾖｰｸにいます。にぎやかなまちですから。しごとはにほんとちゅうごくでします。そして、にほんとちゅうごくへときどきいきます。わたしはべんごしです。とてもいそがしいですが、たのしいです。まいにちくじからごじまではたらきます。ﾀｸｼｰでかいしゃへいきます。しゅうまつかんこくごをならいます。そしてともだちとあそびます。わたしのせいかつはいいですよ！

Katakana Analysis (final)

ゴニーヤツ
This was a sound effect of a car crash in a manga book. I think one reason that sound effects are written in katakana is so that readers won't confuse it for a word. It can also grab at the reader's attention so he/she will know to pay attention to it. Also, it makes the manga more dynamic when readers can visualize the sound effects and helps convey the mangaka's intent better.

クレンジング
This seems to be an English loanword for "cleansing" which was found on a bottle of skincare product, aptly called cleansing oil. Since I know that sometimes names are written in katakana rather than hiragana or kanji, the makers may have decided to put the katakana version of the name on the packaging to emphasis the product name. Also, using a katakana loanword instead of a Japanese word may be more trendy/catchy as a marketing strategy, like how some American skincare brands use French names for their products.

I think the purpose of katakana is let to the reader know that this word is important in some way. Whether to indicate onomatopoeia, English loanwords, or just topic-relevant keywords. Katakana can be used to emphasis certain words, like how in English some words are italicized to show that it is notable for some reason. Also it may be used in lieu of hiragana/kanji to sound more trendy and modernized.

Our textbook covered katakana very briefly, other than how to write it correctly and basic uses for it we did not go into detail about katakana. However, I think that I have learned enough to be able to use/read it sufficiently as an elementary Japanese learner. As I progress in my Japanese studies I will probably explore deeper uses for katakana. Through some outside research I have found out that katakana is also use for scientific and technical terms as well. It was created by Buddhist monks as a form of shorthand for Chinese characters.