katakana word list

[opitzs]

Hi,

I am now quite sure of my hiragana signs, so now I will learn katakana.
One thing that helped me, was to "speak" hiragana words.
I didn't know the word meanings, but in comparing to the romanji words I quickly learned my errors, faster than with flashcards alone.

So I am looking for a katakana word list to do the same there. I don't need to know the meaning, just a list of words in katakana and romanji. Has anyone of you seen such a list in the net, somewhere?

Thanks
Sven

[opitzs]

I have something like that in my Kanji Bank in the learning center!
Just one thing I don't understand, yet. Here is the complete line for country:
国, くに, コク

I don't know, but in Hiragana I get Kuni, in Katakana I get Koku...
Why the different pronunciations? And more important: which one is correct?

Thanks
Sven (confused)

[Belton]

You've just found the huge task in learning kanji!

because Japanese words existed before Chinese characters were used to write them, Japanese readings exist for kanji characters.
Then the Chinese reading also came to be used especially in compounds when new words got introduced.
Then...
the kanji came into the Japanese language at several times in history so there can be several Chinese readings.
And...
sometimes there are asigned readings just to make things difficult!

There's an explanation here
http://www.japanesepod101.com/wp-conten ... nation.php

Therefore a single kanji can be read in many different ways.

The convention in dictionaries and lists is to write the kunyomi (Japanese reading) in hiragana, and the onyomi (Chinese reading) in katakana.

so usually country will be written 国　and read as くに
but in a compound like 中国 (China, middle kingdom)　it is read as ごく, ちゅうごく in this case.
so they are both correct!

here's an interesting one -->
腹切 is harakiri (ritual suicide) "stomach cut"
but reverse the kanji and you get
切腹 seppuku (ritual suicide) "cut stomach"

"pure" katakana words tend to be loan words often from English
タクシー　taxi
レストラン resterant
ペン pen
コップ glass (from the dutch kop apparently)
サャツ shirt
イギリス　England
バッグ　bag
パン bread (french pan)
ズボン　trousers (french again )

[opitzs]

OK, I am officially shocked.
I didn't know Kanji would be that problematic, 5 Meanings 7 Pronunciations...
well I guess I have to revise my learning schedule and put the JLPT1 back for 1 or 2 Centuries
Just to get this correctly:
Kanji have (possibly) several kunyomi
it may also have several onyomi
it may have possible meanings, that don't need to follow a common theme
there is no way to know, when to speak a Kanji in what way
and the correct meaning has to be concluded from context.

Anything I forgot?

So I guess to learn Kanji I need a book and an external harddrive for my memory

Well, to late to stop now...

Thank you very much for this explanation, it was a bit depressing in the first moment, but it also was very informative!

Sven

[Belton]

Kanji have (possibly) several kunyomi
it may also have several onyomi
it may have possible meanings, that don't need to follow a common theme
there is no way to know, when to speak a Kanji in what way
and the correct meaning has to be concluded from context.

Pretty much like that except a kanji usually only has one concept behind it.
Because of this it is possible to get meaning without being able to read it. So Japanese can figure out some Chinese without being able to speak Chinese. And I can get the meaning sometimes when I can't remember the reading.

With complex kanji there are rules that give clues to meanings and readings, depending on it's structure. It's not completely arbitrary.

kunyomi tend to be single kanji plus kana words. And tend to be easier to learn.

onyomi tend to be in compounds.

Yes like so much in Japanese context is everything!

But while a huge task I think it can be very satisfying to master kanji.

Sorry to have gone off original topic.
To get back on track

MLC has a katakana work sheet that might help you
http://www.mlcjapanese.co.jp/Download.htm

and this might be the sort of list you're looking for
http://infohost.nmt.edu/~armiller/japanese/kanaloan.htm

[opitzs]

Hi Belton,

Oh, I will master Kanji eventually, it will be harder than I thought, as I expected the japanese written language to be more structured, but this makes it more interesting... in a way.
And it is wonderful, last sunday I was sure I could never memorize hirogana, and now I can even recognize wa, re and ne without a problem.

Those links of yours are worth their weight in gold! (Thank god links weigh nothing, otherwise I would now be broke...)

Thanks very much
Sven

[NickT]

I have a katakana excel spreadsheet I made when I first started learning. It has around 500 katakana loan words. It does not have the romaji version, but it does have the English which in most cases is quite similar.

Here is a random sample. If you find it helpful, I can email you the entire file:

オリンピック Olympics
サンドイッチ Sandwich
レタス Lettuce
テント Tent
パソコン PC
ケチャップ Ketchup
ヨーロッパ Europe
ピンポン Ping Pong
カラオケバー Karaoke Bar
バター Butter
プロジェクト Project
クリスマス Christmas
金メダル Gold Medal
ドラマ Drama
ボタン Button
オーバーコート Overcoat
クローゼット Closet
ブラウス Blouse
アフリカーンス語 Afrikaans
シャンパン Champagne
ポーランド Poland
ピアノ Piano
パスポート Passport
ビタミン Vitamins
スウェーデン Sweden
プラム Plum
ホンコン Hong Kong
ワイシャツ White Shirt
コーンフレーク Cornflakes
キャンプ場 Campground
スケート Skating
サックス Saxophone
ロンドン London
ボクシング Boxing
ソフト Software
スペイン Spain
スーツ Suit
ワイフ Wife
エレベーター Elevator
マイク Microphone
シャープペンシル Auto Pencil
トースター Toaster
セーター Sweater
ピエロ Clown
シャツ Shirt
インド India
タイ Thailand
キオスク Kiosk / News Stand
レポート Report
モーターボート Motorboat
ロボット Robot
ガラス Glass / Pane
トルコ Turkey / Turquoise

[object]

I would love to get your list too.

Kind regards,

[mmmason8967]

I would love to get your list too.

That message is over six years old, so I don't know if you'll get a response.

Wikipedia has quite a good list of garaigo and wasei eigo terms.

マイケル

[community.japanese]

object-san, マイケルsan,
kon'nichiwa.
Thank you for your help, マイケルsan!
Yes, this forum is quite old, so the link マイケルsan gave you would be the fastest solution, object-san

Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

[h.thi1103_504780]

I have a katakana excel spreadsheet I made when I first started learning. It has around 500 katakana loan words. It does not have the romaji version, but it does have the English which in most cases is quite similar.



Here is a random sample. If you find it helpful, I can email you the entire file:



オリンピック Olympics

サンドイッチ Sandwich

レタス Lettuce

テント Tent

パソコン PC

ケチャップ Ketchup

ヨーロッパ Europe

ピンポン Ping Pong

カラオケバー Karaoke Bar

バター Butter

プロジェクト Project

クリスマス Christmas

金メダル Gold Medal

ドラマ Drama

ボタン Button

オーバーコート Overcoat

クローゼット Closet

ブラウス Blouse

アフリカーンス語 Afrikaans

シャンパン Champagne

ポーランド Poland

ピアノ Piano

パスポート Passport

ビタミン Vitamins

スウェーデン Sweden

プラム Plum

ホンコン Hong Kong

ワイシャツ White Shirt

コーンフレーク Cornflakes

キャンプ場 Campground

スケート Skating

サックス Saxophone

ロンドン London

ボクシング Boxing

ソフト Software

スペイン Spain

スーツ Suit

ワイフ Wife

エレベーター Elevator

マイク Microphone

シャープペンシル Auto Pencil

トースター Toaster

セーター Sweater

ピエロ Clown

シャツ Shirt

インド India

タイ Thailand

キオスク Kiosk / News Stand

レポート Report

モーターボート Motorboat

ロボット Robot

ガラス Glass / Pane

トルコ Turkey / Turquoise

Hello! I would like to recieve your email of katakana wordsheet if You dont mind. Thank you very much!!! Here is my email

[community.japanese]

h.thi1103 san
konnichiwa.
Wow! They are so many.
You are a hard worker.
Yuki　由紀
Team JapanesePod101.com