Thursday, March 4, 2010
Sunday, February 21, 2010
作文:友達に 旅行先を紹介する
Saturday, February 13, 2010
私の好きな物
しかし、いちばん大好きのしゅみは テニスです。去年のなつに ほぼ (almost) 毎日 テニスを しました。
その上に (furthermore)、ぜんべいオープんテニス (U.S. Open) を 三かい 見に 行きました。とても たのしくて、すごかったです。Federerや del Potroや Čilićや Davydenkoなどのテニスを 見ました。
でも、ぜんべいオープンの中で しあい (match) が ひとつ いちばん たのしかったです: 杉山愛 (Ai Sugiyama)/ダニエラ・ハンチュコワ (Daniela Hantuchová) ペアと 鄭潔 (Zheng Jie)/晏紫 (Yan Zi) ペアの ダブルスです。
私たちのせき (seats) は とても よかったです。コートサイドです。
あの時は すてきでしたね。
じつは、私のテニスは あまり 上手じゃないですから、もっと つよくなりたいです。
みなさんは ぜんべいオープンテニスを みた ことが ありますか。テニスを しますか。
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Sunday, December 13, 2009
カタカナ・プロジェクト:川柳
ははのハハ 母のハハ
はしんけいけい。 は神経系
みいだすよ。 見出すよ
川柳第二
にっさんと 日産と
ホンダのくるま。。。 ホンダの車。。。
クラッシュぞ! クラッシュぞ!
川柳第三
しんぞうは 心臓は
こころじゃないが 心じゃないが
ドキドキも ドキドキも
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Composition: 二十年後の私
二十年後はとても遠いです。
ひらがな/カタカナだけ:
にじゅうねんごはとてもといです。
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Katakana Analysis
- Foreign names
- Loanwords (i.e. words of foreign origin)
- Onomatopoeic words
- Emphasis
It's the music video for Kanye West's song Stronger, which was released in 2007 and became extremely popular worldwide. Disregarding the fact that the video was filmed in Japan and references/features various aspects of Japanese pop culture, various words and phrases in katakana flash on the screen and, later in the video, subtitles in katakana appear as well. If you pay attention to when the katakana appears on screen, the words seem to correspond to the lyrics.
For example, ”ストロンガ”, which is a transliteration of the word "stronger", flashes on the screen concurrently with the lyrics. Although one could make the assumption that this is an example of a loanword, the word "strong" in Japanese is 強い (つよい).
About 17 seconds into the video, the phrase ”イマスグ” appears along with the lyrics "right now". ”イマスグ” corresponds to 今すぐ (いますぐ), which literally means right now, thus representing a different use of katakana from the previous example. In this case, one can assume that the implication is to emphasize "now" (since the sense of the word "right" as used in the lyrics seems to mean "correct"...).
Much later in the video (at about 2:24), ”オオオオ” appears as a nurse runs away panicked, which represents onomatopoeic usage of katakana.
Throughout the video, there are many more examples of katakana usage, ranging from single characters appearing on screen to subtitling entire conversations/exchanges. It is interesting to note that katakana is used exclusively throughout, even to represent words and sentences that would typically be written in hiragana/kanji. It is not obvious why the director chose to do this, but we can speculate a number of possible reasons:
- The video appears to have a futuristic theme. As such, the rigid lines and sharp edges of katakana seem to be an appropriate stylistic choice. Furthermore, it has been said that katakana is sometimes used to convey a robotic tone, which fits with the synthesized/auto-tuned vocals in the video.
- The video is action-packed and projects a rather obvious sense of machismo, as evidenced not only by the visuals, but by the lyrics as well. Katakana was known as the more "masculine" character set in the past. Therefore, the use of katakana in the video may serve to reflect the masculinity of the subject matter.
- As was previously mentioned, the video was filmed in Japan, but stars Kanye West, an American, and a number of other seemingly non-Japanese actors/actresses. The use of katakana could imply the foreign basis of the song/video
- The fast-paced nature of the video may be further augmented by the use of katakana to convey a sense of urgency and emphasis.
Anyway, what does everyone think about the video and its use (and misuse) of katakana? Any additional observations/comments?