ラムネ - I think this is a foreign word, or at least a foreign concept. It is not an English loan word, sop I am not sure. It may also be a brand name. Putting a brand name in katakana like ラムネ or トヨタ gives the brand name emphasis and makes it stand out in a block of text, like the way the we capitalize brand names.
ノブ- this is a character's name in a manga. I think it is "cool" to have your name written in katakana to make it seem more exotic.
Different textbooks go into different depths when explaining katakana. There are some easily definable categories, like loan words or onomatopoeia that all of them tend to mention, but it is harder to define use for emphasis or to be "hip." I think it all depends on the depth that they want to try to explain it to.
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Haha, if we have no choice but to write our names in katakana, does that mean we have no choice but to be "hip"?
ReplyDeleteI think our group did an especially good job of coming of with many different examples of katakana, which fit in to unique categories.
I wonder if they mind if they're making their names hip in the same way as the car companies do? Then again, Japanese people are always having to contend with foreigners associating their names with cars. Maybe they've just come to accept it as a fact of life.
ReplyDeleteHi Michael,
ReplyDeleteThis is Ai a TA.
Yes, it's interesting to write someone's name in Katakana to be "hip." Also, it's interesting that foreigners seem to write their name in Kanji...to be "hip"? I know some foreigners want to write their name in Kanji and actually most foreigners who have lived in Japan so many years and got a citizenship there, and then they registered their name officially in Kanji even though they could choose hiragana or katakana.
That's very interesting, I didn't know that. I guess everybody want's to be someone else.
ReplyDeleteIt makes sense that companies would use katakana to themselves standout since in Japanese there is no capitalized words. It is also interesting that you in manga the names of characters tend to be written in katakana.
ReplyDeleteはじめまして わたしの ノートロダムだいがくのリーです。どうぞよろしく。
ReplyDeleteにほんごは むずかしいです。でも おもしろいですね！
I am Japanese student. I have never thought katakana deeply. It is interesting to think about katakana!
ReplyDelete