Minna no Katakaana Everyone's Katakaana As a foreigner in Japan, I found this little segment especially amusing. Of the many forms of Japanese writing, "katakana" is the newest and has recently become somewhat controversial. See, katakana is used when adapting foreign words for use into Japanese. Things like "konpyuuta" (computer), "pan" ('pan' is French for 'bread'), "geemu" (game), and so on. However, some people see basic problems with katakana. For one thing, foreign words are being used more often than equivalent Japanese words (if they exist). People use "toire" (toilet) and "chiketto" (ticket) more than the Japanese equivalents of "tearai" or "kippu". Although there is a Japanese word for "telephone" and "cell phone", there is none for "computer" or "TV". For another thing, many words have completely lost their original meaning in Japanese, so that people no longer know what they mean. "Sumaato" (smart) means someone's who's well-dressed and stylish, while "naibu" (naive) refers to someone who is innocent and as pure as a saint (with none of the negative connotations of English). In "Minna no Katakaana", two members of V6 were challenged to figure out the actual meanings of katakana words. The host, a crow puppet named "Kaana" ('kaa' is the sound that a crow makes), would give the guys some clues to try and work it out, and eventually call on one of them at random. The most hysterical part was after V6 answered. If they got it right, a para-para dance song started up, disco lights would flash, and rows of crow puppets would pop out of nowhere. Both V6 members would then dance to their victory as the crows sang about how cool and smart they were, and how girls must love them. If V6 got the answer wrong, however, the crow puppets would instead sing a para-para song about how incredibly ugly, boring, and/or stupid they were. My favorite line had to be when the singing crow declared that Morita was too stupid to even ride the trains, because he'd get caught in the turnstile. So what kind of katakana words did they have? Some were English and made me giggle. They figured out what "mono" (as in "monorail") meant, but they had no clue for "prepaid" (as in, a prepaid phone card). However, others were non-English and really made me think. For example: "attache" (as in, "attache case") apparently means "ambassador" in French, while "sepia" (the brownish color) is Greek for "squid". Huh. You learn something new every day. Back | TV Index