About Katakana

[deathelysium]

I am having a big headache trying to make sense of those katakana replacement of english!!!

Can anyone give me tips and advice to understand those english words in katakana like ぼいんと(point) and アイすくリム(ice-cream)?

Is there a pattern?

[Daichi]

I'm not sure what your question is exactly.

Are you having a problem with which kana are used to create the word? (If so, the more you familiarise yourself with Japanese pronunciation the easier it becomes to decipher).

Or is your problem with which English words have Katakana equivalents? (If this is the case, it's simply a matter of building up vocab).

[Kates]

deathelysium: I suppose you just need to get familiar with the Japanese accent. The best thing to do is forget the English pronunciation when you learn these words and simply work on pronouncing them in the Japanese way and (as Daichi said) building up your vocabulary.

But really, maybe if you tell us WHY you are having trouble with this... then we can offer better advice.

[deathelysium]

mmm... i think i want to do it the other way round: forming those katakana word from english. I am quite familiar with those katakana as in i can read and pronounce them in a glance but i just cannot associate its pronunciation to english's... so maybe i'm hoping to find an easy way out... so no shortcut for this? something like all the "t" sound in english should be translated to "ト"...

[Daichi]

Kates wrote:
The best thing to do is forget the English pronunciation when you learn these words and simply work on pronouncing them in the Japanese way

deathelysium wrote:
i think i want to do it the other way round: forming those katakana word from english. I am quite familiar with those katakana as in i can read and pronounce them in a glance but i just cannot associate its pronunciation to english's

I think it's because your doing it the other way round that you're having trouble.

As Kates said you should forget the English pronunciation, because by trying to link the Japanese and English you're just going to make things more difficult.

Japanese pronunciation is different from English in many ways, such as lack of 'L' or 'V' sounds, and also the lack of hard consonant sounds. See http://www.thejapanesepage.com/readarticle.php?article_id=145 for a few good examples. After a while you can understand the logic of Japanese pronunciation of English words, but for now it's easier just to learn them as simply as Japanese words.

Sorry if it seems like Kates and I are ganging up on you, but we're only trying to help!

[deathelysium]

Daichi wrote:
Sorry if it seems like Kates and I are ganging up on you, but we're only trying to help!

Muahahaha! No I'm totally okay with it.

So I guess it's gonna take me quite some time to learn the katakana-english after all :@

Thanks guys... Lol...