Blog Assignment #8

 After doing a bit of exploring online, I am very fascinated by all the different uses of katakana that I have seen. We have already seen katakana used for loanwords, like テレビ (television). I did not realize, however, that many katakana loanwords are borrowed from languages beyond just English; for example パン is a katakana word for bread—just like the word "pan" used in Spanish and Portuguese.

 One of the most interesting discoveries for me was that there are many loanwords that both English and Japanese have borrowed from another culture. For example, I never considered that "rucksack" might not be an originally English word. It turns out that the word "rucksack" actually originates in Germany, with "“Rücken” meaning “back” and "sack" meaning "bag." The katakana version of this is リュックサック (Ryukkusakku). Isn't that interesting? I think that the use of katakana in these contexts really makes the words stand out from typical Japanese script; with katakana being used much less frequently than kanji and hiragana, words that do use katakana really draw your attention.

I also did not realize thatドキドキ (Doki-doki) is an onomatopoeia used for the sound of a fast-beating heart when you're excited or nervous. Several years ago (2017, I guess) there was a game called Doki Doki Literature Club! that was popular among my classmates. It posed as a romance visual novel/dating sim but actually turned out to be pretty gritty horror game. I think I understand now why the game devs called it that!