[You'll need Japanese characters installed to see the kana in this post]
Using katakana, which is one of the Japanese syllabaries, you can make approximations of English words and phrases so that they can be read by Japanese speakers. For example, there is a new Hollywood film released over here at the moment, called “Rashitsu Yuawa 3″ – spelled in kana as; “ラシツ ユアワ 3″. Can you guess what the film (or ‘firumu’) is? Yup, it’s “Rush Hour 3″. So rather than picking the Japanese for rush hour, or a phrase for a busy time when people are travelling, it’s translated directly into J-English.
I really like this way of writing foreign words and phrases. If you’re a westerner and you know somebody that writes Japanese, then they’ll probably use these characters to write your name, such as the name ベン or ベンジセミン, for example.
I’ve noticed only a couple of translations the other way around, and one of them is the doujinshi (fan manga); Megatokyo. Megatokyo uses some kana in it’s logo, which are: メガトーキヨー. This looks to me, as very very much a beginner to kana, as: “me ga to ki yo”. However, Tokyo is usually spelled using kanji as: 東京 – which I understand to be the two syllables: “to” and “kyo”. So メガトーキヨー, or “me-ga to-ki-yo”, seems to me to be an Engrish way of pronouncing Tokyo, but from the perspective of an English speaker, rather than a native Japanese speaker.
Disclaimer: I have the Japanese reading, writing and speaking skills of an average 2 year old child at the moment, so most probably this is all wrong – as the geek I am; I’m enjoying attempting to decipher Japanese though (^ ^)
There is a hugely popular magazine here called Popteen, which is one of Asia’s bestselling teen magazines, covering fashion tips, love and advice for teen girls. The magazine has quite a unique approach as the models themselves are readers of the magazine. Readers are encouraged to register on the site, and add a portfolio, which may get them featured as a magazine model. It’s quite a nice business model, and helped in no small part by the Internet now. The magazine features “Gal Samurai” manga, which is the story about Ran Kirishima, a junior in the Maizono High School, and a “gal” who likes to hang out in Tokyo’s Shibuya district. When her parents experienced marital trouble, they left Ran in the care of her grandparents in the countryside. It was there that her grandfather, a martial arts master, began training her as a martial artist – and from whom she inherited her martial arts skills. Ran is a fashionably high school student who fights for justice, and looks fantastic while doing it.
Popteen also has a US/English site now, and I read today that Gal Samurai will be published in English too. I’m going to see if I can get hold of a copy of the Japanese manga, but the English version is probably easier for me to read at the moment.
You can visit Popteen’s US site here, for an English version.
