8 years of learning Japanese by reading katakana loanwords as English: does this help or hurt?
I want to share a method I've used through 8 years of learning Japanese, and hear what you all think.
Whenever I hit a katakana word that comes from English, I switch it back to the original English word, while the grammar and everything else stay Japanese. I call this "Enpanese" (English + Japanese). Here's a short news snippet as an example:
> Normal: 元女子レスリング日本代表の浜口京子さんが、Xに新しい私服写真を投稿しました。いつものスポーツ姿とはまったく違うファッションが、SNSで大きな話題になっています。黒いトップスとワイドパンツを合わせ、胸元の大きな黄色いリボンがアクセントになっています。 > > Enpanese: 元女子wrestling日本代表の浜口京子さんが、Xに新しい私服写真を投稿しました。いつものsports姿とはまったく違うfashionが、SNSで大きな話題になっています。黒いtopとwide pantsを合わせ、胸元の大きな黄色いribbonがaccentになっています。
For me it makes learning way easier and takes a huge load off my brain, with almost no mental resistance.
I think it works because of "scaffolding," a well-known idea in language learning. When you build a house, you put up scaffolding first and take it down once the structure can stand on its own. The English words act as that scaffolding: familiar anchor points all through the text that help you keep going and actually reach the end.
It also makes Japanese feel friendly. Spotting words you already know is like changing schools and finding a few old friends there: suddenly it's not so scary. I suspect that's a big part of why Chinese speakers find Japanese less intimidating, since kanji feel familiar.
I know the obvious objection: won't this stop you from learning katakana words properly? My take is that it's a stage, not a replacement. Once reading stops feeling like a wall, the katakana versions come naturally, the same way scaffolding comes down once the building can stand.
When you see a katakana loanword, does your brain jump to the English word, or do you think of it in Japanese first?
I actually built a website around this method. Every day it posts about 10 fresh, interesting Japanese articles, including the latest news and posts that went viral on social media, all written in Enpanese. If you're interested, leave a comment and I'm happy to share it!