I love pokémon, and I’ve been trying to incorporate it in my japanese learning, just like I did with my english learning. I decided that it’d be great to use it as a way to practice katakana, since its often pushed on the wayside when learning japanese. All pokémon names are katakana, after all.
But I though I could do more. Pokémon names are often puns, and those puns must come from normal japanese words. So I decided that I’d draw a pokémon, write their katakana name AND write down the actual phrases/words/concepts that make up their name (so if I were using this for english instead, I’d write down “turtonator” and also “turtle” and “detonator” to learn those names.)
While I’m not sure I can do this daily, i’ll try to make it a routine. You’re all free to follow along and even do this yourselves! There’s over 900 pokémon out there after all.
Day one: Slowbro/ヤドラン
Name origins: 宿らん (to not dwell)
宿借り (hermit crab)
宿主 (host (parasite))
This is definitely one of the more fun ways I’ve seen to practice Katakana, I’ll be sure to follow along and learn the Japanese Pokemon names. I’m looking forward to the next Pokemon!
On the topic of Katakana:
I think it’s weird, that most learners tend to ignore them. Especially when as a beginner Katakana is awesome, it enables so much. In games you can understand a ton in menus, if you can read Katakana well.
I don’t think I ever ignored it, so much as it never really shows up much in the textbook my class used, and that was the bulk of my Japanese consumption when I started out. As a result my katakana reading speed is still pretty slow, and my writing also still abysmal. (Also, I’m female, so apparently I’m predisposed to prefer the curves of hiragana ). I think with katakana you have to actively seek it out, by playing games and such, when I’m not a gamer at all. Whereas kanji and hiragana are pretty much thrown in your face all the time.
Good points. When I was in High school (that’s when I learnt Japanese for the first time) I found it fun to write EVERYTHING in Katakana, not Japanese but I sometimes Katakanized German from that 10 years ago I can still write them. ツ
To add to the cliché, I’m male and always liked the futuristic look of the Katakana. But I’m gay to balance it out
I’ve never seen Bulbasaur from behind so… I tried my best
フシギダネ is a much more interesting pun than ‘Bulbasaur’. What mystery is this bulbous fellow hiding
). I think with katakana you have to actively seek it out, by playing games and such, when I’m not a gamer at all. Whereas kanji and hiragana are pretty much thrown in your face all the time.
from that 10 years ago I can still write them. ツ
