My understanding that it is a more general term, used about as much as the English equivalent “word processor.” In other words, it used as a way to refer generically to Google docs, Word, or any other similar program.
ワープロ appears 7 million times in a Google exact search and Word Processor appears 10 million times. Given that there is more Japanese on the internet than English, that would indicate more frequent modern Japanese usage.
I saw a streamer used the word 皆勤賞 the other day, referring to the people who always show up to every stream. I guess it can still show up in a more playful way…
though to be fair that was the only time I’ve seen anyone use it ever
It’s also worth noting for even for things that are antiquated, they are often still worth learning, since reading things written or set in the past will use them.
In general, if a native says “we don’t use that” then that means they at least recognize it, so it sees some level of use, while “what is that” is a better indicator that it is very antiquated/obscure. The “we don’t use that” should only be taken as a sign to not use it in conversation.
Yeah I’ve seen a lot of stuff where it’s like “but muh japanese wife said…”, “But muh coworker said…” For words they “don’t use” when I’ve seen the word like 10 times in books already and basically every adult native would know the word.
The amount of words you’ll actually never see are incredibly small on wk and probably would have a lot more to do with them being only found in a certain context you don’t put yourself around. If you’re going off and reading other stuff, maybe be a bit more vigilant if you’re reading something like muramasa, SSY, etc… but yeah yeah wanikani isn’t just feeding you stuff natives don’t know or use.
Very true, just cause something isn’t said, doesn’t mean it’s not going to show up in writing. True for pretty much any language. I don’t often hear people say a word like nascent, but I’ve read it plenty.
Personal note: I mean, the word “homestay” comes up all the time in Japanese textbooks as a normal English word that people apparently use all the time, but until college Japanese courses I had never encountered the word before. Ever. It’s just not a word that is used where I grew up (I’m American, NorCal). I still think it’s a weird word and don’t use it. I guess even “what is that” can’t be taken as definite proof of something…
If not word, which ワープロソフト are you using and why?
That’s a good one. It seems people don’t respect the concept of “No Rest Ganbarism” anymore, which is a good thing.
Unfortunately I cannot get the WaniKani 皆勤賞 anymore because I was not serious through the first levels. Maybe in the second round.
Amen!
I’ll grudgingly admit to being an old guy, and my Japanese wife often raises an eyebrow at some of the stuff she sees me reviewing …
But the vocabulary here is mostly aimed at hammering home different readings and nuanced meanings for individual kanji.
Further, my goal is to learn to read and better speak and understand Japanese. Not everything I want to read takes place in 2021. Same goes for movies or even games.
That said, I don’t recall seeing ワプロ or 皆勤賞 here. I even had to look up the latter. *1
Off topic, but ワプロ is in that wonderful category of shortened English words that native Japanese often expect you to already know. After all, it’s “English”! I have a dated but rather hysterical memory of my in-laws repeating パトカー (patrol car) at increasing volume over and over to me, mystified that I didn’t understand. I thought it was a Japanese word and had no idea what they were pointing at.
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*1 I was thrilled to discover that I’d already reviewed and could read every single word in the Japanese dictionary entry, too: 皆勤賞（かいきんしょう）は、職場や学校などに欠席（欠勤）、遅刻、早退することなく出席した者に対する賞 or “The perfect attendance award is for those who attended work or school without being absent (absent), late, or leaving early.” The first character was the only mew one fir m.
should teach them to call it the ポーポー as thats closer to what people call them in my more rural US area colloquially lol
ironically ポーポー, it’s apparently in jisho.com for paw-paw fruit which we also have in arkansas here. referred to as Pa-paw and Arkansas bananas.
I suspect this thread is now off the rails and almost certainly doomed, but my all time favorite in this specific branch of outdated katakana-go remains ブリグリ for the nineties pop band The Brilliant Green.
Slightly orthogonal but … obligatory Dogen link.
[Edit: I forgot to mention that Pa-paw was what my father wanted his grandchildren to call him. He was born in Kentucky.]
There is no derailing as long as the topic title can be changed 
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