Literary work final

 みず、やま、かぜ、かき

　　　　　　　わたしたちのちきゅうは

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　いま　ちしな　キャンサー　があります





 

                  てんきは　よかったです

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　ウオーリがいに　ひとが　おおい　いました 

                  みんぽんしゅぎがありませんでした

 

きのう　おひさまは　あつかったです

きょうはきのうよりあつかったです

ひょうがは　いま　アイスクリーム　です



These three "poems" if you will, contains messages about environmental concern and individual freedom. The first one is about how we neglect and destroy the very planet that we inhabit. In the end it says that the Earth now has a lethal cancer, because this is how I see it.

The second one is about the mass demonstrations going on against the economic injustice that exist in the world. It ends saying that democracy doesn't exist.

The third one is again a message about environmental concern. How the planet is getting warmer and warmer. It ends saying that the glaciers are now "ice cream" This is figurative, meaning that they melt like ice cream because of global warming.

さくぶん ２

なかたさんへ。わたしは　ヤコブ　ハーンゲリアムです。スウェーデンのストックホルムからきました。コロンビアだいがくのだいがくせいです。にねんせいです。きょねん　ニューヨークヘきました。いま　数学とにほんごをべんきょうします。にほんごがすこしわかります。とても　むずかしですが、おもしろいです。そして　てのしいです。にほんごのせんせいは　いいせんせいです。もう　わたしは　たくさんならいました。だいがくのせいかつは　いそがしいですがすてきです。コロンビアダイガクであたらしいともだちにあいました。ろくがつよっかに　にほんへいきます。じゃあまたらいねん。なかたさんは　まだ　サッカーを　しますか。よろしくおねがいします。

カタカナ Analysis

As we have seen from the previous group postings regarding カタカナ, they are categorized depending on the use of them.

1) カタカナ is used for foreign names, foreign countries, and foreign loanwords. For example トマト (tomato) or アメリカ (America).

2) カタカナ is often used in science. Names of minerals, animals, plants, and various diseases are written in カタカナ. For example カエル (frog) or キャンサー (cancer).

3) Nowadays it's very common to spell out names of different companies in カタカナ such as スズキ (Suzuki) or ホンダ (Honda).

What I would like to research more for this project is the use of カタカナ for foreign countries. Why is it that some countries are written in カタカナ and others are not. Countries like スペイン (Spain) and イタリア (Italy) are written in カタカナ while countries such as ちゅうごく (China) and かんこく (Korea) are written in Hiragana (in our case) or Kanji. My first thought was: Well, countries such as China and Korea have had relations with Japan since ancient times, so the names for the surrounding countries in East Asia have had their names for quite some time, way before カタカナ was even invented. Western countries came into the picture much later from a Japanese perspective and therefore the names of those countries were made as we went. The general pattern that one can spot is that the names of the countries in Western Europe and North America usually are written and pronounced in similar to the English pronunciation or similar to the pronunciation of the native language of that specific country. However there are a couple of cases that breaks away from the general pattern. Countries like イギリス (England) and ブラジロ (Brazil) do not follow this pattern. Why is Brazil written as "Burajiro" and England as "Igirisu"? How did these names come into place?

This is something that I will try to do some more research on within the next few weeks. I will  try to reach out to the few Japanese friends that I have and see what they have to say. There must be some explanation behind the creation of these names that don't follow the general pattern.