Back in 2008 we had a regular contributor, Kaho, whose first language was Japanese. She wrote many posts with helpful information about commonly used and needed Japanese expressions, often added to the ends of her posts about shopping. We’re turning her “Japanese Corner” tidbits into posts of their own so that you can hopefully feel more comfortable beginning to use what is likely still a foreign language for many of you.
ORIGINALLY CONTRIBUTED BY KAHO in March 2008
Kaho’s Japanese Corner: Calorie Off?
Meredith is the one who thought of this, so I can’t take credit for this idea. You see the Japanese characters like “カロリーオフ” on the bottle? This means that this drink is “light” or “diet”.
カ＝ka
ロ=lo
リ=le
オ=oh
フ=foo
The hyphen means that the vowel sound before that has to be stretched or long. If you see this on a drink bottle, you know that it’s low in calories.
If you drink coffee, you might see this one for no sugar added. It is “ノンシュガー”. Just look for these characters. You might have already noticed, but all these are English words written with Japanese characters. They are “borrowed words”. If you’re thinking about learning Japanese just a little bit to get by, I recommend learning katakana. You should be able to figure out some words written in katakana and your horizon will expand!
Want to read more of these helpful Japanese language posts? Check them all out HERE.