Japanese language in crisis
A deluge1 of foreign words is flooding Japan, leaving particularly the older Japanese confused about their native tongue, reports The Japan Times. Foreign terms, mostly English words, now make up 10 percent of entries in some dictionaries. “Japanese is becoming incomprehensible2,” lamented a 60-year-old woman. “Sometimes I feel like I need a translator to understand my own language.” Youths, politicians, the media, and people in sports, fashion, and high-tech industries eagerly adopt foreign words, which “tend to evoke novelty and excitement.” However, these introduced words are written in katakana, a script3 primarily reserved for foreign words. Hence, these terms “remain ‘foreign,’ presumably4 for ages,” says the paper. According to The New York Times, some Japanese are becoming “incensed over the thought that entire sentences can be strung together in contemporary Japanese using nothing but Western-derived words, save for an occasional Japanese verb or particle.” One social consequence is a widening communication gap5 in some households.
1deluge - поток
2incomprehensible - непонятный
3script - написание символов
4presumably - предположительно
5gap - глубокое расхождение
Источник: School English
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