日本の方々、日本語にもっと自慢してください　(英文)　part 1 In response to Joel's recent question regarding the overuse of katakana 'loan words' in japanese. 日本語能力が限られている僕にとっては、まとめた意見を翻訳するのはちょっと無理なので、英語で書いて載せます。時間があれば、理解してみるようお願いします。 This topic has generated some discussion, though in my opinion, not enough debate, and no official policy, here in Japan. If your aim in writing a list is just to have fun seeing how many english (vast majority of loan words are english words) words have been appropriated by 'some' japanese speakers, you've got your work cut out for you, the list is long. Since American Occupation and the accompanying pervasive influence of American culture, there has been an increasing tendency to with mix english words into japanese. This happens to the point where the original japanese word is often forgotten by many japanese people. The destructive driving force is the Mass Media, (TV, radio, advertising) which is committed to force-feeding the viewing/reading/listening population new non-japanese words at a steady rate. Because the mass media has such almighty status in Japan, people hear and automatically repeat whatever they hear on TV, or read in the newspaper, perpetuating and thus validating the use of such words in japanese. The existence of katakana gives the Mass Media carte blanche (a free pass) to present and pass off these english words as 'new japanese words'. Every week some pretender slips a new one into japanese, where the original japanese word is already perfectly understood by the entire literate population, hoping to give the impression that he/she is worldly, educated, fluent in english, worthy of the viewers admiration. Often, these are the kind of people who wish they could speak english well but lack the time, intelligence or dedication to learn properly. I admire those who take the time to study and learn to speak english well, they don't need to pretend. In light of the fact that everyone under 50 has a huge stock of unused english vocabulary from 6 years of compulsory grammar-oriented english language education, one can understand the temptation to revive these words, and, well, if they aren't going live or work in an english speaking country, get some mileage out of them here in Japan.