59 How do you say trombone in Japanese? (About the World War II Katakana Word "Ban")

<p>On this episode of <em>Ichimon Japan</em> we ask: How do you say "trombone" in Japanese? The main topics for this episode include the many uses of katakana in Japanese and how nationalists in Japan appear to have wanted people to use less katakana words during World War II.</p> <h2 style="text-align: center;"><strong>Topics Discussed<br /></strong></h2> <ul> <li>About how the Japanese writing system works</li> <li>The many different uses of katakana</li> <li>The fact that words of foreign origin are not always written in katakana</li> <li>How much of Japanese uses words that originated in Chinese</li> <li>How the Japanese word for coffee has kanji</li> <li>How the scholar Utagawa Yōan assigned <em>kōhī </em>(coffee) its kanji</li> <li>How the code from <em>The Matrix </em>has katakana in it</li> <li>About <em>ateji</em></li> <li>How there were efforts during World War II to eliminate the use of foreign/katakana words in Japan</li> <li>About Japan's unofficial World War II katakana word "ban"</li> <li>How baseball teams in Japan changed their names in an effort to not go against the nationalist sentiment around the time of World War II</li> <li>Some funny examples of needlessly long and complicated Japanese versions of foreign words</li> <li>The Japanese words for curry, korokke, cider, saxophone, violin, trombone</li> </ul> <h2 style="text-align: center;"><strong>Support on Patreon & Ko-fi<br /></strong></h2> <p>If you enjoy <em>Ichimon Japan</em> and want to ensure that we're able to produce more episodes, then please consider becoming a patron on Patreon.com. You can join for just $1 a month and that comes with perks like early access to episodes, a shout-out at the beginning of a future episode, bonus content, and discounts to Kimito Designs. For $3 a month you get all that plus access to <em>Japanese Plus</em> <em>Alpha</em>, a podcast produced by me (Tony Vega) that focuses on the Japanese language and its many quirks. Whether you are studying Japanese or just enjoy learning about language and linguistics