5 Japanese Loanwords We Use in English

There is no end to learning Japanese language. There are a lot of interesting things we can learn about the Japanese language. If you love Japan and loves learning many things about Japan, of course learning the language is exciting. In learning Japanese language, of course, you will find a lot of interesting things. That is including the loanwords. There are so many Japanese loanwords we often use in English. Surely, there are so many words which are from Japanese and we even mostly not realize it even we often use it. Can you give some examples of Japanese loanwords? That will be really surprising even though perhaps previously, you might have been guessed for it. Here are ten examples of the Japanese loanwords which are often used in English.

Karaoke in Japanese writings is a combination of Kara, 空 (から) means empty, and oke is an abbreviation of オーケストラ which means orchestra. So combining 空 and オーケストラ becomes 空オーケストラ which means empty orchestra. Even karaoke comes from 空オーケストラ, karaoke is mostly written in all katakana, カラオケ.

Emoji in kanji is written as 絵文字, where 絵 (え) means picture, 文字 (もじ) means character or letter.

We often use the word futon in English to refer to a couch-bed or simply a Japanese style bed. In Japanese, futon doesn't refer to a couch-bed, it only represent Japanese style bed.

Compared to other loanwords, probably, there are not many English speakers who know the meaning of otaku. However, for people who are interested in Japan, they surely heard or even used this term to refer to ones who often spend much of their leisure time to enjoy anime, manga, playing games, and have less of interest to enjoy social activities. Originally, in Japanese kanji the word otaku is written as お宅, which means a house. So the representation of otaku as basically spending much of the time indoor doing something they love. Although otaku was originated from お宅, otaku is mostly written in katakana, オタク.

Tofu is often used in English to refer to a soft white blocks food. Literary, the word of tofu in Japanese kanji is written as 豆腐. However, tofu itself seems to be invented in China, so the word tofu is actually borrowed from Chinese.

It is fun to explore for more Japanese loanwords that we use in English, because other than these 5 words, there are surely a lot more words. Let's explore some more next time!