As you might already know, Japanese has 3 main writing styles, Hiragana(ひらがな、平仮名), Katakana(かたかな、片仮名), and Kanji(かんじ、漢字).  Hiragana is the basic writing form of Japanese, and that perhaps you should learn that first. Katakana is probably the second writing style you want to learn, in my opinion, as most of English words are written in Katakana in Japanese although you want to be careful in that pronunciation itself is not exactly the same as in English.

I realize these days, more and more words are described in Katakana, where some of the common English words are being used as they are rather than being translated into Japanese. This is when Katakana comes in. Any foreign words would be written in Katakana.

In order to show you how Katakana looks like (especially if you are new to Japanese), here is how they look like.

 

 

So, let me show you some of the Katakana words.

シャワー　(shower)

プール   (pool)

タオル  (towel)

サッカー  (soccer)

ゴルフ　(golf)

レース (race)

ダンス  (dance)

リレー  (relay)

ゴール (goal)

パン (bread)

バス (bus)

プレゼント (present)

テレビ (TV)

サンダル (sandal)

コーヒー (coffee)

ロボット (robot)

マッサージ (massage)

メニュー (menu)

チョコレート (chocolate)

チューリップ (tulip)

クレジットカード (credit card)

アメリカ (America)

インド (India)

スパゲッティ (Spaghetti)

サラダ (salad)

トマト (Tomato)

 

etc..  These are the basic rules of Katakana

1. Any foreign words are written in Katakana.
2. Most of the sports names are written in Katakana.
3. Most of the country names are written in Katakana.

If you know the above 3 basic rules of Katakana, you can’t go wrong although there are some exceptions.   Now, if you are to write some of the above words in hiragana, it is still ok, but it is best to write in Katakana as they look more appropriate.  Most of the easily pronounced English words are most likely already written in Katakana and being used as foreign words in Japanese.  Hope this helps in your learning of Katakana! I will cover some Kanji lessons next time! Stay tuned.~