I've been learning Katakana since basic level of Japanese class. I've learnt some words and examples of Katakana but there's no exact rule stated about the usage of Katakana. Automatically I think that Katakana are used for foreign words especially for English loanwords such as, computer (コンピュータ), television (テレビ), sports (スポーツ) etc. Since I learn Hiragana before Katakana, for me, as a foreign student, I find Katakana is more complicated as I'm used to English more then 'Japanese English'. Besides that, I don't really understand the usage of Katakana.
2 weeks ago, 里佳さん a.k.a my先生 asked all of us to do a Mini Research Project for Katakana. We need to find out the usage and history of Katakana. It wasn't as interested as what I imagined but it turn out to be such a wonderful research and I've learnt so much from it. After collecting samples of Katakana words from magazines, advertisement, products etc, we started to compile those results and categorized them. Turns out my group found few main categories like Foreign Languages, Products or Company's Name, Scientific Name, Onomatopoetic and Others.
After listening to all presentation from my classmates, I gained even more knowledge about Katakana. Questions when I found lyrics using Katakana like サヨナラ, キミand アナタ. Words I saw in manga or anime like トキドキ, ウンウン, ワクワク andメロメロ are all solved when I'm doing this project. Suddenly I found that Katakana can be interesting same as Hiragana and Kanji. I put more interest into Katakana since then. I really like the way先生 chose to teach us about this topic. If we were told about the rules and regulations about Katakana, our mind set will be set and thus no Katakana words will be used creatively.
We were asked about the reasons why writers and editors of Japanese Textbook wouldn't put in rules and regulations about the usage of Katakana. Firstly, I think that language is not stagnant. No language is stagnant. Things changed and so do languages. Even for native speakers, the way we speak, use and pronounce our own mother language is different as time passes. So in order not to create confusion among foreign speakers, no exact rules and regulations are stated in textbooks.
Secondly, there are so many ways a language can be used even though for native speakers and for a same period. For example, in the 21st Century, the usage of Mandarin here in Malaysia are different with the usage of Mandarin in China even though we both are native speakers. That's actually how we see the imagination and creativity of human being. Your very own creativity is seen through the way you use your mother tongue. That's why we have plenty of famous books, poems and phrases as the authors used their language in a different way.
Thirdly, I personally think that if there's rules and regulations stated in textbooks, it will set my mind set about Katakana. I will think that only under these few situations I can use Katakana and others are just wrong. There's no right or wrong in language if it meant something to you. Words and phrases are said because it meant something to the author. So people from all the world who have the same feelings/mind set/thinking will agree with the statement made while others disagree. There's some people who can see what those words are meant to mean. For me, that's the beauty of language, and I'm totally in love with languages.
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