All the katakana you know is a lie

Okay, that may be an overstatement, but at least it got you to read. And it feels true, anyway.

I came to Japan for the first time about three weeks ago, and will be living here for about the next year. So that means I'm in the "Ooh, listen to what I noticed from my new and fresh culture-shocked perspective" phase. But I hope you do find it interesting and possibly helpful.

If you are taking Japanese, you have no doubt heard a lot of English words turned into katakana--katakanized? Can I say that? Yes, I will--and you have no doubt had one of two reactions:

1) Pff, so basically all I have to do is speak English but put the verb at the end--this isn't gonna be so hard.

or

2) This can't all be real Japanese.

If you had reaction 2, as I did, you are right. As I continued learning Japanese, I started wondering if maybe I was wrong--the same English words kept coming up (クラブ kurabu, which means "club," for instance--a girl I talked to today used 部活（ぶかつ）bukatsu, instead), and every time I looked up a word on Google Translate (which I stopped doing long ago--it's very inaccurate for Japanese), it would just give me katakana of the word I'd looked up.

Now that I'm in Japan, I have to say--they use far less katakanized words than I thought. And a lot of words I thought they would get (we used the word オノマトペ onomatope, which means onomatopoeia, in my Japanese classes all the time), they don't know (I think オノマトペ is just used by language specialists).

It's also worth mentioning that the people who do know English words are of a certain age. I'm staying with a family with kids aged 9 and 5, and anytime I used katakana, I get a blank stare. This also goes for the older generation.

I actually quite like that they don't use foreign words too much. I understand it's fashionable to use English in pretty much any circumstance (even I have already been converted--I was very tempted to use romaji headings on a recent presentation), but using one's own native words shows a national pride that I admire. Though their national fervor is likely not close to that of the French.

So what to do?
My recommendation to you is to use your teachers, your dictionaries, forums, and other resources to find out how to say everything you're learning in native Japanese (let's not get too picky about if it came from China 500 years ago). It's a good exercise in being able to communicate with anyone of any age or linguistic background. The whole point of learning a language is to be understood, so I encourage you to ensure your goal is accomplished by going a little outside of what's fashionable.

So, what do you think? Are you pro-katakana? Do you think English has no place in Japanese? Let me know your thoughts, opinions, and stories in the comments!