Is Foreign Jargon Polluting the Japanese Language?

The Japan Times has an interesting article up about how new foreign loan words (gairaigo) are making the Japanese language a lot harder for Japanese people to understand:

“We are seeing more and more small groups of otaku (obsessive) people who pompously use ‘jargon’ just so they can show off their knowledge,” Yamada said. “If the loanword they start using becomes popular, they almost take it as an accomplishment.”

Curious as to the kind of jargon to which he refers? In June 2006, the National Institute for Japanese Language published a book with a list of gairaigo people deemed incomprehensible. The report was partly based on surveys of up to 3,000 Japanese between 2002 and 2004, in which the institute asked them their level of recognition, understanding and usage of 450 katakana words. The least understood gairaigo, the survey found, was rodo puraishingu (derived from “road pricing,” this refers to the act of charging drivers to use certain roads and parking areas in order to reduce congestion or minimize environmental impact).

Only 6.1 percent of the respondents had heard of the term, a mere 3 percent understood it and just 0.5 percent used it. Among those aged 60 and older, only 2 percent had heard of the term, and not a single respondent had used it.

Next on the list of the least familiar words was paburikku inborubument (public involvement), which is government jargon for “citizen participation in policy-planning.” Only 3 percent of the respondents understood what the term meant — rather begging the question of how many people would become involved in whatever government initiative was on offer.

The national institute’s survey also found that more than half of the respondents said they hoped katakana jargon would be replaced by Japanese words, especially in fields such as politics, the economy, medicine and welfare. In areas such as fashion, sports, cooking and music, meanwhile, fewer than 10 percent of respondents hoped for substitutes.

Even as an English speaker it is quite hard to understand what the hell many katakana loanwords from English actually mean. For a good look at some “English” katakana words English speakers would have trouble understanding, check out What Japan Think’s new post on “English words, but Japanese meanings.”