Why menus and signs are the best katakana textbook
Katakana is used for loanwords, foreign names, onomatopoeia, emphasis and many food and plant names, and almost all of those turn up in public writing. A café menu might be 80 percent katakana. A convenience store label is a mix of kanji for the product type and katakana for flavours and brand names. Station boards mix all four scripts. Unlike a textbook, none of this was written for learners, so the words are frequent, useful and repeated in every city.
The skill you need is not recognising a character but reading a string of them fast enough that the sound of the word arrives as a whole. That is a speed skill, and speed comes from repetition on real material. This guide gives you that material in sets, so you can rehearse each place before you walk into it.
| Japanese | Romaji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| メニューを見せてください。 | Menyū o misete kudasai. | Please show me the menu. |
| このカタカナは何と読みますか。 | Kono katakana wa nan to yomimasu ka. | How do you read this katakana? |
| ゆっくり読んでもらえますか。 | Yukkuri yonde moraemasu ka. | Could you read it slowly? |
| カタカナは少し読めます。 | Katakana wa sukoshi yomemasu. | I can read a little katakana. |
| この言葉は英語から来ていますか。 | Kono kotoba wa eigo kara kite imasu ka. | Does this word come from English? |
The long vowel mark and the small kana
The long vowel mark, chōonpu, is the horizontal line ー that follows a katakana syllable and doubles its vowel. It is the single most important symbol on a menu, because coffee, cake, beer, juice, cola and cheese all contain it. Skip it and コーヒー becomes kohi, which nobody will recognise. In vertical signs the mark turns into a vertical line, which surprises learners the first time.
Small kana do two jobs. A small ッ marks a doubled consonant, as in コップ, koppu, a cup, or ホットドッグ, hotto doggu. Small ャ ュ ョ blend with the kana before them, as in ジュース, jūsu, juice, or シャツ, shatsu, shirt. Katakana also uses small vowel kana to build sounds Japanese did not originally have: ティ in パーティー, party; ファ in ファミレス, family restaurant; ウィ in ウィスキー, whisky; ヴ in some spellings of v words, though ビ and バ are more common.
| Japanese | Romaji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| コーヒーを一つください。 | Kōhī o hitotsu kudasai. | One coffee, please. |
| ビールとビルは違います。 | Bīru to biru wa chigaimasu. | Beer and building are different words. |
| チーズケーキはありますか。 | Chīzukēki wa arimasu ka. | Do you have cheesecake? |
| ホットとアイス、どちらにしますか。 | Hotto to aisu, dochira ni shimasu ka. | Hot or iced, which would you like? |
| パーティー用のジュースを買います。 | Pātī-yō no jūsu o kaimasu. | I'll buy juice for the party. |
| この店のソフトクリームはおいしいです。 | Kono mise no sofuto kurīmu wa oishii desu. | This shop's soft-serve is delicious. |
How English sounds change in katakana
Japanese syllables are almost always a consonant plus a vowel, so English words are rebuilt to fit. Consonant clusters gain vowels, usually u, or o after t and d. Final consonants gain a vowel too. L becomes r, v usually becomes b, th becomes s or z, and the English short a and u sounds usually collapse into a. Once you know these swaps you can run them backwards and recover the English.
| Katakana | Reading | English | What changed |
|---|---|---|---|
| ストライク | sutoraiku | strike | Vowels added inside the cluster and at the end |
| サラダ | sarada | salad | L became r; final d gained a |
| バニラ | banira | vanilla | V became b; ll became r |
| サンドイッチ | sandoitchi | sandwich | D gained o; ch became tchi |
| ミルクティー | miruku tī | milk tea | L became ru; long vowel for ea |
| スムージー | sumūjī | smoothie | S gained u; th became j |
| ホーム | hōmu | platform | Shortened from platform; long o |
| エスカレーター | esukarētā | escalator | Cluster split; r for l; long final vowel |
| チケット | chiketto | ticket | Ti became chi; small tsu doubles t |
| デパート | depāto | department store | Shortened; long a; t gained o |
Shortening is the other habit to know. Japanese cuts long loanwords to their first few syllables, so a convenience store is a konbini, a smartphone is a sumaho and a personal computer is a pasokon. If a short katakana word looks like the start of an English word, it probably is.
Practice set: the café and the restaurant menu
Café menus are the gentlest place to start because almost every item is a loanword and the categories are predictable: drinks, sizes, hot or iced, toppings. Read the size words first, since staff ask about them: ショート, トール, グランデ at some chains, or simply S, M, L with katakana labels エス, エム, エル. Then the drinks: カフェラテ, カプチーノ, アイスティー, オレンジジュース. Then the extras: ミルク, シロップ, ホイップ.
Restaurant menus add cooking words: グリル, フライ, ソテー, and many dish names such as ハンバーグ, オムライス and ナポリタン that exist only in Japan. Read them anyway; they follow the same sound rules, and the waiter will happily explain what they are.
| Japanese | Romaji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| アイスカフェラテのトールをお願いします。 | Aisu kaferate no tōru o onegai shimasu. | A tall iced café latte, please. |
| ミルクとシロップは入れますか。 | Miruku to shiroppu wa iremasu ka. | Would you like milk and syrup in it? |
| ハンバーグセットにします。 | Hanbāgu setto ni shimasu. | I'll have the hamburger steak set. |
| オムライスは何ですか。 | Omuraisu wa nan desu ka. | What is omurice? |
| デザートにチョコレートケーキをください。 | Dezāto ni chokorēto kēki o kudasai. | Chocolate cake for dessert, please. |
| テイクアウトできますか。 | Teikuauto dekimasu ka. | Can I take it away? |
Practice set: shop signs and product labels
Shop signs use katakana for shop types and brand names: クリーニング, dry cleaning; ドラッグストア, chemist; コインランドリー, launderette; ネイルサロン, nail salon; リサイクルショップ, second-hand shop. Learn the shop-type words and you can identify a business from across the street. Signs also carry katakana service words such as セール, sale; オープン, open; and サービス, which on a sign means a free extra or a discount rather than service in general.
Product labels mix scripts. The type of product is often in kanji, the flavour and brand in katakana. On a convenience store shelf you will read チキン, chicken; ツナマヨ, tuna mayonnaise; カルボナーラ, carbonara; and ingredient warnings like アレルギー. Cosmetics and toiletries are almost entirely katakana: シャンプー, リンス, ボディソープ, ハンドクリーム.
| Japanese | Romaji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| このシャンプーは詰め替え用ですか。 | Kono shanpū wa tsumekae-yō desu ka. | Is this shampoo a refill pack? |
| ツナマヨのおにぎりをください。 | Tsunamayo no onigiri o kudasai. | A tuna mayonnaise onigiri, please. |
| セールは今日までですか。 | Sēru wa kyō made desu ka. | Is the sale until today? |
| クリーニングは何日かかりますか。 | Kurīningu wa nannichi kakarimasu ka. | How many days does dry cleaning take? |
| ドラッグストアはどこにありますか。 | Doraggusutoa wa doko ni arimasu ka. | Where is there a chemist? |
| このハンドクリームは無香料ですか。 | Kono hando kurīmu wa mukōryō desu ka. | Is this hand cream unscented? |
Practice set: stations and transport boards
Station katakana is a small, fixed vocabulary that you will meet hundreds of times: ホーム, platform; エレベーター and エスカレーター; コインロッカー, coin locker; トイレ; タクシー; バス; チケット; and カード for IC cards. Line names on boards and announcements are usually in kanji, but many displays scroll them in katakana or romaji as well, and foreign place names in the station area, such as a theme park or an outlet mall, are always katakana.
Departure boards add a few more: ライナー for liner services, ラッシュ for rush hour in notices, ダイヤ for the timetable, and ホームドア for platform doors. Delay notices mix kanji with katakana words like ポイント, points, and ドア, door, so reading the katakana often tells you what went wrong.
| Japanese | Romaji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 三番ホームはどこですか。 | Sanban hōmu wa doko desu ka. | Where is platform three? |
| エレベーターはあちらです。 | Erebētā wa achira desu. | The lift is over there. |
| コインロッカーは改札の外にあります。 | Koinrokkā wa kaisatsu no soto ni arimasu. | The coin lockers are outside the ticket gates. |
| カードにチャージしたいです。 | Kādo ni chāji shitai desu. | I'd like to top up my card. |
| タクシー乗り場はどちらですか。 | Takushī noriba wa dochira desu ka. | Which way is the taxi rank? |
| ドアの故障で遅れています。 | Doa no koshō de okurete imasu. | It is delayed because of a door fault. |
A method for reading any katakana word
When a word does not resolve at first sight, do not stare at it. Work through it with a fixed routine, which takes about ten seconds once it becomes a habit.
| Japanese | Romaji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| これは英語ですか、フランス語ですか。 | Kore wa eigo desu ka, furansugo desu ka. | Is this English or French? |
| この言葉の意味を教えてください。 | Kono kotoba no imi o oshiete kudasai. | Please tell me what this word means. |
- Read it aloud syllable by syllable, holding every ー for a full beat
- Say it again at normal speed and listen for an English word
- Strip the extra vowels from consonant clusters and word endings
- Swap r for l and b for v and try again
- Check whether it is a shortened word: look for the start of a longer English word
- Use the place: on a menu it is food, on a label an ingredient, at a station a facility
- If it still will not resolve, it may be Japanese, French or German rather than English; ask
Run this routine on ten words a day from photographs you took, and within a few weeks most words will resolve at the first step.
Common mistakes and when a word will not resolve
The first mistake is reading katakana with English spelling in mind and expecting the letters to line up. They never will; go through the sound. The second is dropping the long vowel mark, which changes the word. The third is confusing the look-alike pairs シ and ツ, ソ and ン, and ク and ケ, which cause most misreadings on signs. Reading in context solves most of them: ツナ makes sense on a sandwich label, シナ does not.
Some words genuinely are not English. Menus carry French words like グラタン and ミルフィーユ, German words like バウムクーヘン, and Portuguese-derived words like パン and テンプラ, which is usually written in kana or kanji. Plenty of words are Japanese-made from English parts, and their meaning cannot be guessed from the pieces. When a word will not resolve, ask what it is; staff explain menu items all day and will not think less of you.
| Japanese | Romaji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| すみません、これはどんな料理ですか。 | Sumimasen, kore wa donna ryōri desu ka. | Excuse me, what kind of dish is this? |
| 「ツ」ですか、「シ」ですか。 | Tsu desu ka, shi desu ka. | Is that tsu or shi? |
| 読み方が分かりません。 | Yomikata ga wakarimasen. | I don't know how to read it. |
| 英語で言うと何ですか。 | Eigo de iu to nan desu ka. | What is it in English? |