There are so many reasons why Katakana irritates me, but the main reason I hate Katakana is that it makes Japanese people learn incorrect expressions that they think are English. This gives English teachers the annoying task of making people unlearn bad habits. English expressions are adopted in most other countries, but at least in other countries, the English that they adopt is usually correct. It may erode the mother language, but at least it is legitimate English. The Katakana English that people use in Japan gives them odd expressions that Japanese people believe is English but is actually neither Japanese nor any other language.

Because of Katakana English expressions, Japanese people can read and perfectly understand the following sentences:

-I want to level up my style so I can be smart enough to fit into an S one piece.

-Supermodels are almost all very smart people.

-That metabolic girl who lives in my mansion wears so much make that she looks like a new half.

-Where's the consento in this mansion? I need to use it for my pasocon.

English words changed into Japanese English words

Roller coaster ------------> Jet coaster
Improve ------------> Level up (It's a verb. As in "I want to level up my English.")
Do your best ------------> Fight (ファイト) (pronounced "faito faito")
One on one ------------> man to man (マンツーマン)
Windshield ------------> Front Glass (フロントガラス)
Laptop ------------> Pasocon (personal + computer) (パソコン)
Trend ------------> Boom
Innocent ------------> naive (ナイーブ)
Chapstick ------------> lip cream (リップクリム)
French fries ------------> fried potato (フライドポテト)
Cheating ------------> cunning (カンニング)
Reception desk ------------> Front (フロント)
Don't worry about it ------------> Don't mind (ドンマイ)
Overweight ------------> Metabolic (メタボ)
Japanese company employee ------------> salaryman (サラリーマン)
Dress ------------> one piece (ワンピース)
Car horn ------------> klaxon (クラクション)
Complimentary item ------------> Service (サービス)
Hair salon hair ------------> make shop
Electrical plug ------------> Consento (コンセント)
Autograph ------------> sign (サイン)
Buffet / all you can eat restaurant ------------> Viking (バイキング) (I actually had a kid write, "I ate a viking after school with my mother yesterday" in an essay)
To get engaged ------------> goal in

More Katakana English here...

Here are some more examples of Japanese English (Katakana English) so that you can understand people when they speak English to you in Japan.

Apartment / condominium ------------> Mansion (マンション)
Stapler ------------> Hotchkiss (ホッチキス)
Wedding aisle ------------> virgin road
Mechanical pencil ------------> sharpen
makeup / cosmetics ------------> Make (メイク)
Transsexual ------------> new half
Microwave ------------> range (レンジ)
Stroller ------------> baby car (ベビーカー)
Short hair cut ------------> shortcut (ショートカット)
Upgrade ------------> version up (バージョンアップ)
McDonald's ------------> Makudonarudo (Why didn't they spell it 三クダ－ナルズ instead of マクドナルド? And Ronald McDonald's name is changed to Donald McDonald, which is funnier than anything)
Smart ------------> slim (in English it means "intelligent")
Style ------------> body type (in English it means "fashion sense")

Sarah writes one of the funniest and best blogs about Japan. This story about her most embarrassing moment in Japan made me laugh so much. My biggest Kanji mistake was probably when I accidentally wrote "きょうねん” (享年: The year that a person dies) instead of ”きょねん” (去年: Last year) in a text to my friend. It must have sounded like a creepy email from a ghost. "The year I died, I went camping in Yamanashi." So that's my Kanji mistake story. Sarah's is funnier.

Sarah is from South Africa. She lives in Sapporo. She is a total foxy lady in her pictures. She has a lot of inner strength and is also really funny. Please read her whole blog, but first read this story from it. SARAH WROTE THIS:

"Kanji and the Art of Embarrassing Yourself
So I moved to Japan (that you know, right? :p ) and the first thing that hit me was that I didn`t understand anything. It was like being in a foreign country (hahaha). If you don`t know anything about the Japanese language - all you need to know is this - it`s made out of THREE different alphabets. One called katakana which looks like this セーラ　(that`s my name), hiragana which looks like this ありがとう！(which says arigato! or thank you) and thirdly, Kanji. And when you write, you mix all three like this - 南アフリカから来ました。　Which says `I`m from South Africa.`

I desperately wanted a kanji name. Kanji is so freaking cool. So, I set about finding one that matched the syllables of Sarah - Se & Ra.
I started with Se - 世　which means World.
Ra was a little harder. There aren`t all that many Ra kanji - so I found a bunch and asked my friend Masa what they meant. The one I liked best was this 裸- and I asked him to translate. He said `noodle`. And since my family calls each other `noodle` (Sarah-noodle, pass the salt, please etc) as a term of endearment, I thought that 世裸　World Noodle, would be a fitting and apt name.
Only, he didn`t say Noodle.
He said Nu-do.
Which means naked. And for about 3 weeks I went around showing everyone (my students! friends! boss!!) my new kanji name - 世裸　World Naked.
I should have had business cards made. Only I`m not so sure people would`ve known what kind of business i was in exactly."
-from Sarah

What's your funniest / most embarrassing moment?

You might want to skip this new drink. Pepsi Shiso tastes like mouthwash.
ペプシしそはやっぱり不味いですよ。

Whenever anyone goes to Kyoto, they come back with a box of those little triangle-shaped mochi things with anko inside. Those are called Yatsuhashi. (八ツ橋 or 八橋) They are my favorite type of Japanese sweets. My Mahjong teacher lives in Kyoto, so I spent the day there with her. After the lesson, we went to eat at my favorite restaurant in Japan and on the way home, I picked up a box of Yatsuhashi.

Yatsuhashi is my favorite type of Japanese dessert and I thought I'd write to tell you to try it. While I was searching for information about it, I came across this excellent Yatsuhashi recipe full of photos of what the Yatsuhashi should look like at different stages. If you decide to make your own Yatsuhashi someday, take lots of pictures and post them to your blog. I'll show eveyone your post. I love Yatsuhashi!!

The best kind is the plain cinnamon flavor with chocolate inside. The worst kind is the orange flavor. The most traditional kinds are the plain cinnamon and Matcha (green tea) kinds.