How is katakana beneficial and or detrimental to Japanese people?


I am a linguistics teacher in Japan and the overuse of katakana in Japan makes
it difficult for Japanese students to easily learn English or other western
languages. This is not just some random question but one formed after years of
experience in teaching Japanese students and understanding their difficulties
with learning a number of subjects. I am in no way suggesting the eradication
of katakana but merely taking away their status of foreign representation. I
still believe katakana is important for historical study and pop-culture. I
intend to write a book on katakana but I should first try to understand my
argument from all sides.

**1. What are some ways in which katakana is beneficial to Japanese people?**

**2. What are some ways in which katakana proves detrimental?**

Just a simple list would be sufficient, any and all help would be much
appreciated.




First of all, please keep in mind that transliterating English-origin words is
only one of the [many roles of
katakana](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_writing_system#Katakana). I
strongly disagree with this statement:

> Katakana that is used to represent Japanese words is not the proper usage.

Katakana was invented _long_ before Japanese people encountered western
civilizations, and it's been an essential part of Japanese orthography for
more than 1000 years. Even if I had to stop using western-origin loanwords
altogether, I would still need katakana for many reasons. Countless Japanese-
origin words are normally written in katakana, and they include onomatopoeia
and slang words. It's not "overuse"; it's just how katakana works.

  * [Why are katakana preferred over hiragana or kanji sometimes?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/1930/5010)
  * [Why is the word オタク written in katakana?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/46870/5010)
  * [Why is "Yamata no Orochi" written in katakana?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/13788/5010)
  * [Why is Toyota typically written in Katakana? (トヨタ)](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/31078/5010)
  * [ニッポン? Why Kana?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/17799/5010)

* * *

> What are some ways in which katakana is beneficial to Japanese people?

It can help us remember which word is of western origin :-) Of course that's
only one of the reasons. Having two similar sets of phonetic symbols is
redundant in theory, but it helps us read things smoother, and it's especially
true for a language that doesn't use spaces to separate words. I believe you
also understand the merit of having two "cases" in English character set.

> What are some ways in which katakana proves detrimental?

The knowledge of your mother tongue will almost always work detrimentally when
you learn a new foreign language. It's advised not to use katakana if you want
to seriously master English pronunciation, and vice versa. Definitely we must
not overuse katakana in this regard, but of course this is not a problem
specific to katakana.

> Katakana is currently being used in Japanese popular culture and is used in
> a lot of internet slang. The use however confuses many Japanese especially
> students into thinking that those foreign words represented in katakana are
> actually from Japanese origin. I have had students who even think 'Good Bye'
> or 'bye bye' is originally Japanese. This is a problem when it comes to
> learning English.

Admittedly, there are a few obscure cases because katakana is not exclusively
for western-origin words. Few people remember the origin of words like ジゴロ,
ヤクザ or バンカラ. Today virtually everyone understands オタク, イケメン and リケジョ are not
western loanwords, but some people may forget their etymology after 50 years.

That being said, abandoning katakana will make the situation much worse. Many
Japanese people no longer remember that たばこ and てんぷら are originally western
words, and that's because they are often written in hiragana these days. But
almost all Japanese adults know バイバイ is an English-origin term, and that's
because it's still usually written in katakana. English has no equivalent of
katakana, and thus English speakers have forgotten the etymology of many words
they use ([examples](https://en.rocketnews24.com/2014/01/23/you-might-be-
surprised-to-learn-that-these-english-words-were-originally-japanese/)).

Katakana is not perfect, but having it is better than abandoning it, IMHO.

