One convenient thing about the Japanese language is the high number of foreign loan words that are in use, which reduces the vocabulary words English speakers need to learn to be functional with the language. From virtual to biotechnology to universal barrier-free design and even epoch-making, there’s a huge number of English-derived katakana words available for use as-is — it’s essentially our revenge on Chinese students of Japanese, who get to read all the kanji for “free.” Still, a funny thing happens when you become more and more fluent in Japanese: you usually end up learning the Japanese versions of these foreign-derived words anyway. For example, the Japanese have used the English word kiss ever since modernizing in the Meiji Era, but you still encounter the original Edo Period word 接吻 seppun, which can have a more archaic but poetic feel to it. The Japanese use the word pink for the color, which is very easy for foreigners to pick up on, but sometimes will use the original Japanese term 桃色 momo-iro (lit. “peach colored”) if they’re feeling random.
Japanese use many foreign words, like kiss and pink.
