I still remember a quiz from my first-year Japanese course at university. There was one word that I didn’t know. I knew that it came from another language because it was written in “katakana.” I spent a long time trying to figure out what it was. The first syllable was “ta,” the next one was “o,” and the last one was “ru.” I said “ta-o-ru” over and over again in my head, but I couldn’t guess the meaning. After five minutes, I finally figured out that it was “towel.” Many loanwords come from English, so they should be easy to remember for a native English speaker like me, but they aren’t. They often sound very different from the original words. Here are two examples: “mi-ne-ra-ru” versus “mineral” and “ho-to-do-gu” versus “hot dog.”  (132 words)

You can send me a comment or your own story at jaremaga@gmail.com