What are ruususokkusu?

The second alphabet, katakana, is just a different set of characters representing the same syllables as hiragana, making the same noises. So why have it? Well, it's mainly used for words of foreign origin which have found their way into the Japanese language. Just as English has cafe, ennui and savoir-faire, Japanese has sentaa (centre), miruku (milk) and ruusu sokkusu (loose socks).

se-n-ta-a mi-ru-ku sengetsu watashi wa amerika ni ikimashita Last month I went to America.

This may sound like an unnecessary complication, but in fact it can be quite helpful. If confronted with a sheet of indecipherable Japanese, containing mainly kanji and hiragana, the katakana (if there is any) stands out because of the simplicity of its strokes. With a little practice, your eye is easily drawn to it and you can be fairly sure that it will be spelling a word you're going to recognise, such as supagetti bologuneizu (spaghetti bolognese). It's worth learning for Italian restaurant menu-reading alone.

It's also used for emphasis (especially on TV subtitles), foreign names and rude words. You may draw whatever conclusions you wish from that.

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