Our group consists of Simon, Pablo, Li, and Qixuan. We decided to compare a Japanese news website (https://www.nikkei.com/economy/) and a website for a Neko Café (http://xn--y8jh7dsa1f.jp/?page_id=2335) in Japan. The two websites show completely different things, so we thought it would be interesting to compare the differences.

Nikkei Website

Native Japanese : 26%

Sino Japanese : 69%

Loan Words: 5%

Below are a few examples of the types of vocabulary used in the article:

The article has a lot of Sino-Japanese words than Native Japanese and Loan words. Because it is a news website, the article has a very serious tone and more formal and complex vocabulary is used. The website is intended to be read by those who have a good grasp on the language and those who received higher education and can understand high-level grammar. For instance, it contains complex Sino-Japanese words like 経済産業省(けいざいさんぎょうしょう), 太陽光発電(たいようこうはつでん), 固定価格買(こていかかくばい). The sheer number of Sino-Japanese words used in this article further show that seriousness and the professional tone set by the news website instead of using a western loan word to simplify the content. 太陽光発電 could easily have been simplified to ソーラーパワー. 経済産業省 is also another complicated kanji compound that could have been simplified to METI, which is an acronym for Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. For the sake of seriousness and direction towards a sophisticated Japanese audience, Sino-Japanese words were used instead. The website doesn’t use many colors and is very straight to the point. However, the content is more complex. Only 5% of the words are loan words which shows that this page is intended for a Japanese adult audience.

Neko Café

Below are a few examples of the types of vocabulary used in the article:

The Neko Café website is much different in comparison with the Nikkei website. The Neko café website has soft colors and a very laid-back feel. It has a more playful image which is intended for a younger audience. There are also character illustrations displayed on the website which is a big difference from the Nikkei website that only has thumbnails relating to their new stories. The Neko café page is also 65% Native Japanese words, which is a big difference compared to the 26% on Nikkei’s page. The Neko café page is more eye catching but the content is simpler. カフェis a foreign loan word and it seems more exotic or fun than 喫茶店 which is the Japanese word for café. There is also the use of ランキング as opposed to  位 which is the Japanese word for ranking. The Sino-Japanese word 家族 is better than a native Japanese word as it shows the writer’s intended meaning. The word 家族 means family, which includes both children and elders. There is no native Japanese word that has the same meaning. In the case of the native Japanese word せっかく means ‘much trouble’, and the word ぜひ means ‘certainly’ or ‘without fail,’ they portray a personal feeling. If a Sino-Japanese or a loan word were used instead of the native Japanese words, the readers would not have understood the writer’s specific feeling or emotion that they want to portray in the article. Native Japanese words are the best way to show a person’s feeling or emotion, which is one of the reason why they are the highest amount of vocabulary used in the website. Also included on the website, is an interaction between two characters who use a sentence ending particle にゃー which is copying the sound that a cat makes in Japanese. It is supposed to be cute and funny. Such a thing wouldn’t appear on a news website.