Shaggy Dog question

[drainer at mpinet.net]

A quick non sequitur here:

I couldn't agree with you more -- I was Italy two weeks ago and one evening 
as I walked by Roma Termini I noticed a lost traveller, who just happened to 
be Japanese. He asked me for directions to his hotel, and I decided to do my 
good deed for the day and help him locate it. What a bind I got myself 
into... nearly two hours of cold rain later we found out that the hotel was, 
by all means, very close to where I had been going to in the first place.

What's the point I am trying to make here?

The katakana didn't resemble the real place name in the slightest. Nor did 
his map have the correct address, which we were able to decipher after 
magnifying a jpeg on his phone from the hotel's website (but that's another 
story).

Katakana only seems to work well outside of Japan if you have the romaji for 
reference, which then defeats the purpose of using the katakana. Just a 
thought.

-d



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jasper Sharp" <jasper_sharp at hotmail.com>
To: <kinejapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2008 6:51 AM
Subject: RE: Shaggy Dog question





Thank you - katakanised Italian names and restaurant menues always cause me 
trouble...

Jasper