THE CATEGORIZATION OF WORDS IN THE BOOK FIRST WORDS JAPANESE: 100 JAPANESE WORDS TO LEARN

Abstract

Japanese uses more than one type of characters in their daily life. Based on the origin of the words, there are three types of words in Japanese, namely wago (vocabulary native to Japan), kan’go (vocabulary originated from China), and gairaigo (vocabulary from foreign languages). The study in this paper is about the categorization of words that appeared in the book entitled First Words Japanese: 100 Japanese Words to Learn, published in March 2018 in Australia. The target readers of this book are young travelers who want to travel to Japan. By knowing the categorization of words taught in the book, Japanese language teaching in Indonesia will also be able to gain insights about the basic vocabulary that should be given or learned first as needed for basic level communication. This study is a qualitatively descriptive study. The method used is an observation method with a note taking technique. The results of the study showed that there are three categorizations of vocabulary taught in the book, namely wago, kan’go, and gairaigo. Among the three categorizations, wago vocabulary is the most taught vocabulary, which is about 41%. Meanwhile, kan'go vocabulary is the least taught vocabulary, which is only about 19%. On the other hand, the vocabulary of gairaigo taught is about 40%. The interesting thing found is the insignificant difference in the number of words between wago and gairaigo vocabulary introduced and taught in this book. Therefore, it can be said that more and more loanwords are coming in and used by the Japanese people and this can be said to facilitate the learning of Japanese.