80 A Wonderful Mess: About the Japanese Writing System w. Dr. Wes Robertson

On this episode of the Japan Station podcast, Dr. Wes Robertson stops by to talk about the wonderful mess that is the Japanese writing system.

About Dr. Wes Robertson

Wesley C. Robertson is Lecturer in International Studies at Macquarie University, Australia. His research focuses on variation and language play inherent in writing, with a focus on Japanese. He completed his PhD in Applied Japanese Linguistics at Monash University in 2016.

Topics Discussed

• How it was that Dr. Wes Robertson became interested in the Japanese writing system
• The quirks and inconsistencies of the Japanese writing system
• Some of the potential reasons why katakana is sometimes used to write the speech of foreigners in manga and other forms of Japanese media
• The phenomenon of marking the speech of foreigners with katakana
• The practice of writing some Japanese last names in katakana rather than kanji
• Whether it is common to use the Japanese writing system to try to phonetically recreate foreign accents
• How Dr. Robertson got in touch with manga artists for his research
• Whether Japanese readers actually interpret something differently depending on what writing system (kanji, hiragana, katakana) is used
• The fascinating nature of the Japanese writing system
• About sociolinguistics
• About the Lingua Brutalica podcast
• About the peculiar script usage of the Japanese metal band Gotsu Totsu Kotsu
• And much more!

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Links, Videos, Etc.

To purchase a copy of Scripting Japan, please consider using the Amazon affiliate link below.

• Scripting Japan: Orthography, Variation, and the Creation of Meaning in Written Japanese

You can follow Dr. Wes Robertson on Twitter.

• @ScriptingJapan

Don't forget to check out the Lingua Brutallica podcast!

• Lingua Brutallica Podcast

Check out the JapanKyo Docs YouTube channel!

• https://japankyo.com/yt

Use the link below to check out the latest episode of the Ichimon Japan podcast.

• What are "buruma?" (The History of Japanese School Uniforms and the "Bloomers" Scandal) | Ichimon Japan 53

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• KimitoDesigns.com

Special Thanks

Opening/Closing song: Oedo Controller (大江戸コントローラー) by Yunomi featuring Toriena (Used with permission from Yunomi) To listen to more of Yunomi's music, check out his Soundcloud page or YouTube channel.

Japan Station cover art: Provided by Erik R.

Featured image: Courtesy of Chelsea Szendi Schieder

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Full Show Notes

• Get the full version of show notes at https://www.japankyo.com/category/podcasts/japanstation/