Why does the Japanese language have English loan words for things they already have words for?

Question

Words like “relax” (rirakkusu) and “hose” (hosu) seem like something that would have existed before contact with English-speaking people.

In: Culture

Answer 1

Because Japanese students learn limited English over the course of their education, it’s easy for loan words to cross into the lexicon. You will see, sometimes, these loan words will become more common than the original Japanese, and sometimes they are only used in special situations like music.

Relax, for example, can be リラックス (rirakkusu) or it can be 寛ぐ (kutsurogu), “to feel at home” or 寛げる (kutsurogeru), “to loosen or ease”, or 憩う (Ikou) “to rest”

Hose can be ホース (hosu), or it can be 導管 (Dokan) meaning “Conduit”