What is Loanwords?
Loanwords are words a language borrows from another and keeps — English took 'croissant' from French and 'karaoke' from Japanese; Japanese took 'pan' (bread) from Portuguese; Turkish is sprinkled with Arabic and French. They're free vocabulary with one hidden catch: the pronunciation adapts.
Borrowings map history: Japanese katakana words chronicle trade and occupation; Turkish's French layer records 19th-century modernisation; English's triple-decker vocabulary (kingly/royal/regal) preserves the Norman conquest in a single synonym set.
The catch: loanwords obey the borrower's sound system. English 'McDonald's' becomes Japanese 'Makudonarudo'; saying it the English way mid-Japanese sentence is actually WRONG. The word is borrowed; the pronunciation is native.
What it means for your speaking
Loanwords only pay out when you say them the target language's way — which takes a few spoken reps to override your native reflex. A quick conversation exposes instantly which loanwords you're still pronouncing as English.
Practise out loud — 30 seconds a day →