Abstract
This study is to explore onomatopoeias in Japanese and the teaching strategies of them for Chinese speakers. We have collected 153 Japanese onomatopoeias from the cooking variety show Pekojyani, and 45 Chinese onomatopoeias from Home for Dinner and Chinese Onomatopoeia Dictionary. According to the analysis, the food-texture onomatopoeias in Japanese and Chinese share similarities in sound symbolism in several ways. Based on this, seven groups of onomatopoeias in Japanese and Chinese with the similar sound symbolism have been investigated among Chinese speakers by an interview method. Accordingly, we advise teachers to use words with the similar sound symbolism when instructing Chinese learners on onomatopoeias.
