I just read the article in our binders called "Borrowing Words: Using loanwords to teach about Japan" by Linda Menton. The article is very accessible because it discusses the Japanese language and the effects of foreign cultures on Japanese language in a very structured and organized way. It begins with a basic explanation that the Japanese language is broken into 3 different types of writing or alphabets: hiragana, katakana, and Kanji. Katakana, is the style of writing today that is used to write words that are from another culture and thus are known as "loan words".
What is great about the article is that it has lists of specific examples of loan words that the Japanese have added into their vocabularies, words borrowed from the Dutch, the Portugese, the Russians, and many more. Interestingly enough, not many Spanish loanwords survived as it was thought that the Spanish missionaries were plotting to overthrow the government - a tie into Spanish colonization of the world (the Americas and the Philippines) can be brought into the discussion if need be.
To really get the students excited, one can discuss words that American English has borrowed from Japan, the biggest of which is the word "Tsunami". One can discuss the fact that the pronounciation of the "ts" is never really used by Americans - thus, like the Japanese, we have butchered the original word but have "borrowed" the word to use it as our own. A great article overall and a great way to teach how culture can influence language!
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