Anyone who's visited Japan or who's lived here for a while cannot help but be familiar with the concept of 'Engrish', the bizarre and often hilarious English mistakes made in Japanese advertisements and product design. When I initially came across these the first logical question that sprung to mind was "why don't they let a native English speaker proofread these sentences??". But that's completely missing the point, as English here is mostly used to give Japanse products & advertising a trendy, cool look. Getting it right seems to be a lesser priority, also since most consumers don't bother to really read the Engrish with a lot of attention! The cafe where Yukino and I had lunch yesterday was a perfect example of this need to appear funky, with the following statement printed on their postcard: "A place to be able to get spirit and a smile from in life to be called off. When I came out of cafe, I will feel somehow forward." You gotta love this new, refreshing look at the English language, it certainly put a smile on my face!Monday, June 12, 2006
Local lingo
Anyone who's visited Japan or who's lived here for a while cannot help but be familiar with the concept of 'Engrish', the bizarre and often hilarious English mistakes made in Japanese advertisements and product design. When I initially came across these the first logical question that sprung to mind was "why don't they let a native English speaker proofread these sentences??". But that's completely missing the point, as English here is mostly used to give Japanse products & advertising a trendy, cool look. Getting it right seems to be a lesser priority, also since most consumers don't bother to really read the Engrish with a lot of attention! The cafe where Yukino and I had lunch yesterday was a perfect example of this need to appear funky, with the following statement printed on their postcard: "A place to be able to get spirit and a smile from in life to be called off. When I came out of cafe, I will feel somehow forward." You gotta love this new, refreshing look at the English language, it certainly put a smile on my face!
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3 comments:
Ah yes; Japan the nuclear reactor of the English Language (it mutates to god knows what). Actually your example isn't bad. Friends of mine in Hikui found a sationary shop that used real (native speaker) English texts on wrapping paper for gifts. Unfortunately one of the texts happened to be porn.
Hey Inge (from work), tis zo een beetje zoals in Korea, al is het in Japan nog erger gesteld met hun Engrish. In Tokyo Tekkels wordt het ook uitvoerig uitgelegd! Sjiek boek trouwens!
I wonder if I'll be able to look at the fad for decorating clothes in Chinese characters in the same way again...what does it really say, and does it make a bit of sense?
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