by Emily Connor
English pops up in the most peculiar places in Japan. Store-fronts, restaurant menus, product tag lines... There just seems to be an overall fascination with the English language in Japan, even though so many people claim to be unable to speak or understand it at all (I'm still convinced that it's a lie, though!). The English that is most commonly seen tends to be a bit obscured, though... It's usually packed with grammatical and spelling errors, a lot of them being really comical. I once saw the word 'pineapple' misspelled as 'pain apple' on a restaurant menu, just to name one of the thousands of mistakes that I've seen.
T-shirts with English catchphrases are popular with all age groups, although the English on shirts tends to be some of the most butchered English that I've ever had the honor of seeing. Classic phrases such as 'To the dream for which it has' and 'WORLD EXISTS PERFECT' are just a few of the examples of English that I've seen splattered on the T-shirts that Japan's youth proudly sports. And my only question is--- why? There are tons of native English-speakers living in Japan, and tons of Japanese people with native-level English. Despite this, absolutely bizarre English just seems to be everywhere. I would think that a large and popular clothing company would perhaps think to themselves before putting an English phrase on a shirt that 'Well, maybe we should consult with a native English-speaker to see if this English makes any sense!'. But, no.
Even restaurants that have a large percentage of foreign customers tend to have inaccurate English on their menus. The popular 'Brown Rice' often becomes the not-so palatable Brown Lice' and I've even seen a type of fish called kajiki in Japanese (usually a type of Swordfish in English) be translated as the word 'Wikipedia' on a sushi menu. That's right-- I went to a sushi restaurant that was actually serving 'Wikipedia'. Couldn't the person in charge of typing up the English menu take the time to ask one of their friendly gaijin customers for some English advice before bothering to print the darn thing? Do all of these restaurants even need English menus if the English translations are just as confusing as looking at a full-Japanese menu?
To be honest, I would be really sad to see of the English in Japanese suddenly become native-level English. In a way the messed up English that is littered around many parts of Asia really gives the place a bit of its charm. On a certain level, though, I would like to be able to help some places clean up their slightly too Japanese-y English and make things easier to understand for those customers who have no idea how to read or speak any Japanese, and even less of a clue as to what the butchered English on the menu is trying to describe. 'The ball of wheat noodle which is fried'-- come again?
Then again, if free online translating Web sites finally got their acts together, then this entire dilemma could be avoided, now couldn't it?
English pops up in the most peculiar places in Japan. Store-fronts, restaurant menus, product tag lines... There just seems to be an overall fascination with the English language in Japan, even though so many people claim to be unable to speak or understand it at all (I'm still convinced that it's a lie, though!). The English that is most commonly seen tends to be a bit obscured, though... It's usually packed with grammatical and spelling errors, a lot of them being really comical. I once saw the word 'pineapple' misspelled as 'pain apple' on a restaurant menu, just to name one of the thousands of mistakes that I've seen.
T-shirts with English catchphrases are popular with all age groups, although the English on shirts tends to be some of the most butchered English that I've ever had the honor of seeing. Classic phrases such as 'To the dream for which it has' and 'WORLD EXISTS PERFECT' are just a few of the examples of English that I've seen splattered on the T-shirts that Japan's youth proudly sports. And my only question is--- why? There are tons of native English-speakers living in Japan, and tons of Japanese people with native-level English. Despite this, absolutely bizarre English just seems to be everywhere. I would think that a large and popular clothing company would perhaps think to themselves before putting an English phrase on a shirt that 'Well, maybe we should consult with a native English-speaker to see if this English makes any sense!'. But, no.
Even restaurants that have a large percentage of foreign customers tend to have inaccurate English on their menus. The popular 'Brown Rice' often becomes the not-so palatable Brown Lice' and I've even seen a type of fish called kajiki in Japanese (usually a type of Swordfish in English) be translated as the word 'Wikipedia' on a sushi menu. That's right-- I went to a sushi restaurant that was actually serving 'Wikipedia'. Couldn't the person in charge of typing up the English menu take the time to ask one of their friendly gaijin customers for some English advice before bothering to print the darn thing? Do all of these restaurants even need English menus if the English translations are just as confusing as looking at a full-Japanese menu?
To be honest, I would be really sad to see of the English in Japanese suddenly become native-level English. In a way the messed up English that is littered around many parts of Asia really gives the place a bit of its charm. On a certain level, though, I would like to be able to help some places clean up their slightly too Japanese-y English and make things easier to understand for those customers who have no idea how to read or speak any Japanese, and even less of a clue as to what the butchered English on the menu is trying to describe. 'The ball of wheat noodle which is fried'-- come again?
Then again, if free online translating Web sites finally got their acts together, then this entire dilemma could be avoided, now couldn't it?
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