Japanese Have Fun With Engrish

SRF Global Translations' translators of Japanese see a certain amount of playfulness, that we in the West seem to have lost, in how the Japanese deal with language, especially foreign language. The website www.engrish.com contains a wealth of funny instances of English called to serve in Japanese advertising, with products that target the locals. "Engrish," says the site, "can be simply defined as the humorous English mistakes that appear in Japanese advertising and product design."

Does calling a brand of moist tissues "My Wet" mean that advertisers and marketing specialists in Japan have chosen to ignore the importance of accurate, and culturally sensitive translation? Of course not.

Japanese Text: Ornamentation, Not Information Sells Better
Anyone who has studied the phenomenon will explain that many Japanese marketeers use English text as an element of design, not to convey information. Apparently, merchandise packaging that displays strange alphabetic pictures on it sells better with the Japanese public.

This is similar to the fascination with Chinese character tattoos among the Americans, as in both cases language evaporates, leaving the curious residue of its script as an extreme form of ornamentation.

The Engrish site is filled with examples of Engrish in categories including packaging, publications, signs, food, and that old bugaboo, instructions. There are t-shirts, books, even boxer shorts with Engrish phrases for sale on the site.

While the Japanese culture has never been very open to foreign influences, the language has shown extreme flexibility, by freely accepting English words, expressions and proper names, especially when these directly apply to the Western culture.

26-May-2006 By Ardian