English in Japan
Shira
foreigner.For example,we see too many English words in daily
life.Watch around you!Surely you easily find a person whose
clothes,bag,or shoes have print of
English.(Actually,first,English.Second,French.)We,Japanese,look them
just as patterns.But all the words have meanings.If I used English as
my mother tongue,I would catch them first.If so,the prints would be
really strange!Most prints have many errors and don't make perfect
sentences.When there is a sentence,it is all the more strange because
the sentence often says really silly thing.Let's take an example."Love
something"is a so common word used in print(especially...on girls'
T-shirt?).The girls in those T-shirt will be ashamed when they wear a
T-shirt with Japanese(Chinese) character,"ai".(You know?A Japanese
word for "love".)
I went to France three years ago.There,I saw people in T-shirts with
Japanese character.They had errors,too.And it was strange that the
words were rare characters in our daily life,like terms of SUMO.
Then, what language is used for print in America,or England,or
Australia,...and so on?None? ???
Ed
"Shira" <mika_sh...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:fe028880.0306...@posting.google.com...
> I myself am Japanese.But I often think what would I feel if I were a
> foreigner.For example,we see too many English words in daily
> life.
As a foreigner, I would like to admit that, yes, I too see way too many
English words in my daily life. My pink kimono with the Fuji san motif would
be fine and dandy if it weren't for the fact that some Japanese artisan
wrote "Let's Nature In Engrish" splashed across my obi. Although my kimono
is a real Japanese piece of art, I am tired of stoopid Japanese who laugh at
me when I wear it for my morning jog through Roppongi. Don't those nips
realize that I am representing their culture?
Heywood Mogroot
> I myself am Japanese.But I often think what would I feel if I were a
> foreigner.For example,we see too many English words in daily
> life.Watch around you!Surely you easily find a person whose
> clothes,bag,or shoes have print of
> English.(Actually,first,English.Second,French.)We,Japanese,look them
> just as patterns.But all the words have meanings.If I used English as
> my mother tongue,I would catch them first.
yes. It's called "japlish" on the net.
http://www.tanuki.org.uk/japlish.html
> I went to France three years ago.There,I saw people in T-shirts with
> Japanese character.They had errors,too.And it was strange that the
> words were rare characters in our daily life,like terms of SUMO.
> Then, what language is used for print in America,or England,or
> Australia,...and so on?None? ???
Many westerners tattoo chinese characters onto their bodies. That'd be
pretty strange to you, I'd think.
http://www.wiganmbc.gov.uk/pub/leis/wigin4u/digitalarts/tattoo.jpg
=Heywood=
Hoshisato
For strange English used in Japan, have a look here:
http://www.engrish.com/
We still see a lot of kanji written on T-shirts here in Paris. Next
time I plan on buying some of the t-shirts of
http://www.jlist.com/PG/SHRT/ and give it to my unsuspecting friends.
See how the Japanese react when they come parading in their bakagaijin
t-shirts :-)
MonkeyBoy
I had a Japanese friend visit me in the States once. We went to a
sushi bar. This place was not owned/operated by Japanese and had
these kanji characters displayed on the walls for decoration. My
friend was looking around, both amused and bewildered. He commented
on how strange those characters looked just haning on the walls -
their meanings irrelevant to the surroundings, just decorations. Then
I commented to him that this was exactly the same thing native English
speakers observe in Japan. He spent the next few minutes in an
introspective silence :-)
-MB
Curt Fischer
> We still see a lot of kanji written on T-shirts here in Paris. Next
> time I plan on buying some of the t-shirts of
> http://www.jlist.com/PG/SHRT/ and give it to my unsuspecting friends.
> See how the Japanese react when they come parading in their bakagaijin
> t-shirts :-)
Actually, the other day I realized that if I made a T-shirt that said
"bakana gaijin" and wore it around after I move to Boston, I could
finally determine the oft-debated "true meaning" of gaijin.
If Japanese people laugh at the T-shirt because it refers to me, then
it's settled. "Gaijin" _obviously_ means "non-Japanese".
If Japanese people get offended by the T-shirt because they take it as
an insult directed against themselves, then we'll know that the true
meaning must actually be "foreigner" after all.
In contrast to what all the threads I have previously written on
Usenet may have implied, I am so smart!
--
Curt Fischer