Engrish

I kind of knew about engrish before yesterday. But not a whole lot. I have never been Asia! All I do know is that native speakers of Chinese and Japanese seem to have problems with the L sound. So like becomes rike. I rike to ride my bike. That kind of thing.

But it seems there is MUCH MORE to engrish than I thought! So I researched the topic a bit, mostly from THIS WEBSITE. Here is what I found!

You have probably seen some asshole with "Japanese" or "Chinese" characters tattooed on their arm or leg or face or whatever. Now the person with the tat does not look Asian. They look white. VERY white. They can not read or speak any Asian language. So how do they know that character really means "life" or "energy" or "essence" or whatever? Hell the tattoo artist looks like this!

What does he know about Japanese writing? And the asshole you see with the riced out Honda complete with that "cool" sticker? You know, the one with the Japanese writing? The driver probably looks like some 19 or 20 year old shaved head goofus - what does he know about Japanese? Nothing. The sticker may translate into "look at me, I am a total dumbass" or "I stick dildos up my ass for fun". Nobody would know, except for someone who can read Japanese. And they will probably just point and laugh.

But here in the States, the characters are used to sell crap. Cause it looks cool.

Well guess what? It seems that in Asian Countries, English is treated the same way! Yes, in Japan people take a few years of English in school. Many years actually. But on the street, guess who speaks it? Thats right - Americans, Brits, Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders, and so on. Most people do not use English daily, or even weekly. So the language skills they learn slowly fade away.

This is where engrish comes in. Because most people can make out some words, but do not really care, many things written in engrish are just slapped together. Little or no attempt is made to get anything correct. Who cares about that English scribble crap anyway? Residents of the nation are just going to read the Japanese script anyway.

Just like YOU would ignore Japanese characters and just read the English (if you are in an English speaking Country that is). Do you really think the stickers on cars, the writing on t-shirts, tattoos, and so on are proof read? Do you think much (if any) attempt is made to get anything correct? Hell no! It is just "marketing". As it is in Japan. Marketing, using our language like we use theirs.

Here are some good examples, from engrish.com

Kind of blunt, but you get the message. Shit in the toilet please. Someone probably made this engrish after having to clean up a Cleveland Steamer left in the middle of the floor. The "bad" word? Think they care? Children in the nation this photo came from probably ignore the engrish and read that other stuff.

Here is another example, possibly my favorite example ever!

It seems that the chick in this photo had NO IDEA what her shirt said. But like I pointed out before - do you have ANY clothing with Japanese characters on it? If so, do you know what it means? Do you REALLY know what it means? Are you sure? The story here is that Spread Beaver was the name of a Japanese band. The other writing was apparently added in by the person who printed the t-shirt and has no connection to the band at all. More than likely, the printer knew what they were writing. But maybe not! At any rate, the people who bought the shirts probably had no idea.

It just "looked cool" to them. Marketing. So there you go! Now you know a little more bout engrish. And now, the rest of this post will be in engrish!

Under the sun, I have happy good time in wet place. I move to place and see large scary path going to large fish. I have happy ending questing in wet place to the end with picture.

TRANSLATION!

Tomorrow morning I am going back to Shark Valley! I will ride the 15 mile loop through the swamp again, and take some more photos. What the hell were YOU thinking that meant?