Japlish

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This article contains Japanese text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of kanji and kana.

An example of Engrish in Sasebo, Japan

A sign in a bathroom in Shanghai

Engrish (イングリッシュ^?) is a slang term for unusual forms of English language usage by native speakers of some East Asian languages. The term itself relates to Japanese speakers' tendency to inadvertently substitute the English phonemes "R" and "L" for one another, because the Japanese language has one alveolar consonant in place for both. The related term "wasei-eigo" refers to pseudo-anglicisms that have entered into everyday Japanese.

While the term may refer to spoken English, it is more often used to describe written English. Engrish can be found in many places, including signs, menus, and advertisements. Terms such as Japanglish, Japlish or Janglish for Japan, Konglish for Korea, and Chinglish for China are more specific terms for Engrish.

Roots of the phenomenon

In Japanese Engrish, there are two contributing factors:

• First is the great difference between Japanese and English. Japanese word order, the frequent omission of subjects in Japanese, the absence of articles, a near-complete absence of consecutive consonants (owing to the syllabary nature of the Japanese language), as well as difficulties in distinguishing l and r all contribute to substantial problems using Standard English effectively.^[1] Indeed, Japanese have tended to score comparatively poorly on international tests of English.^[2] Unwittingly poor translations from online language translation tools are used without consulting a native English speaker.
• The second factor has been the use of English for "decorative" or "design" rather than functional purposes;^[3] i.e., for Japanese consumption, not for English speakers per se, and as a way of appearing "smart, sophisticated and modern," in much the same way as Japanese and similar writing script is used in western fashion.^[4] Indeed, it is claimed that in such decorative English "there is often no attempt to try to get it right, nor do the vast majority of the Japanese population ever attempt to read the English design element in question. There is therefore less emphasis on spell checking and grammatical accuracy."^[5]

In popular culture

Engrish features prominently in Japanese pop culture. Many popular Japanese songs and television-show themes feature disjointed phrases in English amongst the otherwise Japanese lyrics. Japanese marketing firms helped create this popularity, resulting in an enormous array of advertisements, products, and clothing marked with English phrases that seem amusing or bizarre to those proficient in English. These new Engrish terms are generally short-lived, as they are used more for fashion than meaning.

Instances of Engrish due to poor translation were frequently found in many early video games produced in Japan. One well-known and popular example of Engrish in pop culture is the video game translation phenomenon "All your base are belong to us", which also became an Internet meme.

Engrish has featured occasionally in the Trey Parker and Matt Stone cartoon South Park, such as the song "Let's Fighting Love", used in the episode "Good Times With Weapons", which parodies the poorly translated opening theme sequences sometimes shown in anime, and in Parker and Stone's feature length Team America: World Police where the late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is depicted singing the song "I'm so Ronery".^[6]

Big Sound Temple, the novel released by author Ben Stevens in March 2012 (HarperCollins), is written entirely in Engrish (or Japlish).

See also

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Engrish

• Engrish.com—photos of Engrish from Japan, China and elsewhere
• Large Engrish Photo Collection on Weird Asia News
• Engrish Funny —photos of Engrish from around the world
• Translation Party - an online tool that demonstrates how phrases are lost in translation between English and Japanese
• [1] - a humorous way of looking at engrish