English in Japan

[Clintobean]

Hi, I was wondering why in many different aspects of Japanese advertising, English is written in at least part of most advertisements on billboards, magazines, etc. I know that some like brands are American, so they would make billboards in English, but in the case of like magazines, they have stuff written in English. I was mainly wondering do the Japanese even understand what is written in English? Why is there so much English written in these kinda things where it isn't quite enough English to be really meaningful, but it doesn't seem to help out the Japanese either.

[stsparky]

Here's a secret. Be open and polite. If you run into trouble - have a note pad and a pencil on you at all times. If you write in Block Letters - your English will be understood.

Oh if a shopkeeper closes their shop to walk you to a police station for help - return to the shop and buy something. :D

[Arvynia]

what do you mean by block letters?

[skate_mate]

'Block letters' refers to printed style all capitals I think.

[nice gaijin]

sparky... your response doesn't seem to be related to the question...

Part of the reason, I believe, is that latin characters are attractive and interesting, much like how asian characters are used in some pieces here. Although not everyone can read the signs, usually single words or something simple is easily recognized, if not understandable. The most easily understood item that is commonly put into english is the corporate identity.

An interesting reason so many people wear shirts with those crazy 'engrish' slogans is that they can't read them.

[Aria]

Y'know, I went to Taiwan and I had ONE goal that I wanted to accomplish during my month there. And that was to get a truly Engrish shirt. But y'know, they're actually not that easy to find. I didn't really find any good ones. I was sad.

[B MacD]

This site will give you an idea of their level of understanding:

http://www.engrish.com/

They're not all from Japan but a fair percentage are..and a good laugh all around.

B

[Henjin]

Looking at the front and back covers of the copy of Townwork (do I have to sing the theme? :p ) I picked up in Kobe, the only English I see is:
"Townwork" (Below 「タウンワーク」)
"Index"
"Recruit" (The company that makes it)
"Hyogo"
and the company url...

That's not a lot.

I can't really remember any other examples from my trip, since whether I read it in English or Japanese, I tend to remember it in English... If I had to guess, I'd say the vast majority was written in Japanese, with just the company name/motto or a few keywords written in English.

[macondomachi]

Y'know, I went to Taiwan and I had ONE goal that I wanted to accomplish during my month there. And that was to get a truly Engrish shirt. But y'know, they're actually not that easy to find. I didn't really find any good ones. I was sad.

I found some at Don Quijote in Roppongi (Tokyo), but wasn't going to shell out $18 just to prove they exist. I just took a picture instead. I love watching people try to figure it out when they look through my pictures.

[nice gaijin]

I picked up a shirt in Ueno that says "It is important it has confidence to something as well, and lives and to go OPTIMISTIC LIFE." it was too bizarre to not buy.

[yakamashii]

My favorite Engrish shirt is one that goes on and on about finding Jesus and then ends with "...get FUCKIN' PEACE LOVE LIFE." Someone's trippin about something? Get fuckin' peace love life.

[more cheerios]

A lot of indie Japanese bands sing in English, if that helps. :P

[BluZytrix]

I have talked to many of my Japanese friends and many of them have said that English is cool. Because of this, adds are written with English either. Also, especially in Tokyo, don't be surprised of many of the people you meet can read English. I'm always thrown for a loop when I'm talking to somebody random, don't know the word in Japanese and the person knows the word in English. Sometimes it even gets annoying. Just my 2 cents.

[Henjin]

I took a picture of a sign outside a shop that said 'Feel Ars.' I don't even know what it was supposed to mean, but it was funny.

[decswxaqz]

Never understood why bands want to sing in English... I went to small 'concert' of my Japanese friends' band. Couldn't understand a word of one of their songs. Perhaps because it was being shouted along with loud drums and such, but I couldn't understand a word....
On a side note, I also helped this friend out with writing English lyrics. He didn't take on some of my suggestions because they couldn't say it, understand it (so others might not understand), or just plain didn't sound right to them. Engrish can be meant some times :)

[Henjin]

Yeah, my sister makes fun of the English in some of the songs I listen to, but have you ever read the lyrics to a rap/r&b song? 'Ima do ma bidness?' What the crap is that? I'll take 'I run to the max sunshine!' over that any day. :p

[atomiton]

A lot of indie Japanese bands sing in English, if that helps. :P

And many have excellent singing accents.

If you want to improve your accent, sing in that foreign language. Your brain is on a high when it's trying to multitask so much... (if you consider what your brain is doing when you're singing.... keeping in tune, in pitch, right timing, rhythm, loudness, breath control... all in sync... you're stimulating so many areas of your brain at once, it's no wonder it has no problem doing the accent)

[Kustom]

Nothing beats that: a little kid in Okinawa wearing a shirt "TOO DRUNK TO FUCK". I wish I had the picture...

Nice gaijin, I don't think your theory is accurate, because romaji isn't the cool thing, it's the foreignness of the words itself. For one Engrish word in romaji you have ten in katakanas: the cool thing is that it's a non Japanese word, not really the alphabet. Or rather, katakana is the coolest alphabet.
Katakana is hype enought to write Japanese words in it too if you want an ad to look cool. Any fashion magazine is made of 90% katakana Engrish...

[Henjin]

Yeah, but there's a limit to what you can do w/ Japanese moji and still be readable. There's a lot more variety in English fonts, so from a graphic design perspective, you can do some things with roman characters that you can't do w/ Japanese.

[novacane]

Nothing beats that: a little kid in Okinawa wearing a shirt "TOO DRUNK TO FUCK". I wish I had the picture...

"Too Drunk to Fuck" is a Dead Kennedys song I think.....but a little kid wearing that is strange.

[BluZytrix]

If you want to improve your accent, sing in that foreign language. Your brain is on a high when it's trying to multitask so much... (if you consider what your brain is doing when you're singing.... keeping in tune, in pitch, right timing, rhythm, loudness, breath control... all in sync... you're stimulating so many areas of your brain at once, it's no wonder it has no problem doing the accent)

Hey, I totally agree with the singing comment. I find that if you don't want to sing the lyrics to something, you can do some listening practice by throwing on something that you haven't really heard and tyring to understand what they said. Also, I've beat my tongue into behaving in Japanese by singing a lot of phrases that were very difficult at first to say but over time become easier. Really, I love searching for new combinations of syllables that I haven't said before because it builds up your peta-peta. As a nice side affect, you can impress your J-friends and even other friends learning Japanese by busting out some crazy rhythmes in Japanese when you got to Karaoke. After studying some grammar or new worlds, I find that retaining them is easier if you can hear it in some song that you like. The bottom line is that you will go out to the store and purchase endless Morning Musume CDs and love them! j/k.... but I do know most of their songs...

[Kustom]

I'd rather give up on learning Japanese for the rest of my life than getting Morning musume songs stuck in my head... Are you crazy??? :p

[kitsunepixie]

"Too Drunk to Fuck" is a Dead Kennedys song I think.....but a little kid wearing that is strange.

Yeah, it is. I've seen toddlers wearing Grateful Dead shirts around here too, as well as confederate flags.

I got my brother a great shirt that says, "If you get the right answer, you get a platinum joint." :D

[BluZytrix]

I'd rather give up on learning Japanese for the rest of my life than getting Morning musume songs stuck in my head... Are you crazy??? :p


The short answer is yes. The long answer is that I don't have any qualms with listening to hot girls sing songs. If that is wrong that so shall I remain wrong.

[Henjin]

The long answer is that I don't have any qualms with listening to hot girls sing songs. If that is wrong that so shall I remain wrong.

But aren't most of them under age?

[Kustom]

The short answer is yes. The long answer is that I don't have any qualms with listening to hot girls sing songs. If that is wrong that so shall I remain wrong.

Are you aware of the handy "mute" function on your remote control? ^^