Forum - View topicAnswerman - What's The Deal With Engrish?
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Suhaib Bryim
Posts: 3 |
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I went China in 2014, i saw a shop selling toys what i saw was mind blowing!
instead of selling normal lamborghini cars they sell Ramborghini |
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grooven
Posts: 1426 Location: Canada |
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I'd beg to differ on the Japanese language provided in our education. Especially from what I know from my university courses. There were speaking labs, tests, written, and reading involved. I understand that some people only take one course, but if you take more than just the one course and keep at it you can speak, write, and understand basic conversational.
My friend in Japan does tell though, the English taught in her school wasn't very good. So, I can understand the comparison to a degree. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11508 |
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What I've never understood about the L-R substitution thing in writing is that it's not consistent. I would think that one would always substitute R for L (unless they were sure it was L) and leave the R's alone, but that's not what happens. As far as I can tell from reading Japanese friends' writing, it's pretty random, with L's becoming R's and vice versa, about 60% of the time. I don't know if they're trying to guess which one to use and they guess right 40% of the time or what. It's like they not only hear the sounds as being the same, but that they see the letters as interchangeable.
There must be several dozen linguistics papers written about this. I wonder if I could understand them? |
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Spastic Minnow
 Bargain HunterExempt from Grammar Rules  Posts: 4629 Location: Gainesville, FL |
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I've visited engrish.com almost every working day for over 10 years now. It never gets old.
I do occasionally feel a little guilty about accidental engrish- it would be quite embarrassing to have your mistakes constantly pointed out... But it's often SOOOOO FUNNY I don't feel bad about Japanese "Cool Engrish" whatsoever... even when it is embarassngly bad (I bought the reproduction of this one), you know the point is the fact that it's "English"- who care's if it's bad English? In recent anime, the multi-faceted "I am AHO" t-shirt in Yuru Yuri is especially hilarious AND emblematic of so much of the Engrish phenomenon. (Really, you should have used a screen capture of the shirt for the article). 1. Kyoko likes the shirt because it's in English. 2. The "smart" girls think they're putting one over on her for giving her a shirt that says "I am [an] Idiot" 3. No one, presumably not even the original writer of the joke, knows the significance of wearing a shirt that, to English speakers, says "I am A HO" |
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Touma
 Posts: 2651 Location: Colorado, USA |
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I don't get it. What is it supposed to be saying? What is the purpose of the sign? |
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Spastic Minnow
Bargain Hunter Exempt from Grammar Rules Posts: 4629 Location: Gainesville, FL |
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Does it really matter? It's a hilariously bad translation that got on a sign in a public bathroom.
The sign probably warns that you should not squat on the toilet. In certain areas the standard form to use a toilet is still squatting. As an English speaker I've wondered if it is supposed to be "Don't Stand (on the toilet)" and they used the wrong word... but it's just as likely a character with multiple situational meanings was used and the wrong corresponding word was used. |
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Zaig
 Posts: 21 Location: Iowa, USA |
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Thank you for posting about this site! These are hilarious. |
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bibotot
Posts: 79 |
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Japanese speaking English in anime is as bad as those miscast American and British actors playing Russians and give out ridiculously forced Russian accents in old movies.
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BadNewsBlues
Posts: 6175 |
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Might wanna cite verifiable sources before throwing this around seeing as Kojima himself debunked this notion and no one has confirmed or explained why Kojima and his team were removed from the Phantom Pain in mid development. |
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Alan45
Village Elder Posts: 9927 Location: Virginia |
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@Spastic Minnow, Touma
In areas where they still use squat toilets, people will stand on the seat of a western style toilet to go. The sign is saying don't do this. I actually encountered this back in 1969. You know how you can check for feet before trying to open a stall door? It doesn't work if the person is standing on the seat.  The stall doors didn't latch and I ended up looking at some guy's girlfriend (very briefly).
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Paiprince
 Posts: 593 |
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I put it on the same level as pig latin, often used as a form of code-switching to communicate with those among their group. Not debunking it's its own form, but you can't deny they had to mess with standard English to get to what it has become. Completely different direction with Engrish which is merely done as a fashion statement. |
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eyevocal
Posts: 137 |
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I think it's saying, "Don't step on the toilet seat to try to pop a squat. Sit the hell down." My favourite Engrish is a sign from the first season of Gravion. ADV Films found it so nippy that they used it for one of the icons they put on their website for the series. |
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Herald Of JOJO
 Posts: 144 Location: Malaysia |
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Question: Do Terry Bogard's lines in the KoF games count towards Engrish speaking? Or rather Blue Mary's lines?
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maximilianjenus
Posts: 2889 |
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namori does, believe it |
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brucepuppy
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If a Japanese gets L and R mixed up when saying foreign words, it's probably because most singers change the R to L when they sing, so it's causing further confusion. I'm clueless about the reason though. From small fry to big names, they tend to sing lyrics like sayonala, aligato, kala, etc. I don't notice this style applied in normal conversation. But granted, this stylished pronunciation only makes Engrish worse.
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