The Engrish Thread

[AichiAlex]

Ever notice the difference between English in Japan and Actual English? When I first came to Japan, I saw some really really REALLY strange signs / shirts / restaurant menus. What's the weirdest Engrish you've ever seen? I'll start by posting this one I saw today.

http://bp2.blogger.com/_90AksVFbJPE/RwJOjRUp7qI/AAAAAAAAAVM/qT3KrwSx9YE/s1600-h/IMG_599112.jpg

どんだけぇぇぇぇぇぇ:souka:

Edited by Dutch baka... for the ones who can't see the image here is the link:
http://bp2.blogger.com/_90AksVFbJPE/RwJOjRUp7qI/AAAAAAAAAVM/qT3KrwSx9YE/s1600-h/IMG_599112.jpg

[4321go]

Engrish??

weirdest Engrish ?

I can't see the pic. in you post~ sorry~! plz upload it in the forum then all the man will see it ~

[scorpion da black]

hahaha...well the Japanese syllables has no letter L or V or any constant ending syllable other that N....
so if i was to speak Engrishi or Engrando-go i would sound like this..
guess what i am saying and take a prize :p

i amo sasori, i rabu yu oru...
i speako engrish bery goodo.
habu a greato timeh
see yu raita.
:blush:

[nice gaijin]

Engrish doesn't refer to the Japanese accent; it's about unusual word choices. check out www.engrish.com for examples.

[Dutch Baka]

Engrish doesn't refer to the Japanese accent; it's about unusual word choices. check out www.engrish.com (http://www.engrish.com) for examples.

Thanks for the link, nice photo of they day they have:
http://www.engrish.com/image/engrish/flesh.jpg

[Liver Shot]

HAHA "flesh"... man, I love engrish.com Been frequenting that place for years.

[MadamePapillon]

i amo sasori, i rabu yu oru...
i speako engrish bery goodo.
habu a greato timeh
see yu raita.

I always wondered why when teaching english the teachers don't just refuse to let them use all those extra add-ons.
How hard can it be to drop the extra 'O' or 'U' sound?
If they end up speaking like that it basically years of english lessons wasted because most english speakers couldn't understand their own language when spoken like that. :souka:

[maushan3]

I always wondered why when teaching english the teachers don't just refuse to let them use all those extra add-ons.
How hard can it be to drop the extra 'O' or 'U' sound?
If they end up speaking like that it basically years of english lessons wasted because most english speakers couldn't understand their own language when spoken like that. :souka:

I also think it is sad that people think it is not wrong talking like that. I seriously don't understand many things they say when adding the extra Japanese vocal to the English word.

Can anyone please tell me why Japanese people can't drop that cute (read annoying) vocal at the end. I don't know, I might be wrong and it might be virtually impossible to do it, I dunno.

Mauricio

[scorpion da black]

hahaha...well the Japanese syllables has no letter L or V or any constant ending syllable other that N....
so if i was to speak Engrishi or Engrando-go i would sound like this..
guess what i am saying and take a prize :p
i amo sasori, i rabu yu oru...
i speako engrish bery goodo.
habu a greato timeh
see yu raita.
:blush:

hello i am qouting my self

no one wants the prize :P :-)

[nice gaijin]

MadamePapillon and maushan3:

Accent reduction is a long and difficult process that requires a lot of commitment, practice and coaching, not because people with accents simply can't hear the difference, or don't know how to "properly" pronounce foreign sounds and speech patterns, but because they are unable to reproduce those differences consistently in their own speech. There are several aspects to languages that vary in importance depending on the language, and vary in difficulty depending on the speaker's first language and how late in life they start learning. The larger group of vowels and consonants in English are challenging for native Japanese speakers, and at first, are simply substituted for sounds present in Japanese. 90% of Japanese syllables end in vowels, so that "extra vocal" is an integral feature (and I'd say flaw) in the way that most Japanese students learn and regard English. The result of this is what I call "katakana English*," where the speaker sounds as if they are reading English transliterated into katakana. This is the accent that so many English speakers find at best endearing, and at worst unintelligible and unbearable.

I think a problem endemic to language acquisition is the mindset that accent reduction isn't a priority; learners simply use the sound sets they are already familiar with, and don't care that their bad habits make it difficult for other people to understand; as long as the words they use are correct, it doesn't matter to them how to pronounce those words like a native speaker.

As an English teacher, I spent a lot of time on this, because proper pronunciation is more impressive than using complicated vocabulary. I found that this flaw in English teaching wasn't solely the students' fault; almost all of the students I worked with on pronunciation were delighted when I showed them that they were capable of sounding like a native English speaker, and became more excited about learning the language. I found that the bar for English teachers is set so low, and the curriculums set forth by the eikaiwa I've seen do not adequately encourage pronunciation skills.

*katakana English is what scorpion da black has tried (and failed) to reproduce, but it is not worth correcting this. For good examples of katakana English, go to a karaoke place in Japan and play an English song.

[scorpion da black]

*katakana English is what scorpion da black has tried (and failed) to reproduce, but it is not worth correcting this. For good examples of katakana English, go to a karaoke place in Japan and play an English song.

come on that was funny :-)

[nice gaijin]

sorry, making fun of the way people talk stopped being humorous when I turned 12. I prefer to help these people, not mock them.

[scorpion da black]

sorry, making fun of the way people talk stopped being humorous when I turned 12. I prefer to help these people, not mock them.

i am not mocking any one...
it is just fun to see how many english accents actually exist...
every country has its own accent of english now :p

we spell our Ps and Bs as B....

so an avarage arab would sound like this: " jaban is a very bobulated blace "

i know it is funny.....:-)...you are just too strict :okashii: :okashii: :okashii: :okashii:

[Derfel]

Lately I noticed in some anime that pronunciation became a bit better, its still damn weird, but at least they noticed that it sounds better if they remove the sounds originally not present in the words, but still, they pronounce it weirdly.

[gaijinalways]

Good pronunciation is a tough nut to crack, and I always encourage my students not to say 'endo' and 'salada'. It's not that a native speaker prorbably can't work out what they're saying, but it does make life harder and make the speakers more difficult to understand. Some of the language schools even encourage bad pronunciation, with 'robot' being taught as 'Roberto'.

That being said, my pronunciation is usually pretty good, but getting the stressed syllables right is another story.

[nice gaijin]

Yep, the street goes both ways. Native English speakers are familiar with stress accents, but tend struggle with pitch accent or tonal languages, which comprise most of the languages in Asia. Fortunately, the pitch-accent homonyms in Japanese aren't so prevalent as to impede communication, but native English speakers tend to impose their native stress accent on their second language, the source of the infamous gaijin accent.

In tonal languages, this inability to differentiate between and reproduce the tones becomes a major handicap for stress-accent speakers; coupled with the difficult writing system, this is why Chinese is considered one of the most difficult languages for an adult English speaker to learn.

christ, that was way too academic.

[Shinohan]

Lately I noticed in some anime that pronunciation became a bit better, its still damn weird, but at least they noticed that it sounds better if they remove the sounds originally not present in the words, but still, they pronounce it weirdly.
Really? To me it seems they're getting worse and worse, haha - But even that is better than to actually watch the dubs! :p

[bakaKanadajin]

*DISCLAIMER*
I can fully appreciate the difficulties in translating between English and Japanese, and I have myself on many occasions been the victim of my own 'Japanglish' with my Japanese friends. We all have a good laugh, and hey, it happens.

Ok, with that out of the way, this one had me near tears:
http://www.engrish.com/image/engrish/sweet-sweets-crepes.jpg

This one also:
http://www.engrish.com/image/engrish/lets-play-balls.jpg

[MadamePapillon]

Really? To me it seems they're getting worse and worse, haha - But even that is better than to actually watch the dubs! :p

Actually, I've found they're starting to make an effort to put out better quality dubs. It's slow going though, and the original is always better but it IS improving.

But I watched this episode of an anime once and one the the main characters was supposed to say something in english...I have never heard such a mangling of the english language before. It was baaaad, I actually cringed. :relief: Especially since the character was supposed to be really cool.

[__shrink]

hahaha...well the Japanese syllables has no letter L or V or any constant ending syllable other that N....
so if i was to speak Engrishi or Engrando-go i would sound like this..
guess what i am saying and take a prize :p
i amo sasori, i rabu yu oru...
i speako engrish bery goodo.
habu a greato timeh
see yu raita.
:blush:

HAHAH. That made my sides hurt from laughing too much.

I am so sorry, I love your.. ??
I speak english very good
Have a great time
See you later.

I love the line "See yu raita"
ahaha it sounds very asian.

I think most people actually have a hard time saying english words properly. xD Most of the time I can't understand what people are trying to say when they have a really bad asian accent.

[Kyoto Returnee]

I nearly wet my pants when I first saw the sign on this restaurant!

F-YA:93:

Hardly a way to attract customers, or then again....LOL
http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/3862/164086093zfqafjfsfm4bq0.jpg[img=http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/9039/164086093zfqafjfsfm4.jpg] ("http://www.jref.com/forum/

[Homerduff]

*DISCLAIMER*
I can fully appreciate the difficulties in translating between English and Japanese, and I have myself on many occasions been the victim of my own 'Japanglish' with my Japanese friends. We all have a good laugh, and hey, it happens.
Ok, with that out of the way, this one had me near tears:
http://www.engrish.com/image/engrish/sweet-sweets-crepes.jpg


My God, that's the most messed up one I've seen so far :-).

In my hotel I stumbled on these razor blades wrappings:

http://img71.imageshack.us/img71/9590/dsc00366zd0.jpg

[Derfel]

Those of you who like anime, please watch Fate Stay/Night, only the first few episodes, until Archers monologue, and Genshiken II around ep. 9-11 I think. Thats the worst, really the worst engrish I have ever heard in my life.
Well anyways, here's Archer's monologue: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yK_mMCWKFC4

[Homerduff]

One of the biggest internet phenomena in history was actually a case of Engrish. I think the phrase "All your base are belong to us" may sound familiar to a lot of people here.

To read more about it, check out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_your_base_are_belong_to_us

And for the clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qItugh-fFgg

[Derfel]

Yes, lol its ownage. Here's an interesting AYB alternative. http://youtube.com/watch?v=qE6emvdmg-M

I believe its the best I ever saw, watch it for yourself.
The animation's a bit choppy, for a better one look on newgrounds.com

[scorpion da black]

HAHAH. That made my sides hurt from laughing too much.
I am so sorry, I love your.. ??
I speak english very good
Have a great time
See you later.
I love the line "See yu raita"
ahaha it sounds very asian.
I think most people actually have a hard time saying english words properly. xD Most of the time I can't understand what people are trying to say when they have a really bad asian accent.

at last some one who got the joke :p :p :p
but you will not take the prize since you made a mistake:
i rabu yu oru...is actually i love you all :wave: :wave:
but you got the rest right hihi.
any way
see yu raita :wave:

[Gavvatagion]

I should have known Mrs. Lovett was up to no good... that Flesh sign proves it.

[The 10th Plague]

@ nice gaijin

There are Western-Languages which have the "stressed"-thing, but still have slight tonal effect. This mainly occurs in some Western-Germanic languages, located in Western-Germany and Eastern-Netherlands and some parts of Flanders.

Example: Compare the Limburgish (Maastrichtian to be precise) "stein" and "stein" ("ei" is a bit similar to the Japanese "ei"). The two words are written exactly the same, but are pronounced differently. The first one, meaning (one) stone, has a long vowel which is pitched a bit higher in the end. The second one, meaning (two or more) stones, has a very short vowel.

So, it mustn't be too difficult for other Germanic (and Anglo-Saxon) languages to learn slight tonal effects. But I do think it's something that's almost never mentioned in language-lessons, although it should be.

About the vowel in Engrish: I think Europeans underestimate the difficulty for Japanese people to learn that syllable's don't always end with vowels. It's like teaching a French-speaking person to learn to pronounce the "h". (For instance, a French person would say "I 'ave 'eard of blabla....." instead of "I have heard of blabla..."). But as European languages are full of consonants, Japanese will have to learn to speak consonant-ending syllables, and syllables which have more than one consonant at the beginning (like the word "bread").

[centrajapan]

Engrish straight talk. hiphop rhymes.

Hotta imo ijiruna watanabe oyaji aitsu kimoi santa.
What time is it now sugar free grape soda fanta?
yamamoto koji. in a cabin lodge
atama tatakareru ｂｙ freezing gyaruo bitches pachinko fuuzoku hit because ninja style butt ketsu onigiri and dodge

ppppeace! 平和っす

[centrajapan]

Engrish straight talk. hiphop rhymes.

Hotta imo ijiruna watanabe oyaji aitsu kimoi santa.
What time is it now sugar free grape soda fanta?
yamamoto koji. in a cabin lodge
atama katai ningen ramen nobichatte mata ashita butt ketsu onigiri and dodge

ppppeace! ウイッス

[scorpion da black]

oh my God...
centrajapan...
where did you get that piece of "#*%@*%@%#"

as a hip hop artist i feel humiliated :p :p

[lonesoullost3]

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2224/2179253175_8e85ebde59.jpg?v=0
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2224/2179253175_8e85ebde59.jpg?v=0
Hehe, I took this in August at Bamiyans in Fujimi, Saitama. It's above the beverage station. Hahaha

And one of my Japanese friends (whose fluent in unaccented-English), will say the following in a Japanese accent for laughs:

Free flights from Florida to France. - which becomes:

Furii furaitsu furamu furorida tsu furansu.

[StandAlone2323]

i love engrish.com! i havent been on that site in a while, i didnt know they had a chinglish section.

[Homerduff]

Engrish straight talk. hiphop rhymes.
Hotta imo ijiruna watanabe oyaji aitsu kimoi santa.
What time is it now sugar free grape soda fanta?
yamamoto koji. in a cabin lodge
atama katai ningen ramen nobichatte mata ashita butt ketsu onigiri and dodge
ppppeace! ウイッス

I hate it when Japanese rappers are rapping in Japanese but are using an English accent. It's like they want to act cool but they are to dumb to write their own English lyrics. :okashii:

[ArmandV]

Here's an Engrish Christmas card:
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b275/ArmandV/japanglishcard-743790.jpg

Here's a movie flyer distributed in the U.S.:
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b275/ArmandV/gxmgflyer.jpg