Jan 22, 2008

Engrish-humorous English mistakes that appear in Japanese advertising and product design

http://www.engrish.com/
  • English is a widely-spoken and complicated language. Today, it has become necessary for people from non-english speaking nations to learn the language as well. Engrish.com educates users by listing common errors made around the world.
  • Most of the Engrish found on Engrish.com is not an attempt to communicate - English is used as a design element in Japanese products and advertising to give them a modern look and feel (or just to "look cool"). There is often no attempt to try to get it right, nor do the vast majority of the Japanese population (= consumers) ever attempt to read the English design element in question (the girl wearing the “Spread Beaver” shirt for example, had no idea what it said until a foreigner pointed it out to her). There is therefore less emphasis on spell checking and grammatical accuracy (note: the same can be said for the addition of Japanese or Chinese characters to hats, shirts and tattoos found in the US or Europe).

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