Jump to content

Engrish...

HaVoC

By HaVoC,
in Off-Topic

Recommended Posts

HaVoC

HaVoC

Posted
Posted

Engrish. It's somewhat funny, it's somewhat annoying, and it really shows bone-idleness in the manufacturers of airsoft products from foreign countries (yes, Japan, I'm looking at you...).

 

Now I've had it. It needs to stop.

*growls in a threatening manner*

 

211.jpg

 

After seeing the above abomination on the WA site, I realised it's gone too far. Why? Why, oh why, can't a large company like TM or WA simply nip into the street holding a piece of paper with "EYE'M BEST GUN... FUTURE THE NEXT!" written on it, and ask some English speaking guy "Is this right?"

 

They needn't even pay the guy for it? I'm sure most people would just say "Nope, not right - it should be..." and correct it for nowt. If they really wanted to, they could easily hire a professional English-Japanese translator, and to translate small bits like that it'd cost next to nothing.

 

It's stupid and lazy and pointless, and just shows how pathetic all companies like that are at checking things. To be honest, it makes an impression on the (potential) customer, and it's not a good one...

 

Rant over. Discuss.

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • Replies 54
  • Created
  • Last Reply
HaVoC

HaVoC

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Heh - Engrish.com may be fairly old (to me anyway) but it's still a good laugh.

 

I mean, yes it's funny, but come on - it's so obvious how many people outside of Japan buy their products (it IS in Engrish/English after all), why not bother to spend the equivalent of a fiver making sure the English is correct...?

Link to post
Share on other sites
doc_newstead

doc_newstead

Posted
Posted

Engrish.com says (and I'm paraphrasing here) that Japanese companies put English on their products because of design reasons. The Roman alphabet looks 'foreign' in Japan, and so adds a bit of chic; the same reasoning behind so many Westerners having Chinese symbols tattoed on them (don't get me started...). More often than not, the company doesn't give a damn about the grammatical accuracy, just that it looks nice.

 

David Beckham had 'Victoria' tattoed on him in Hindi, but it wasn't exactly right apparently. Well, it looked ok, it had a sentiment, and anyone that can't read Hindi will go 'Ah, that's sweet'. So, when 'engrish' is put on a product, it's much the same reason; looks nice, that's it.

 

Another term is 'japlish' btw. Computer games are a really good example of this. 'Final Fantasy', say, has the title written in English, even in Japan. Why? Well you'd have to ask the art bods at Square Enix that :)

 

(The guy that runs Engrish.com is fluent in Japanese btw)

Link to post
Share on other sites
oikoik

oikoik

Posted
Posted

i think its to do with how their language system works, and how it is completely alien to our system, and vise versa.

 

i think you have to give leeway here - different culture, different folks, etc

 

they probably do no more than shove it thru a rough translator and think that this will do.

this is fine to do, because english is not widely spoken there, so no-one really cares - afterall - this is not done for our benefit, its just extra for them [western language sounds cool etc, regardless of its real meanings, etc]

 

i think you have to be tolerant, and accept that people do different things around the world.

 

i do know japanese who have learnt english and do find this just as funny.

its not meant as a realistic portrayal of how real english speak in japan - everyone knows this.

i think maybe the point has been missed here... even up to the point where the japanese have acknowledged a separate 'jokey' version of english does exist as 'engrish', or another variation, 'japlish'.

same with singaporean english, which is a local variety called 'singlish'.

 

as i said, maybe just keep in mind, its different folks in different parts of the world finding and doing things differently, even for comedic affect for themselves, without any regard for you..

 

for the same reason, look at soe of the recent design ideas in the west - they use totally nonsensical characters that 'look' japanese or chinese, and so use them - not because they are right, or wrong, but because they look just right.

 

look at the trends in tattoos, etc - half of it is completely wrong, some because the people doing it or asking for it have no clue, and partially because those who are doing i, know that the person has no clue anyway, and will put whatever they want.

 

same with t-shirt designs, clothing, etc - half of these eastern-origin characters are plain rubbish or completely wrong or used in incorrect grammar or context.

but guess what, most of us dont care.. know why? because we havent understood it in the first place. instead, it 'looks cool'.

 

same *beep*, different language.

 

another example was the tv series 'banzai'.

i thought it was funny, depite most of the people involved being either caucasian or chinese [when its 'supposed' to be japanese] ..

i showed it to my japanese friends and asked them if the characters used meant anything. they said no, its nonsense. even the characters themselves were made up.

they just 'looked' 'japanese' or 'chinese'..

Link to post
Share on other sites
Arnie

Arnie

Posted
Posted

Lets face it.. most of the UK population can't spell or speak their own blooming language. :)

 

Personally I feel a strange need to thump anyone that ends every stinking sentence with "innit".

 

As Oik said we need to be tolerant and respectful of other cultures; as long as "Engrish" pokes fun at what is said in error (in the same way that UK newspaper misprints are) and NOT the culture or people themselves, I find it humorous.

 

Translating from Japanese to English gives me a huge headache, as has been said the language and culture are so completely alien from each other it's untrue.

 

Actually with this in mind I might start up a separate page on site for humorous adverts and mispelling that have appeared in the Airsoft world (from all cultures and countries). Feel free to email over suggestiosn, or post them here.

Link to post
Share on other sites
Foxtrot

Foxtrot

Posted
Posted

English is also one of the hardest languages (as a second) to learn/translate because we have a ton of funky *albatross* words/ways of spelling/grammar rules.

 

Thus... it can't just be litterarly translated word for word, which they try to do. Thats why you end up like the future is next, instead of the future is now persay. Or something of that nature.

 

Alot of people here in the states find it funny when people use sentence structures instead of replacing it with words like Didn't, Don't, Ain't, etc.

 

 

All well

 

Cheers

Fox

Link to post
Share on other sites
Marcus

Marcus

Posted
Posted

Let's not forget the asian-english that's common in, not so much Japan as Singapore, Hong Kong and the like.

 

It's not exactly slang, children speak it with their parents, and it *is* english, but not as we know it.

 

A couple of years ago I lived in New York. A good friend and workmate was (and still is, hopefully!) from Singapore, I was also responsible for an intern from Manchester. Me, I'm Swedish. When the three of us got into a heated argument when professional prestige was on the line, it only took 2-3 minutes for us to revert to some form of English none of the others could understand!

 

Oh and Arnie, I think most people can spot those who "know it well but choose to break the rules", and those who are just plain sloppy and ignorant, when it comes to both written and spoken language.

 

M.

Link to post
Share on other sites
Tripod

Tripod

Posted
Posted

The reason why they use engrish is because japanese people don't know the difference and alot of non english speaking countries think it's cool to wear shirts with english words on it. So I'm assuming they wanted the papers to appeal to kids who can go to their friends and be like "OMG I wonder what this says!!!" but of course that would be in Japanese, and I'm not even going ot attempt typing that.

Link to post
Share on other sites
TMC

TMC

Posted
Posted

In Japanese, R and L come off as the same. So that can cause problems. It's unfair to belittle a country for not translating correctly.

 

Though, it does bring up amusing things. Let me just go find something...

 

I recently purchased the Bandai Master Grade model kit of "Freedom Gundam", a mobile suit from the anime "Mobile Suit Gundam SEED".

 

One of the transfers, which was supposed to say "Phase Shift Armour System"...? Well, let's just say this speaks for itself: Phase what?.

 

Pretty funny. BUT, they caught onto this and set up a thing where you could send the transfers back to Bandai and they'd send you brand new, edited ones (Japan only).

Link to post
Share on other sites
Twitch

Twitch

Posted
Posted

Most of the translating jobs here that need halfway legible English are for documents that are going to be read by an international audience - industrial engineering manuals, articles for the English-language press etc. Airsoft, confectionaries, toys, and pretty much 99% of the products with English you see here aren't meant for an audience for who have it as their first langauge.

 

Engrish-spotting here is like chav-spotting back home - funny to look at, but its nothing to get worked up about ;)

Link to post
Share on other sites
billymak

billymak

Posted
Posted

:lol:

 

has anyone seen the taiwanese gas cans? it's quite a tall one (taller than the marui gunpower) and looks camo-ish-dpm-ish in design...

 

the engrish insu-tarruck-shuns on it are horrendous B)

 

have a look about for it... it'll give you a giggle

 

(personally I love these mispelt stuff... ;) )

Link to post
Share on other sites
rizzo

rizzo

Posted
Posted

couldn't quote us a bit could you? :) Even I wouldn't pay £10 for some Engrish hilarity :D

 

As Fox said earlier, English is such a mish-mash of languages (romantic and norse) and is littered with inconsistent rules that its an incredibly difficult language to 1. learn and 2. create a decent automatic translation for.

A classic example of inconsistencies in the English Language is when your English teacher is explaining a new rule of grammar etc and finishes with- "and thats the rule; true for everything....except a few words. Not many...honest..." :P

Link to post
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use and the use of session cookies.

  I accept