Here and There...
Yeah yeah... I'm still working on my travel posts backlog. Hope to post some soon...
Well, in Japan many foreigners wonder about some strange things here. Fashion and some behaviors are the most common to babble about. But in some situations they (we) may be more alike than we think...
I think that Engrish is something pretty well known. In case it's not, from the Wikipedia article: "Engrish refers to grammatically incorrect variations of English, often found in East Asian countries. While the term may refer to spoken English, it is more often used to describe written English, for which problems are easier to identify and publicize. Engrish has been found on everything from poorly translated signs, menus, and instruction manuals to bizarrely worded advertisements and strange t-shirt slogans".
T-shirt slogans... Very often foreigners see Japanese people with T-shirts or some other clothing with things written in English or other language that's... just not right. Think about lines like "spank on me", "don't worry, be sex" on your clothing and you may get the idea... The Engrish.com website has lots of examples.
But, on the other hand, using Japanese/Chinese ideograms is quite popular nowadays in many Western countries (and beyond, maybe). And we see more a less the same aberrations again... T-shirts with weird combinations of characters or simply with characters that aren't even true Chinese/Japanese ideograms. I've seen a tatoo of the ideogram for strenght (力)... the only problem is that it was mirrored!!
This Japan Times article shows some examples of how people make terrible mistakes with kanji that pair with , if are not worse than, Engrish.
Guess we can't make fun of people who wear Engrish clothing after all... And I started to double check the meaning of anything written on my clothing... or anywhere else.
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Sometimes I write about the "Dark Side" of Japan. I think it may be interesting for some friends who have never been to Japan and may still have the image usually taught from those who emigrated to Brasil decades ago.
But, although Japan may not be the wonderland some people may think, with cases like a rape aboard a train full of other passengers who saw it coming (no pun intended), it still has many points where it could be considered "superior" to Brazil.
Some recent facts in politics made me think about that... In Brazil and in Japan there were some scandals involving members of the government. So, what happened?
In Japan we had a Minister of Agriculture that commited suicide on May and now the Prime Minister Shinzo Abe resigned and was hospitalized the next day.
In Brazil...? A senator denying all charges against him, although the improbability of his innocence. And he was absolved by the Senate... not of all charges, but that first step makes it unlikely he'll be convicted of any of the remaining charges.
As for the "Dark Side" in Brazil, maybe more than drug dealers or urban violence, I think that impunity and corruption are the worst of all...
Well, in Japan many foreigners wonder about some strange things here. Fashion and some behaviors are the most common to babble about. But in some situations they (we) may be more alike than we think...
I think that Engrish is something pretty well known. In case it's not, from the Wikipedia article: "Engrish refers to grammatically incorrect variations of English, often found in East Asian countries. While the term may refer to spoken English, it is more often used to describe written English, for which problems are easier to identify and publicize. Engrish has been found on everything from poorly translated signs, menus, and instruction manuals to bizarrely worded advertisements and strange t-shirt slogans".
T-shirt slogans... Very often foreigners see Japanese people with T-shirts or some other clothing with things written in English or other language that's... just not right. Think about lines like "spank on me", "don't worry, be sex" on your clothing and you may get the idea... The Engrish.com website has lots of examples.
But, on the other hand, using Japanese/Chinese ideograms is quite popular nowadays in many Western countries (and beyond, maybe). And we see more a less the same aberrations again... T-shirts with weird combinations of characters or simply with characters that aren't even true Chinese/Japanese ideograms. I've seen a tatoo of the ideogram for strenght (力)... the only problem is that it was mirrored!!
This Japan Times article shows some examples of how people make terrible mistakes with kanji that pair with , if are not worse than, Engrish.
Guess we can't make fun of people who wear Engrish clothing after all... And I started to double check the meaning of anything written on my clothing... or anywhere else.
-----
Sometimes I write about the "Dark Side" of Japan. I think it may be interesting for some friends who have never been to Japan and may still have the image usually taught from those who emigrated to Brasil decades ago.
But, although Japan may not be the wonderland some people may think, with cases like a rape aboard a train full of other passengers who saw it coming (no pun intended), it still has many points where it could be considered "superior" to Brazil.
Some recent facts in politics made me think about that... In Brazil and in Japan there were some scandals involving members of the government. So, what happened?
In Japan we had a Minister of Agriculture that commited suicide on May and now the Prime Minister Shinzo Abe resigned and was hospitalized the next day.
In Brazil...? A senator denying all charges against him, although the improbability of his innocence. And he was absolved by the Senate... not of all charges, but that first step makes it unlikely he'll be convicted of any of the remaining charges.
As for the "Dark Side" in Brazil, maybe more than drug dealers or urban violence, I think that impunity and corruption are the worst of all...
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