Japanese English site
One of my friends recommended an interesting site of "Japlish." As you may know, "Japlish" means Japanese English, which only the Japanese use.
The author of the site collects a lot of pictures of funny English in Japan. He calls such incorrect English "Engrish." This is a little of an ironic expression, isn't it?
You should check out this site and learn how English speakers think about Japanese English. I hope you'll recognize a lot of things.
Chanpon.org and Jenglish are very interesting sites.
Thank you for those links! But it took me two hours to read Janglish Panglish and all the comments. I got a little tired.
Japanese English is something different. It's the English my students speak and write. By the usual international standards it's "malformed" in many ways, but I don't laugh at it. I try to correct and improve it, yes, because that's what I'm paid for as a teacher, but then I also try to encourage it. I try to encourage students to express their ideas even if the English they use is "broken".
Your words are a great encouragement not only to me but also to those who study English, especially try to speak English.
Yeah, Chanpon.org is neat, as are some of the other weblogs listed on the Tawawa links page. Dan in Japan is also worth a visit, but it hasn't been updated in several years.
Professor Nobuyuki Honna of Aoyama Gakuin University, Tokyo, is an internationally respected authority on Asian varieties of English. A few days ago (on 14 Apr 2003, actually, although the archive doesn't say so), the Daily Yomiury did a little piece about his views on Japanese English, entitled Respect diversity in English:
"Japanese English education calls for students to acquire English proficiency like native speakers, in spite of the limited social need for English here," Honna said. He thinks such unrealistic English teaching prevents the Japanese from using English when they have a chance to speak because they are afraid of making mistakes. He said perfectionism isn't effective for English learning. "Better is the enemy of good" according to an Italian proverb he often quotes in his books.
I agree with Honna-sensei when he says that Japanese English deserves more respect than it usually gets. I disagree with his analysis, however. Nobody expects the Japanese to "acquire English proficiency like native speakers"; even the Japanese teachers of English who live up to this ideal are extremely rare. The problem isn't that foreign varieties of English are overrated. The problem is that nobody seems to understand that English -- or any other language, for that matter -- is a means of communication. It's purpose is to describe things, argue about them, express feelings, articulate ideas, reach out to other human beings. In this country, however, English primarily seems to be taught as a pretext for holding exams. As a result, the Japanese are experts at passing exams, but they are struck dumb when they find themselves in a situation where they should actually use their English and communicate.
Unrelated to this: I got the Yomiuri link off the ELT News front page. ELT News -- a fine resource for teachers of English in Japan, by the way -- only links to the Yomiuri front page rather than to the archived version of the article, which is sort of, um, stupid: I had to hunt the article down via google. Get your links straight, good people!
Ruedi said
>The problem is that nobody seems to understand that English -- or any other language, for that matter -- is a means of communication. It's purpose is to describe things, argue about them, express feelings, articulate ideas, reach out to other human beings.
I agree with you. These are very important views on teaching English.
This site is about "Developing a strategic plan to cultivate-Japanese With English Abilities" from Ministry of Education, Culture, Sport, Science and Technology. I think they've begun to take into account the fact English is a means of communication.
Education of English has been changing gradually.
> Promote the utilization of human resources
> with fluent English-language abilities living in
> the local communitiy
Oooh, I love it when they talk dirty like that.
Thanks, Satoko -- great link!
Rudolf Ammann :: April 18, 2003 11:30 AM
Engrish.com is a great humour site, and there are similar offerings around such as Jenglish, a much smaller collection of photos by Dan in Japan.
Such web pages marvel at the strange and often very funny English found in advertisements, printed on consumer goods, and scattered all over urban landscapes as mottoes, tag lines, mission statements and other short phrases. Such web pages do not poke fun at Japanese English, however.
And there’s a difference.
Engrish, for the most part, is produced by companies; it’s marketing copy, it tries to sell stuff. As such, it no more represents Japanese English than marketing copy written in, say, America, represents American English (mercifully, I might add). I just wonder a bit at the culture that produces Engrish – the lack of concern for correctness, the ‘creative licence’ claimed by the copy writers. My country has four official languages and about two centuries’ worth of international tourism. As a result, companies just have to have their copy proofed by native speakers, otherwise it reflects negatively on their image. This isn’t the case in Japan, and the contrast suggests to me that Engrish, if anything, is a product of Japan’s lack of linguistic diversity and its relative international isolation.
Japanese English is something different. It’s the English my students speak and write. By the usual international standards it’s ‘malformed’ in many ways, but I don’t laugh at it. I try to correct and improve it, yes, because that’s what I’m paid for as a teacher, but then I also try to encourage it. I try to encourage students to express their ideas even if the English they use is ‘broken’. While the Japanese fixation on exams largely produces students who can’t speak English because they’re scared of ‘losing face’ by making mistakes, I try to counteract that. If a student can show me that there’s something going on upstairs, that he or she actually has something to say (not that the exam system much fosters that, either), then – why – correctness be damned!
In other words: Japanese English is OK. Use it!
I think Engrish.com would subscribe to that view. As the FAQ puts it: “Engrish.com does its best to stay away from any type of ‘ha ha – these guys are idiots’ lines or insinuations“. Don’t think of the site as putting down Japanese English – it just points out the humour of some of the stuff that’s out there, and some of it is hilariously funny.
On a side note: Kaori Kitao has a study of foreign words in Japanese, Janglish Panglish, on Chanpon.org. File under ‘instructive read’.