English is taught in Japan from Junior High school (from 11 years old) often until University. So, as someone who studied French from 10-16, you'd think that the Japanese would be more profficient at English than I am at French.
Unfortunately, the English education system in Japan, is for lack of a better word, fail. Since the learning system is biased towards passing paper exams, the focus is pulled away from actually speaking the language. Good for me, since I have a job at Aeon, but bad for the population of Japan.
Another issue is the pronunciation difference between Japanese and English. Firstly, English has many more vowel and consonant sounds, and has a variable rhythm, whereas Japanese assigns each syllable its own 'beat', so that it's a lot more static and each word is clearly pronounced. This leads to a few misspellings..
So I would like to share with you some amusing English failages I've come across in Japan :)
(I apologise in advance for the rude ones, and I do not mean to offend anyone)
- Misspelled Signs
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| A street in Shinjuku with tiles pointing towards famous world sites, you all know the Gland Canyon, right? |
- Interesting Product Names (perhaps many Japanese people have always aspired to have the body of Jesus..)
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| Actually tasty |
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| Also tasty |
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| You want a loan, you say? Then what better company to call than NoLoan!!?? |
- Misspelled Menus
- Grammar gone out the window
- Interesting Shop Names
- Finally.. Miscellaneous (aka.. what???)
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Although it's getting cold and the air is so dry it hurts my nose to breathe outside, and even though I've conceded to working on Christmas Day again, Winter brings snowboarding, hot springs and vacation time! Can't wait!
In my personal news, I'm going to India in February to visit my friend Kartik! Got the time off work, just looking for flights now ^^
Edit: Flights booked for February 9th to Hyderabad, India :)
