Engrish

If you have ever heard a Japanese person speaking English (so much better than I can speak Japanese, I will add), you will realize that they often confuse "L" and "R." This goes for both spelling and pronuncation. They also have trouble ending syllables with consonants, so they often add vowel sounds to the ends of words. In class this week, students played a game that required them to write words on the board about America. I gave 1 point for each word, 2 for each one spelled correctly. If the spelling is incorrect, I can usually decipher the meaning. But today I was stumped. In very clear, capital letters, a student had written,

" ROSANZERUSU."

(answer is below!)

After class I was looking at the website www.engrish.com . This chronicles many Japanese-English mistakes, and they made me laugh so hard that 3 Japanese people came over to see what was so hilarious. Immediately I was embarrassed, but I tried to explain some of the jokes, and by the end I had them laughing. Most of the errors are hard to explain, because they turn out to be rude or vulgar in English. Take a look at the website; it's hilarious.

Despite all these funny mistakes, I encourage students to try and not worry about messing up. In one class the Japanese teacher was talking to the students to reinforce the idea. Eventually he promised everyone, "Yes, mistakes are wonderful!"

In one sense, yes...but I doubt that will carry over on test day.

(What the student meant to write was, "Los Angeles.")