Nine Gauge Engrish?

[bill937ca]

Working on my Tomix and Greenmax buildings makes me think of the way English sometimes gets used in Japan.  Like the Tomix coffee shop named Coffee Beans.  The Japanese have long called big apartment buildings "mansions".   Packages are not free of bad English.

 

Wikipedia even has a page on Engrish.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engrish

 

Coffee Beans??

Ill Store??

Used VD???         Maybe Used CD?

 

Today is Under Construction.     https://japantoday.com/category/features/lifestyle/why-does-engrish-happen-in-japan

 

Greenmax stickers come with spelling mistakes. Oh, well. Just part of Japan!!! But sometimes you really got to watch what stickers you use.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 16, 2021 by bill937ca

[bill937ca]

Cxl

Edited May 15, 2021 by bill937ca

[railsquid]

23 hours ago, bill937ca said:

Used VD???         Maybe Used CD?

 

 

"VD" ("Video Disc") is an occasionally used generic abbreviation for older visual disc media. I think I've seen it in contemporary use as an abbreviation for DVD/Blueray.

[cteno4]

Yes video disc was used a lot for laserdisc. Laserdisc was trademarked by pioneer/Phillips and at times was pissy about its use at times, but it was short lived in the end, Phillips went into cdi and that took the wind out of laserdisc’s sails and then DVDs cleared it all out.

 

jeff

[MeTheSwede]

Reading signs in Japan can be quite amusing. What surprised me when I first went there was that even big businesses, like railway companies, would sometimes put up English signs that look like something from Google Translate.

I was once asked to proof read a couple of English sentences that a very minor idol group wanted to put on their merchandise. I corrected some bad grammar and strange choices of words. Then their staff guy who had approached me accidentially sent the original version to the t-shirt printer... I couldn't persuade myself to buy a t-shirt where the tree girls were refered to as "it". 😅

 

But their mugs were printed with the right version, so I've got some cute mugs with good English on them. 😃

 

 

 

Of course Japanese is full of what might seem like it is English but isn't really English... Here's the classic 5 minutes crash course to Engrish for those of you who haven't taken it:

 

 

 

 

Edited May 16, 2021 by MeTheSwede

[Kamome]

The same is true in the UK whereby a fashion brand, based in Cheltenham rather than Tokyo, called Superdry puts Japanese gibberish or google translated phrases on their garments. Most people in the UK assume it’s a Japanese brand due to the addition of Kanji and Hiragana but i’m sure Japanese people chuckle at the nonsense written on their products.

 

I do wonder why, in a much more global market,  companies don’t get things proof read or properly translated but then there is a sort of poetry to the things written.

[roadstar_na6]

Superdry does it on purpose at least I think lol

 

EDIT: Coming to think of Engrish, Japanese car tuners also had quite some funny english phrases on their stuff in the 90s, I have an HKS pullover that reads: Typos included

Quote

HKS? It's a dynamic 
combination of creativity-the skullful manufacture of
high-performance automobileparts
and the people who design, distribute, and provide technical services.

Edited May 16, 2021 by roadstar_na6

[MeTheSwede]

I wish I had taken note of the exact wording I read on a train between Nagoya and Hamamatsu. I think it was something along the lines of "Please note when it is hot to take care of the radiator".  😆

 

Some other signs in Japan did get caught by my camera however:

 

 

 

 

 

 

And finally a sign which is translated correct, but still made me wonder...

 

 

 

[disturbman]

1 hour ago, Kamome said:

do wonder why, in a much more global market,  companies don’t get things proof read or properly translated but then there is a sort of poetry to the things written.

Because it costs money and nobody cares. You should see how much subtitlers are paid by Netflix and Co, and under which conditions they are forced to work.

[gavino200]

2 hours ago, disturbman said:

Because it costs money and nobody cares. You should see how much subtitlers are paid by Netflix and Co, and under which conditions they are forced to work.

 

Actually, I'm curious. Can you tell us more?

[Kamome]

Talking of Engrish, I remember this little gem from 15 years ago. 

 

Dirty Kids Puppets

 

https://www.engrish.com/2005/08/bad-elmo/

[Melandir]

I found this funny writing on the yellow Hato bus, "O' Sola mio", for some reason I think there is a mistake there 🙂

 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hato_Bus_793_'O_Sola_Mio_Astromega.jpg

 

 

Edited May 17, 2021 by Melandir

[Welshbloke]

My mate's L400 Delica had a large sticker on the back proclaiming that it had "Custom Treated Boron Rods" on arrival. He never worked out where they were or what they were doing...

 

I initially thought Superdry sold waterproof clothing. Unfortunately the name is as nonsensical as the random Japanese characters they cover the clothes with!

[cteno4]

On my first trip to japan in the 80s I grabbed a 100¥ shirt on the street with some characters on it after a sweaty day in hot tokyo to be nice to others on my shinkansen ride back to kyoto. A few years later I was wearing it at my folks house and their Japanese next door neighbor was looking at me oddly when I was out front and I asked what was up and he said your tee shirt is very odd. I asked him what it said and he said “well it’s roughly love small things, then kill them!” He thought it might have been a phrase translated back and forth  a couple of time and just got weird.

 

jeff

[brill27mcb]

You probably had a seat to yourself on the shinkansen!  😄

 

Rich K.

[chadbag]

I have a funny one I'll have to find.  At the Kobe Zoo by the Panda there was a sign that says "Don't Beat".  Like I am going to jump in the panda cage and beat on the panda!  The Kanji said something along the lines of "Don't knock/rap on the glass window".  I'll look through my photos to find it.