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Published: March 28th 2005
Bread - Truly a staple food item
I always wondered what happened to the bread after it was toasted. Living in Japan is living in a world where the simplest most mundane tasks can easily transform into the most confusing, embarrassing, or even impossible situations.
One prime example is grocery shopping. Before placing an item into my shopping basket, I must study it carefully. After several minutes of strenuous examination and several educated guesses I am then ready to draw conclusions about what I think it is I will be purchasing.
Finally, when I return home it is quite common to learn that I have purchased something completely different than what I thought I was actually buying in the first place.
For nearly two months Josh and I couldn’t figure out why Japanese wheat bread tasted so delicious and time after time we didn’t hesitate at tossing a couple loaves into our shopping basket each time we ventured to the store.
True, it was a bit pricy for bread but we agreed that the nutrients we were gaining outweighed the extra money spent - not to mention it really was delicious.
Later we learned that we were eating chocolate bread the entire time. This then solved another mystery which was why our wheat bread always
Yes we do have Subway in Japan
yumm.. It's the only way to eat vegetable! had the most familiar chocolate aroma when putting it into the toaster.
Basically, the number one reason that makes living in Japan constantly feel like you are taking an I.Q. Test is, without a doubt, because the Japanese language is hard.
The good news is that the Japanese genuinely love the English language making it possible to find English all over the place in Japan.
Now one may assume that the presence of English in a foreign land would be an enormous aid to the native English speaker living there, right?
Well, the not so good news is that the English that exists in Japan is often times a little mixed up making it difficult to understand.
This confused English is called Engrish and it is literally everywhere.
According to
www.engrish.com, “Engrish is defined as being the humorous English mistakes that appear in Japanese advertising and product design.”
Its true that sometimes these English mistakes will merely bring a grin to your face while other times they will leave you laughing uncontrollably.
At this point you may be wondering if the Japanese love English so much then why the heck can't
Maybe she is right?
I take class notes on this paper and it's just the motivation I need to make it through the day, don't you agree? they get it right, or at least why don't they have someone proofread.
The
Engrish Experts explain it this way, "English is used as a design element in Japanese products and advertising to give them a modern look and feel. There is often no attempt to try to get it right, nor do the vast majority of the Japanese population ever attempt to read the English design element in question. There is therefore less emphasis on spell checking and grammatical accuracy."
Let it be known that not there are many Japanese companies that actually do get the English correct it's just funnier to write about those that get it wrong.
Regardless, one doesn’t have to travel very far before finding several shinning examples of Engrish. See for yourself!!
Lastly, you've got to wonder, are you sure your tattoo written in Kanji really means what you think it means? Eek... I sure hope so.
**Please keep my family in your prayers and have a fantastic week**
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anonymous
non-member comment
i think i need some of that paper! when you come home bring some to me. i miss you a lot and can't wait to see you! hope you're doing well - rachel