When I lived in Japan, I collected funny things with "Japlish" on them, including this postcard which I found today in a drawer while looking for something else. It always amazed me that corporations printed things on all sorts of products without running them by native English speaking fact checkers or proofreaders. But I was glad that they didn't. A friend in Japan spotted the prize: a girl wearing a Tshirt that read, "Crap Your Hands." She had no idea. But I'm sure that most of the Americans who wear T-shirts festooned with Kanji (not to mention those who get the characters tattooed onto their flesh) only think that what they're sporting means "Peace" or "Sex God" or whatever, and are just as often wrong. For more excellent examples, check out http://www.engrish.com/
2 comments:
I have ALWAYS hoped that those with Asian character tattoos (because peace is so much more peaceful in Japanese?) have been misled by devious tattoo artists and what the tattoos really say is: "I'm an Orientalist who fetishizes East Asia," or more likely, "Jackass."
I love this. My personal favorites:
In Thailand, I had a red comforter printed with the words: You make me happy and happy.
Riding the ferry to Ko Chang, I saw a Thai guy in his twenties wearing a T-shirt that said: Stop staring at my tits.
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