It just occurred to me that there was a perfectly fine Virgin Islander in my room last night. Like, he stayed over the whole night and nothing happened…
Well, that’s not particularly true. We watched Black Butler.
On Engrish
So I don’t actually have a problem with Engrish, in fact, I think it’s pretty cute. However, I often find myself listening to J-pop and K-pop and thinking “I’m sure at least one person on your production team knew that that makes no sense in English.”
Okay, so that’s music, but what about literary works that have English names? I’m currently watching an anime called Gosick based off of a light novel. Sure Gosick is a strange name, but I was sure there would be some explanation in the anime as I watched. Gosick has a rather dark theme and it takes place in a small fictional European country that prides itself on ghost stories and urban legend. Half way through the first arch I began to wonder if the title isn’t really Gosick, but actually Gothic. Gothic fit the theme of the show much better than a nonsense name like Gosick.
Gosick is spelled “ゴシック” in Japanese; the exact same way you spell Gothic. I looked up the Japanese cover of the light novel and saw that it was even there the English name had been printed as Gosick. Basically, the katakana had been translated letter for letter, because it would be pronounced the same in Japanese regardless, rather than translated for meaning.
And that’s fine for Japan, but when Americans and other English speakers start liking your things, Engrish gets in the way of knowing the meanings behind them. It can be really frustrating trying to understand a song with a lot of poorly phrased English because you can’t translate English into English and there’s no way of knowing what the songwriter meant. Sometimes you can reverse engineer small phrases and words, like I did with Gosick, but that’s not always the case.
I’m not saying that if English isn’t a language you’re skilled at, don’t use it. I think it’s fine to cross language barriers like. I love it when people learn and use languages that are not native to them. I’m just saying, if you have the means to check your English, please take the opportunity. I hate banging my head against desks trying to figure out what the hell it was you meant.
This is your child before and after one year of exposure to a new street drug knows as “The Animes.” Police forces are still researching the sources of this substance, but it is known to be very addictive and its side effects are nearly irreversible.
Signs that your child may be under the influence of “The Animes” include:
- making an account on deviantART.com - While it appears innocent, this website is actually a black market for different types of “The Animes.” It contains the highest concentration of animes abusers worldwide.
- changing their typing habits - If your Honors student starts typing sentences that substitute “teh” for “the” or uses asterisks for actions (i.e., *noms on you XD*) or starts adding -chan to the end of names, “The Animes” have most likely gotten to a near-irreversible state that requires years of therapy.
- a sudden interest in Top Ramen - In it’s early stages, your child or loved one may request to eat instant ramen noodles up to a few times a week. At this stage, it is still possible to fix some of the damage “The Animes” have caused. However, if they begin using chopsticks with every meal, you may have no choice but to lock them in their room and confiscate all Hot Topic products.
For more information on how to protect your child from the evils of “The Animes,” please visit www.theanimesawarenessfoundation.org or call us toll free at 1-800-HOT-YAOIZ
