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This American Tourist Went To Japan And Decided To Photograph Badly Translated English Shirts
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As anybody who's been to Japan (or anybody who frequently visits Bored Panda) will know, there's no shortage of things to do in the Land of the Rising Sun. We're not just talking about eating, cosplaying, and visiting awesome temples either. We're talking about perusing the clothes stores in search of shirts with the best (or more like worst) examples of badly translated English. That's precisely what somebody who goes by the name of critcrawl did recently, and as you can see from these hilarious pictures, they weren't disappointed with the results! Dainty Ppotagonist has to be our favorite. What's yours? Let us know in the comments!
#1
Captain Planet 11 months ago
Hahaha I want this shirt and wear it to all the birthday's I go. XD
#4
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What do you think ?
It does make you wonder if anything you own with Japanese written on it is spelt correctly and whether or not it says something like "This person is an idiot for wearing this!"
Or tattooed....
as a Greek I can confirm that tatoos translated in Greek are hilarious
One of my students had the character for Chicken tattooed behind his ear. I asked him if he knew what it meant, he said no. I asked why he chose it, he replied because it looked good.
16 years ago I got "angel" in Japanese tattooed on my shoulder, last week I took a pic and searched google to see if it actually said that, thankfully it did. I've heard so many horror stories...
*spelled The irony!
wich is clearly worse...
Just came here to say exactly that!
Plenty people walking around with 馬鹿 tats.
A friend had a top with Chinese on it - a Chinese friend told us it said 'lucky bird'
in German "Gluck Vogel" (literarly: lucky bird) means "lucky beggar" so maybe sobebody mixed something...
Exactly why I don't buy foreign language items. I'm too afraid I would be insulting someone's offspring.
Having lived in Japan among the artists, there is a grand appreciation for English words...NOT THE MEANING. But the beauty and balance of the lettering and sound. Try traveling and seeing the world though other eyes as opposed to casting these negative comments. You will be a better person for it...believe me. .
Or... you could learn some foreign languages.
Darby's fluent in Engrish! :D
"spelt correctly"
Don't wear a Superdry T-shirt while in Japan. They look as good as those Engrish T-shirts. https://www.pinterest.co.uk/foolmortals/superdry-japanese-meanings/
Sometimes the comment only appears twice right after you post. A refresh tends to cure that.
Sorry I don't know why my comment appears twice although I posted it only once. Just ignore the second one.
Asahi Super Dry - Just add water!
Having lived in Japan among the artists, there is a grand appreciation for English words...NOT THE MEANING. But the beauty and balance of the lettering and sound. Try traveling and seeing the world though other eyes as opposed to casting these negative comments. You will be a better person for it...believe me. .
Well we kind of deserve it... However many youngsters do you see with tattoos of Chinese or Japanese or whatever Asian symbols who think they know what it says but it's actually not at all what it says and is usually something very obscure, making anyone who speaks the language be like, "uuh, what?" lol
Or worse, insulting.
I lost a friend who was Hindi, and got a word tattooed on the back of my wrist (in Hindi) that was the best translation of 'tenacity' that I could find (as she was one of the most tenacious people I knew). I cross-referenced the hell out of it on Google first but still, it was reassuring when a few years later I moved to a really multicultural area and had native speakers ask me the reason behind it.
I have the impression that many of these are are probably poor (computer) translations of what might be witty Japanese expressions.
Not necessarily poor translations, but these sentences simply sound good for the Japanese. They do not care so much about the actual meaning.
It does make you wonder if anything you own with Japanese written on it is spelt correctly and whether or not it says something like "This person is an idiot for wearing this!"
Or tattooed....
as a Greek I can confirm that tatoos translated in Greek are hilarious
One of my students had the character for Chicken tattooed behind his ear. I asked him if he knew what it meant, he said no. I asked why he chose it, he replied because it looked good.
16 years ago I got "angel" in Japanese tattooed on my shoulder, last week I took a pic and searched google to see if it actually said that, thankfully it did. I've heard so many horror stories...
*spelled The irony!
wich is clearly worse...
Just came here to say exactly that!
Plenty people walking around with 馬鹿 tats.
A friend had a top with Chinese on it - a Chinese friend told us it said 'lucky bird'
in German "Gluck Vogel" (literarly: lucky bird) means "lucky beggar" so maybe sobebody mixed something...
Exactly why I don't buy foreign language items. I'm too afraid I would be insulting someone's offspring.
Having lived in Japan among the artists, there is a grand appreciation for English words...NOT THE MEANING. But the beauty and balance of the lettering and sound. Try traveling and seeing the world though other eyes as opposed to casting these negative comments. You will be a better person for it...believe me. .
Or... you could learn some foreign languages.
Darby's fluent in Engrish! :D
"spelt correctly"
Don't wear a Superdry T-shirt while in Japan. They look as good as those Engrish T-shirts. https://www.pinterest.co.uk/foolmortals/superdry-japanese-meanings/
Sometimes the comment only appears twice right after you post. A refresh tends to cure that.
Sorry I don't know why my comment appears twice although I posted it only once. Just ignore the second one.
Asahi Super Dry - Just add water!
Having lived in Japan among the artists, there is a grand appreciation for English words...NOT THE MEANING. But the beauty and balance of the lettering and sound. Try traveling and seeing the world though other eyes as opposed to casting these negative comments. You will be a better person for it...believe me. .
Well we kind of deserve it... However many youngsters do you see with tattoos of Chinese or Japanese or whatever Asian symbols who think they know what it says but it's actually not at all what it says and is usually something very obscure, making anyone who speaks the language be like, "uuh, what?" lol
Or worse, insulting.
I lost a friend who was Hindi, and got a word tattooed on the back of my wrist (in Hindi) that was the best translation of 'tenacity' that I could find (as she was one of the most tenacious people I knew). I cross-referenced the hell out of it on Google first but still, it was reassuring when a few years later I moved to a really multicultural area and had native speakers ask me the reason behind it.
I have the impression that many of these are are probably poor (computer) translations of what might be witty Japanese expressions.
Not necessarily poor translations, but these sentences simply sound good for the Japanese. They do not care so much about the actual meaning.