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This American Tourist Went To Japan And Decided To Photograph Badly Translated English Shirts
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 funny t-shirts with the best (or more like worst) examples of English turned Engrish via comically bad translations. Hunting for translation fails is precisely what somebody who goes by the name of critcrawl did recently. As you can see from these hilariously funny translations, they weren't disappointed with the results! Dainty Protagonist has to be our favorite - a t-shirt slogan that truly hits home. Which of these t-shirt fails do you sympathize the most with? Let us know in the comments!
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Hahaha I want this shirt and wear it to all the birthday's I go. XD
Fun fact: a ppotagonist is a rare sub-species of sub-Saharan hippo. (Please don't fact check this...)
It's really annoying that a bunch of Engrish shirts are SO CLOSE to being English phrases but are just one letter off like this.
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!"
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
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.
Load More Replies... I think my favourite Engrish shirt is "Grandpa F****n Spaceshuttle" (http://adult.engrish.com/2006/11/18/grandpa-rules/)
Everytime I see articles like this one, I wonder if Japanese or Chinese or other non-alphabetic languages nationals do the same thing; take pictures of badly translated tattoos written in their languages and post them onto social media.
Well, one has to be consistent not to be a hypocrite. If you agree that taking some random tidbits of foreign culture without understanding what they are just to make something seem cool is fine, you have to deal with a fact that the same will happen to your culture. If it's not a big deal for you, it's not a big deal for others too.
In Japan I saw a sports car with the words on the back window "self burning." I realized they meant to say "I'm hot," although I find what they put to be unintentionally much more poetic and intriguing, the way a number of the t-shirts are. I spent a week in Japan and became a bit obsessed with finding funny, bad English.
I'd rather wear one of those than a tee saying "F**k me I'm famous"....
My friends lived there in the military. They had a little step stool for their children with rain drops painted on it .....it should have said "rain rain" but said " ran ran"
I can only translate one shirt accurately.... really far = "far out"
This is real. I just came back from China and they have the weirdest english writing ALL.OVER everything
The Japanese describe distances in such a way that the 'Really Far' shirt makes real sense, from a Japanese viewpoint. They have three ways to describe distances, whereas westerners normally only have two. Koko = close Soko = far Asoko = really far.
When I lived there in the 80's there was a trend of having a pile of poo printed on everything from bags to t-shirts with some quite hilarious quotes accompanying the graphic. Never quite worked out why it was thought to be a good thing!!
GUESS I MISSED THE BOAT - DIDN'T UNDERSTAND A SINGLE ONE OF THEM??????
There shour be a designer line dedicated to this. Fancy clothes , and words mashed together:)
The most hideous Engrish T-shirts I've ever seen in Japan so far. 18922793_1...1bc420.jpg 
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. . . . .
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!"
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
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.
Load More Replies... I think my favourite Engrish shirt is "Grandpa F****n Spaceshuttle" (http://adult.engrish.com/2006/11/18/grandpa-rules/)
Everytime I see articles like this one, I wonder if Japanese or Chinese or other non-alphabetic languages nationals do the same thing; take pictures of badly translated tattoos written in their languages and post them onto social media.
Well, one has to be consistent not to be a hypocrite. If you agree that taking some random tidbits of foreign culture without understanding what they are just to make something seem cool is fine, you have to deal with a fact that the same will happen to your culture. If it's not a big deal for you, it's not a big deal for others too.
In Japan I saw a sports car with the words on the back window "self burning." I realized they meant to say "I'm hot," although I find what they put to be unintentionally much more poetic and intriguing, the way a number of the t-shirts are. I spent a week in Japan and became a bit obsessed with finding funny, bad English.
I'd rather wear one of those than a tee saying "F**k me I'm famous"....
My friends lived there in the military. They had a little step stool for their children with rain drops painted on it .....it should have said "rain rain" but said " ran ran"
I can only translate one shirt accurately.... really far = "far out"
This is real. I just came back from China and they have the weirdest english writing ALL.OVER everything
The Japanese describe distances in such a way that the 'Really Far' shirt makes real sense, from a Japanese viewpoint. They have three ways to describe distances, whereas westerners normally only have two. Koko = close Soko = far Asoko = really far.
When I lived there in the 80's there was a trend of having a pile of poo printed on everything from bags to t-shirts with some quite hilarious quotes accompanying the graphic. Never quite worked out why it was thought to be a good thing!!
GUESS I MISSED THE BOAT - DIDN'T UNDERSTAND A SINGLE ONE OF THEM??????
There shour be a designer line dedicated to this. Fancy clothes , and words mashed together:)
The most hideous Engrish T-shirts I've ever seen in Japan so far. 18922793_1...1bc420.jpg
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. . . . .
