Weekly Challenge 3–Response!

Oh, how I love Engrish! Yup, you read that right. “Engrish.” It’s this wonderful new sort of English spoken by Japanese native speakers. And it is everywhere! To give you some idea of just how popular this new age written language may be, I have a short story.

Event poster

This past weekend I had the chance to go on a Japanese camping trip, which in itself was a fantastic experience (but that’s for another blog). I first saw a sign for the event up on the white board. I couldn’t wait to “get new friends all over the world!”

Signing up via email, I received several return emails giving details about the

One of many emails

camp. We were given a full schedule of the trip. My particular favourite was “enjoying the free paint” and things to bring: a “smile.” We would “enjoy camp with all together!”

Cover of booklet

Upon our arrival, we received mini booklets of information about the camp and what to expect over the course of the next two days. The front of the booklet was covered in colourful pictures of previous years camping events.

The inside of the booklet was filled with cartoons…and more Engrish. We would “make a new friends” (just one) and “lead” us to “have good memory.” Even better was the usage of the word “aggregation.” Certain words are certainly more important than others. The drawings of kids playing and a smiling Minnie Mouse were adorable!

Fun cartoons and drawings

This being only one example of the popularity of this new form of writing, there are numerous other places around Japan where such language can easily be seen. And I enjoy every word of it! Oh, Engrish! How you amuse me.