And Now It's Time For A Little...
"Q. What is Engrish?
A. Engrish can be simply defined as the humorous English mistakes that appear in Japanese advertising and product design.
Q. Is Engrish found only in Japan?
A. No, Engrish can be found all over the world, but the vast majority of the really funny and creative Engrish is from Japan. The webmaster has seen many examples of Engrish from around the world, but most are not fit for Engrish.com (ie - they are not funny enough). People are invited to send in Engrish from other countries (including the US) - if some really good examples come in, Engrish.com will be happy to post them.
Q. Why do the Japanese try to use so much English if they can’t do it right?
A. Most of the Engrish found on Engrish.com is not an attempt to communicate - English is used as a design element in Japanese products and advertising to give them a modern look and feel (or just to "look cool"). There is often no attempt to try to get it right, nor do the vast majority of the Japanese population (= consumers) ever attempt to read the English design element in question (the girl wearing the “Spread Beaver” shirt for example, had no idea what it said until a foreigner pointed it out to her). There is therefore less emphasis on spell checking and grammatical accuracy (note: the same can be said for the addition of Japanese or Chinese characters to hats, shirts and tattoos found in the US or Europe).
Quite often it is easier to come up with English names than Japanese for a particular product. New products are brought to the marketplace in Japan more than anywhere else in the world and Japanese words and slogans quickly get used up. Japanese graphic designers will often tell you that English is widespread because the Japanese writing script (or scripts) limits their creativity - there are only so many ways to display their language, and only so many different types of fonts to use.
That said, in most instances Japanese companies do get it right and quite often consult a native English speaker for corrections.
Q. Why can’t they get it right? Don't Japanese study the English language?
A. The Japanese educational system is one of the best in the world - one of the primary reasons Japan was able build the world's second largest economy. It is not a perfect system, however - although most Japanese study English for anywhere from 6 to 10 years as a second language, they get little practical use since there are not enough native English speakers to practice with. The fact that the grammatical structure of the two languages is quite different does not help. The Japanese language also does not contain many sounds that you find in English....
Q. Why don't the Japanese check their English before putting them out into the world?
A. As stated above, many companies DO check their English before placing them on products, within advertising, etc.(these companies get it right). There are just many companies/individuals that either do not care to do so (again, in such cases English is used as facet of design more than a way to communicate), or do not have the resources to check their English - although there are many more native English speakers living in Japan now, they still comprise a very small portion of the overall population."
^_^. Ok, that's all for now. I'll get some less PG-13 ones up later.
Quote and pictures are all from http://www.engrish.com