Funny and Creative English in Japan

It never fails: you’re going about our business in Japan, when suddenly you come face to face with some really bizarre English. Like a guy with a hat proclaiming, “Hey bad boy!” or a pretty girl wearing a provocative shirt that asks, “How many people have loved you?” or an air cleaner called “Clean Poo.” Often the funny English takes the form of advertising, as companies make use of the kakko ii (cool) status of the English language to evoke emotional responses in customers which may lead to them making purchases, since printing something like “canned beverage makes you refresh” on a can of juice can give an otherwise hum-drum product a real “image up.” Similarly, most every can of beer you will find in Japan features an extensive statement of quality, like, “Sapporo beer is made from the finest hops for a delicious taste and refinement,” although I’ve never known anyone’s purchase choices to be influenced by the English on the can. Some of my most enjoyable moments as an ESL teacher involved seeing how creative my students could be, like when one wrote that, “Humans cannot travel to Antarctica now, because it is under penguin rule.” Although many foreigners in Japan love to find every bit of hidden English around them they can, I find that after being here so long, I almost don’t notice it — it’s part of the general background noise of Japan.

Wow, that’s a pretty cool T-shirt