Engrish In Japanese Culture

6. “Engrish”

The most striking difference between “English” and “Engrish” is the fact that the latter does not undergo the katakana effect. In fact, “Engrish” is written using romanji, the Japanese name for our Latin alphabet, and, as such, preserves both its phonetic and morphological integrity. Yet, the word “Engrish” was chosen to highlights the fact that, paradoxically, “Engrish” maintains an even fainter linguistic integrity than “English” in terms of text comprehension and correctness. Searching for examples of “Engrish” in Japan, we will find them mostly, if not only, in mass media products. T-shirts with “Engrish” words are extremely popular and in the example that I have chosen it can be read “Precise Dwarf Bravery.” The words are

“Engrish”'s appeal resides in its foreignness and commodification and it is not enough to persuade Japanese people to give up their culture for the Anglo-Saxon or American one. The presence of “Engrish” in Japanese society and language is abundant but not pervasive: “Engrish” can be found in different media and used for different purposes, but Japanese culture never lies too far behind. J-pop songs may have “Engrish” lyrics and the singer might have had her eyes made westerner by means of make-up or surgery, but she will still be Japanese and the song she sings will still be mostly in Japanese. Moreover, one must not forget the first and most important distinction between “Engrish” and “English,” which is that one is written in romanji and the other one in katakana. Latin script is not as largely and fluently comprehensible to Japanese people as kana, to the point that many products, like Leon magazine, report romanji slogans or titles but incorporate katakana transliteration to help the consumers to read the romanji script. “Engrish” is meant to remain appealing in function of its indecipherability, much like Japanese kanji to a foreigner. Therefore, it could never replace Japanese language or pose any serious threat to

The risk is to appear either judgmental of Japan’s supposed discrimination and objectification of the English language or critical of English language colonization and self-appointed role as global lingua franca. Modern tendencies toward youth usage of English show that new generation are more prone than older to accept English language and the culture that comes with it. J.A. Fishman effectively describes the close relationship that exists between language and culture by writing that language: “indexes its culture… symbolizes its culture” and that much of culture “is partly created from its language” as it is “enacted and transmitted verbally” (qtd. in Bainbridge 169). As the presence of English becomes more and more pervasive in Japan, so its impact of Japanese society grows in magnitude. This reveals especially true when it comes to “English” and the teaching of English as foreign language in schools, for young children are very susceptible to new cultural information and lack a firm rooting in Japanese culture to counterbalance English (particularly American) influence (Bainbridge 170). What is left is to investigate on the modern tendencies concerning the issue of English language’s presence in