Language Abuse

I'm sure many have discovered the website called Engrish.com by now, which focuses on photo examples of mistakes made in non-English speaking countries when using the language on signage and other materials such as t-shirts. It's easy to create what turns out to be humorous sounding gaffes when subtext such as slang or cultural double entendres comes into play. An example would be the t-shirt with "I want to ride on that" printed on the back.

But - seeing all of the kanji and hanzi on various products here in the West - I have often wondered if someone was putting together something that featured similar unfortunate errors on our own shores. After all, most of us can't read a lick of it...and I doubt the printers or creators of these products can either. I suspect they are, much of the time, just choosing the characters that they find the most aesthetically pleasing and putting those together. Which would result, of course, in your basic gibberish.

Tattoo fans are especially prone to getting burned by dabbling in a language that they are unable to read or in which they have no cultural understanding. Imagine my surprise when I found out that many tattoo artists are using a bogus "translation tool" for writing things (most often names) for their customers. This chart basically just assigns a random character for each letter and number of the English alphabet.

Oh - I understand the impetus...I imagine that there can be very few people who would not admit that it is a beautiful, elegant style of written communication. It is difficult to resist something so lovely. But add the 'cool' factor that has been ramping up in the last dozen years or so and the number of bad tattoo victims will assuredly increase (speaking of which - there are similar sites on the web that feature these kinds of inked regrets which are amazing in their scope).

When it comes to languages that use characters such as hanzi or kanji, I have often suggested to people hoping to get their names translated that perhaps they should find out what their name means and get that translated instead of the actual sounds. After all, Western names have ancient meanings just as Eastern names do. My own given name in two parts (first and middle names) means: 'Priceless Freedom'. I have family members with names that mean - 'Mountain Ruler', 'Defender Reborn' and 'Ireland's Freedom'.

Knowing that there had to be a twin site featuring the opposite side of the language faux pas game, I went looking - and finally found this:

Hanzi Smatter

It is every dire warning against playing with linguistic fire that I thought it would be. So for all of those who might be tempted to visit their local tattoo shop for an impulse bit of ink, make sure you know what you are getting. If you don't understand the language very well - perhaps refraining would be the wiser course. If you insist on it - maybe you should find a friend who is fluent to help you choose something. And make sure that they actually like you.

Comments

i grew up being made fun of the way my morning glory pencil case used really bad grammar and now... payback.
Celtic said…
Kids can definitely be a rough crowd. There always seems to be that gang of top dogs in every school system. And all the cliques that support them.

I was ostracized for being too poor and shy on top of that. My mother tried to help me fit in more in the third grade by planning a hot dog cookout. She and I sat down one weekend and handmade invitations that I passed out to my whole class.

She went into her money jar and we bought enough hot dog fixings, chips and soda for about 30 kids.

The Saturday arrived and I sat on my front porch all day. No one came. After that, we didn't try anymore and all the way to graduation that was just how it was.

I learned to love my books instead.
J said…
That's depressing Celtic :(

I learned to love books at an early age myself. Science, scifi, history and psychology. I had a real thirst for knowledge.

I grew up going to Catholic school with mostly Irish Americans and some Filipino Americans, but I never felt discriminated against. I did feel like a mascot at times, however, the way Malcolm X described his experience in an all white school.
Celtic said…
Well, I dunno. I don't remember being so much depressed about that day - though I was disappointed. As I remember my reaction, it was a sort of, "Oh well, I'm on my own."

And it put me on the track to not assume that other people were going to be around to help out when times were tough. When they *are* there - it's a bonus - not a guarantee.

Maybe that's not such a bad lesson to learn early on.

And it did turn me deeper into books (though I always had the penchant). That opened up the whole world in my mind - when otherwise I could have been lost as so many are to the dead end cycles of poverty. Books saved my life, I really believe that.

Always glad to hear that others appreciate knowledge. I believe having the thirst is the first step toward true education - no matter what method is used.

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