About ShockEnglish
Posted on July 16th, 2008
Welcome to ShockEnglish!
I’d like to take a few moments to explain the purpose of this site. There are already plenty of sites out there containing pictures of crazy, nonsense English from around the world, including Engrish.com and the Flickr Engrish group. But the purpose of those sites is mostly for the amusement of native speakers. ShockEnglish takes a different, constructive approach. This site seeks to motivate Japanese to improve their English and motivate English speakers to assist in this task.
It’s true that the percentage of foreigners living in Japan is quite low compared to other countries. However, there are many foreigners living and working in Tokyo, as well as many more that come for business and travel. Every year the English signage in Tokyo is improving, but it is rather embarrassing that there still so many blatent errors. In our multinational, global community these days, where people travel freely from country to country, these mistakes stand out more and more.
Even though in Tokyo there are plenty of native English speakers, the Japanese people who create these translations are often too shy to ask a native speaker to proofread or double-check their English. So I created this site to illustrate some of the most glaring English errors seen in public locations. It is my hope that Japanese people can learn from these mistakes, start to correct them, and set aside their shyness and get native speakers to proofread important translations, and English speakers can also take an interest in helping with this process.
Purpose for Japanese readers
- Improve their English
- Understand the importance of using correct English, especially in locations seen by many people
- Improve relationships with foreigners
Purpose for foreign readers
- Learn the correct translation of poorly translated Japanese
- Laugh at some of the worst mistakes and take an interest in improving it
- Improve relationships with Japanese people
Additionally, I am available for consulting with any issues related to using correctly English in public communications, for businesses or individuals. Please contact me if you are interested. Also please let me know what you think of this site!
Contact:
Thanks, and I hope you can learn from Shock English!
One Response to “About ShockEnglish”
-
Chinarut Says:
September 12th, 2008 at %I:%M %pwow – i think your approach to this issue is really commendable!
it’s neat how you build websites in Japan – we could use the same treatment in Thailand – for sure!