I just LOVE Japanese candy and cookies. They're all so neat and tidy; everything nicely wrapped or in its own compartment.
One odd thing about Japanese products is, that for all the Japanese excell at packaging and presentation, their spelling on American exports is atrocious! Hilariously so. Take my 'Yan Yan' cookie, for example. Thing2 and I were enjoying dipping our not-too-sweet cookie sticks in the strawberry icing while at the same time looking at the animals on the cookie and the 'saying' about the animal. Usually, it would be an animal fact. ie. SHEEP -- THICK WOOL. SQUID -- BLACK INK. Then we got to the whale.
Hee hee! WHALE -- BIGGESY MAMMAL. I love it! Cute picture, tasty cookie, nifty packaging, and grammatical error.
I know that there is a word to describe the process of Japanese speakers taking American English words and adding a Japanese language 'twist' to them to make the word or phrase more palatable -- can anyone tell me what it is? Maybe 'biggesy' is one of these words?
2 comments:
Oh Man!! Japanese packaging is one of the high points of every one of my trips to the Japanese supermarket!!
Aside from the awesome graphics displayed on the packaging, the poorly translated product descriptions are THE BEST!!!
With Japan being where it is in the global race for civilization and technology, you'd think they could get BIGGEST spelled correctly on a cookie.
I was reading a comment on Wikipedia that suggested that the LOOK of the English language word is more important than the exact spelling. Supposedly, for Japanese speakers, the esoteric aspect outweighs the grammatical. Kind of like Americans putting Japanese tattoos on our bodies without really knowing how to read the language... and just assuming that it's spelled correctly or used correctly. I think that if I had a (for example)Kanji tattoo, I'd make DAMN SURE it was spelled and used correctly before putting it on my skin!
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