Categories: uncategorized
Date: 28 March 2005 15:09:40
I've been thinking a lot about Asia in general recently (due to my upcoming trip to Thailand) and it occurred to me that most of my mental images of the continent are shaped by Hollywood (e.g. Vietnam war films, and films like "Lost in Translation"). The few bubbles of genuinely Asian pop culture that cross my radar tend to be Japanese video games or late night flashs of Bollywood movies whilst channel hopping.
I'm not sure if this is a particularly Japanese phenomena or whether other Asian countries are affected by it, but JapLish seems to affect the vast amount of Japanese video games I have seen. I did a search on google earlier for it and found the following:
SCANDINAVIAN NATURAL ROMAN BEST BREAD MESSAGE Our little friend "TOMTE" use magical secret-power for delicious BREAD that. Well enjoy in next morning. Children who living in NORTHERN EUROPE tell us secret that just baken BREAD. Yes...... TOMTE's secret. HOKUO as. BREAD country SAPPORO is very similar with TOMTE's land.
(found at http://www.tokyotales.com/japlish/more.html, this was the most amusing example but there is a whole archive on the site)
Other examples I have come across are the emponymous "I'm not Regret" and "All your Base are now Belong to Us" (both from video games) and the crazy Japanese talk show host from "Lost In Translation" seemed only capable of talking in such a way. Perhaps it's due to some strange difference in grammar or syntax between Japanese and English or maybe it's a cultural thing but I'm going to keep an eye out for Thai-Lish (if such a thing exists). Until then Secret Child of Europe make Magic recipe Cake and sleep well.