engrish prease

perhaps some people have noted in the past about the inability for japanese people speaking english to pronounce their l and r sounds correctly. im here to say thats absolutely true. its wierd to go into a store and say "cokacola kudaisai", get a blank stare, then say "cookacoora kudaisai" and then get what you want. basically for english words in japanese you have to say them as the japanese pronounce them, so if you want some chocolate or say congratulations, you better ask for some choocoretto or say congraturations or you wont get what you want.

i must say that english language editing is badly needed here too. theres some pretty horrid/dirty/borderline offensive tshirts being worn over here by people who have no idea what they mean. probably happens at home with people wearing or tattooing kanji onto themselves, so hey.

finally, the translations can be amusing. stores sometimes have mission statements that make no sense, ie: a dog grooming place in kanayama that says something like "we look forward to making happy living between you and your dog in the future" or something like that. i also have a shirt that says "i love listening to music at home...ive never been so happy...i have alot of cds." of course theres spelling mistakes all over the shirt and it makes no sense. i should quit the teaching gig and just offer my services to the city and businesses of nagoya as an english editor.