anata-wa eigo wakari-masu ka?

"This polite request in Japanese means "Do you understand English?", which a gaijin in Japan should use every now and then. Whenever you request this to a Japanese person in order to get some information, he or she will willingly try to help (at least that is what happened with me) in their best way possible. Their response starts with "Japanized-EngRish" pronounciation of words, like, R in place of L in most cases. They keep on talking and instructing until they are sure that they have explained everything and in the end, you're right where you started."

This was written by a friend of mine when he was accounting his experiences in Japan. I say, he was not far from the truth. Japan is a place where they really don't need English in any sense. English there, is used as a fashion show-off for your lingiustic abilities, English there is used for product advertisement to make them look cooler, and English there, is also used if you're an Eigo sensei. Since English is like a "recreation" there, some folks do no hesitate to name Japanese English as Engrish. They say this site is for the lighter side of life, with even Nihonjin contributing in the site. Well, now I wish I had taken some photos of Engrish samples that I had encountered!

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