View Full Version : Lost in Translation
inori
11-13-2003, 05:17 AM
I was in the grocery store last night grabbing some dinner, and I saw a girl whose outfit really made me laugh, even in the land of Engrish.
She was wearing an athletic-type sweatshirt, the kind you can see all over the USA, usually printed with some college name. This one was fairly typical; it had Michigan (University of Michigan) on it.
But... apparently the people making it didn't know that Michigan's mascot is the Wolverines. I'm guessing some Japanese guy saw a picture of a wolverine somewhere, didn't know what it was, and made his best guess.
What did the shirt say?
"Michigan Yellow Bears."
:lmao:
Drunken Tiger
11-13-2003, 07:25 AM
inori!! Stop telling us about your adventures and start showing us!! ;) Take pics.. Youve been in Japan for so long.. and we havent seen a single pic yet!! :p
btw someone settle this for me..
Mi - shi- gan
or
Mi - chi - gan
ShadowTiger
11-13-2003, 08:34 AM
:rofl: Yellow Bears. :shy: Ah.. good stuff. Inori, you're so lucky to be in Japan. Just thought you should know. ;) :giggle:
And It's mi-chi-gan, (Actually, Michigan. ;) ) but it's pronounced mi-shi-gan. ;) Despite that I live in NY. :rolleyes:
Demimore
11-13-2003, 09:06 AM
Originally posted by Britannianhero4
:rofl: Yellow Bears. :shy: Ah.. good stuff. Inori, you're so lucky to be in Japan. Just thought you should know. ;) :giggle:
And It's mi-chi-gan, (Actually, Michigan. ;) ) but it's pronounced mi-shi-gan. ;) Despite that I live in NY. :rolleyes:
Oh, he knows. I've told him that SO many times by now..
slayer6896
11-13-2003, 10:22 AM
Yelllow bears...
And its pronounced Mich·i·gan.
theplustwo
11-13-2003, 11:53 AM
Michigan has the same ch sound as machine.
Anyhow, I thought this thread was going to be about the Bill Murray movie. I heard it was really good, but it's not in any theaters where I live. :cry:
AlexMax
11-13-2003, 01:57 PM
Originally posted by inori
I was in the grocery store last night grabbing some dinner, and I saw a girl whose outfit really made me laugh, even in the land of Engrish.
She was wearing an athletic-type sweatshirt, the kind you can see all over the USA, usually printed with some college name. This one was fairly typical; it had Michigan (University of Michigan) on it.
But... apparently the people making it didn't know that Michigan's mascot is the Wolverines. I'm guessing some Japanese guy saw a picture of a wolverine somewhere, didn't know what it was, and made his best guess.
What did the shirt say?
"Michigan Yellow Bears."
:lmao:
:lol:
Long live Engrish!
I used to live in michigan. The south western corner of teh state, about 20 seconds from indiana, and about an hour from chicago. Chicago was directly across lake michigan from us, when teh sun would go down, you could see teh shadow of the chicago sky line in the clouds, it was sweet. I was kind fo skeptical about your statement Inori, assuming that the shirt meant something else, liek a different university or soemthing. but after checking my good buddy google, he was like no results, knock it off, im trying to sleep. I apologized and then came to teh conclusion that Japan sucks.
Thats gotta suck tho. Having to teach english to people who dont know it. English is apparently teh hardest language in teh world, or at least one of teh hardest ive heard. There are some russian guys at work, and one arab, and I get so frustrated and annoyed that when i need to communicate with them I cant. I just dont have teh patience or teh tolerance. Ill try for liek 5 seconds to tell them they need to go over and do the shampoo aisle, then i gety frustrated and start to hate them.
stormwatcheagle
11-13-2003, 05:38 PM
Actually, the hardest language in the world is spoken in northren france. It's virtually impossible for a foreigner to learn.
Melonhead
11-13-2003, 09:36 PM
Originally posted by stormwatcheagle
Actually, the hardest language in the world is spoken in northren france. It's virtually impossible for a foreigner to learn.
http://dovergrammar.co.uk/subjects/English/english-foreigners.html
http://www.spidra.com/fazah.html
So, try the first one for yourself to see how difficult English can be.
And the man with the world record for most languages fluent in says that Mandarin is the hardest language.
:shrug:
inori
11-14-2003, 05:34 AM
Originally posted by Melonhead
http://dovergrammar.co.uk/subjects/English/english-foreigners.html
http://www.spidra.com/fazah.html
So, try the first one for yourself to see how difficult English can be.
And the man with the world record for most languages fluent in says that Mandarin is the hardest language.
:shrug:
I have that list laying on my desk. I hand it to the English teachers at my school so I can see how they handle it. ^_^
Originally posted by Melonhead
...says that Mandarin is the hardest language.
:shrug:
I imagine that Mandarin would be a difficult language to learn. Its gotta be really tough to learn how to talk like an orange HAHAHAHA jk :(
TheGeepster
11-14-2003, 07:42 PM
Learning to read Chinese would seem to be very difficult, because their written language is idealogical with very few phonetic components to them, as I understand it. (The do have some characters they use for foreign words, but I'm not sure exactly how that works)
I'm not sure how difficult it is to learn to speak Mandarin, although I am aware that they use 4 tones in pronoucing words (which are very important for comprehension, unlike the 2 tones used in speaking Japanese properly.)
Navajo is a tough language to learn as well, also making use of different tonal patterns to render different meanings. This is probably why they used Navajo code-talkers in the Pacific arena..
But English, while it may not be as difficult as these two, is very difficult because of its lack of consistency in many areas. English is basically a wide mix of different languages which melded to form a language with many conflicting rules for pronunciation, most of which were not entirely discarded.
Originally posted by TheGeepster
...This is probably why they used Navajo code-talkers in the Pacific arena...
They didnt just use regular Navajo, they used a variation of it that they invented for war use. Apparently only teh code speakers themselves could understand it. Liek I heard on teh history channel that if spoken to another person fluent in the navajo language, the person would not be able to understand it *shrugs*
Pablo
11-18-2003, 07:06 PM
Originally posted by Drunken Tiger
Mi - shi- gan
or
Mi - chi - gan
Where I live (Chicago area) we all pronounce it Mi-shi-gan.
Yoshiman
11-18-2003, 08:53 PM
Doushite sushi ga suki desu ka?
Como te llamas?
Meh, I have trouble with foriegn languages too. I tried to pronouce the word for "desk" in Spanish, and I said "poo-pee-tar". It's supposed to be pronounced "Pyu-pi-tar".
BTW, I always pronounces Michigan "Mish-shi-gan". :shrug:
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