Engrish 101

I've been told that English is hard to learn as a second language. One reason is because many of our letters have multiple sounds like the letter "C" for example. Is it "c" as in Cat? Or "c" as in Cinderella? Or is it "c" as in how my 2 year old pronounces "c" which makes a word like "cool" sound like "Tool"?


We had a foreign exchange student from Norway many years ago named Oyvind. I remember he had a hard time understanding English phrases such as "Going to hell in a handbasket" or "The writing's on the wall" and probably more fitting, "What we have here is a failure to communicate."



So I can understand why English would be hard to learn.

To further emphasize this fact, my husband gets a Christmas card every year from a friend he knows in Japan. And every year I have myself a good chuckle at the Japanglish straight out of a Google translation website as I try to read and decipher the point she is trying to make. This year's letter was no exception. In fact, I think I laughed so hard I had tears..... I thought I'd share a little with you:

"My brother love painting. It went to Heian Jingu Shrine. A red is very beautiful. There was an event once in 20 year said, "OKIHIKI" in Ise Jingu Shrine. It builds a shrine once 20 year or it gets it. Ise Jingu Shrine where the god in the emperor family is enshrined purifies the tree used when rebuilt."

This is when I lost it:

"It went to the zoo in the family after an interval of years how many. It was not put in a dull as of old cage. It was bred as much as possible in the condition similar to nature. We enjoyed it like the child."


And that, my friend, is where we get the English phrase, "What we have here is a failure to communicate."