Japan's emblematic English

Bibliographic Data

ID20356231
AuthorsBarbara Hyde (corresponding author)
Year2002
Volume18
Issue3
Pages12-16
Publication date2002-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEnglish Today (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0266-0784 • E-ISSN: 1474-0567
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0266078402003024
OpenAlexW2171920079
LanguageEN
Citations received12

An analysis of ‘public English’ and (not) learning the language in Japan. Visitors to Japan, whether linguists or laymen, frequently come back with their own collection of quaint uses of English, gathered from public signs, advertising and so on, which vary from the odd to the simply incorrect. This may provide complacent amusement for the native speaker, but is not surprising or unique: Budapest airport until relatively recently sported a large sign reading Welcome in Hungary . What is especially interesting in Japan is not the mistakes but the puzzling function of many such signs. English words and messages are often combined with Japanese, so that, as a non-Japanese speaker, your eye is at first attracted then baffled, until you realise that the English is not aimed at you, a native speaker, but at native speakers of Japanese. But who among the Japanese is it aimed at, and why

Advertising · Amusement · Linguistics · Gender Studies in Language · History · Linguistics, Language Diversity, and Identity · Multilingual Education and Policy · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology

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