Since 2007 . . . and, um, proud of it?

Here's another interesting passage from Confucius Lives Next Door, a neat little book I quoted in an earlier post. This one is about goofy English in Japan---specifically the practice of advertising "since ____" and then giving a year, like, two years ago---and comes after the author has spent a few pages giving some examples of the nonsensical English he found all over the place. I've excised those passages since those types of things are quite familiar to anyone who has ever spent time in Asia, and instead we begin in medias res (pages 39-40):

Over time, as we saw more and more of this fractured English prose, certain patterns began to emerge, and we realized that some of these slogans actually had meaning, in a manner of speaking. For example, that sign we spotted the first night we were in Tokyo--"Fine Boys Since 1987 says Lets Sex!"--seemed like total nonsense at the time. Gradually, though, we realized that this slogan was full of meaning for the Japanese.

In Japanese English, the words "boys" and "girls" are used to describe trendy, popular young people of dating age, roughly from eighteen to thirty-five. The words "fine" and "fashion" are adjectives that suggest "up-to-date" or "cool." (The terms "high-sense" and "high-touch" also convey a sense of living on the leading edge of the latests fashions.) The expression "since 19xx" is used for precisely the opposite purpose of its use in English-speaking countries. In England, snooty shops and manufacturers of luxury goods like to use "Since . . ." on their labels to suggest they have been around forever: "Purveyors to the Royal House Since 1734." In Japan, "since . . ." is used to suggest that a store or product is brand-new, like "since 1996." In fact, the "since 1987" on that billboard was the oldest "since . . ." I ever saw in Japan.

As for the concluding phrase, "Let's Sex," this is simply a translation of a common pattern in the Japanese language. The Japanese verb shimahshō, meaning "let's do it," can be used with any noun: benkyo shimahshō, "let's study;" ryoko shimahshō, "let's travel." And so it seems perfectly normal for the Japanese to take the English translation of their verb "let's" and combine it with any English noun. You see patterns like this all the time: "Let's Skiing." "Let's Business Meeting." "Let's Recreation." "Let's Sex."

So if you want to get across to youthful Japanese consumers the message that your company is a fashionable new endeavor targeting a market of upscale young men with romance on their minds, there's a perfectly clear way to convey this information: "Fine Boys Since 1987 says Let's Sex." What could be more obvious?

It's always good to have another take on Engrish, and to remember that yeah, it does sort of, kind of mean something to its audience, even if it sounds ridiculous or repulsive to actual English speakers. That out of the way, I can't say I approve of the bastardization of my language, though, or in using it for decoration, or in rendering it ridiculous. Can't say I approve of the indifference toward actually getting it right, or to showing some respect for the meanings its speakers actually attribute it. Especially when we've got "Fucking Freezing" shirts on teachers, or "Let's Sex" on billboards, "sexy pose" going on all over the place, and . . . um, this: