Re: the grammar of spam
From: Richard Sullivan <richsul@earthlink.net> Subject: RE: the grammar of spam Date: Sat, 06 Oct 2007 14:54:45 -0600 > A similar, though in some sense, a more excusable scrambling > of English, were those warning labels on Asian electronic > goods. The best ones were from the 1960's. I had an early > 60's Sansui receiver with a warning label on the bottom. Japanese products from 1950s and 70s generally came with very poor users manuals in English. Some photographic manufacturers still do that today. (I laughed when I read the manual of Sekonic L-398M meters... they didn't revise it since 70s, I bet!) If you are a fan of highly cryptic "English-like" sentences bastardized by Japanese, visit http://engrish.com/. See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engrish http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinglish There are endless examples of funny English if you go to a Chinese market. One of the highest quality bamboo spatula (this part is true, I'm not being cynical about the quality of the spatula, and I'm not merely telling you what the label says) comes in a bag printed "bamboo shovel." There are also many "fake Japanese" products, that is, Chinese products masquerading as Japanese products. Most obvious clue is poor grammar of the Japanese text on the label. Other clues include: using wrong glyphs, using addresses that don't exist, the number of digits in the postal code, phone number, etc. are wrong, etc. -- Ryuji Suzuki Q. What is your real message? A. Keep a good head and always carry a light bulb. (Bob Dylan, Don't Look Back, 1965)
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