{"id":270,"date":"2006-10-21T10:50:51","date_gmt":"2006-10-21T01:50:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2006-10-21\/270"},"modified":"2006-10-21T10:50:51","modified_gmt":"2006-10-21T01:50:51","slug":"a-dying-breed-funny-english-on-japanese-signs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2006-10-21\/270","title":{"rendered":"A Dying Breed: Funny English on Japanese Signs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\n\nI was at Yodobashi\nCamera<\/a> in Osaka the other day, the largest camera store in this part of\nthe country. It's something<\/span> like six expansive floors, selling everything\nfrom obscure large-format camera accessories to luggage (but, alas, not the\nout-of-production AF-Nikkor 28mm f\/1.4 I was<\/span> looking for).\n\n<\/p>

\n\nThey're a national chain, and internationally minded: the “welcome to\nYodobashi Camera” jingle that continually plays storewide cycles among a\nbunch<\/span> of languages (at least Japanese, English, German, Chinese, and I\nthink<\/span> Portuguese. Maybe French too? I wasn't<\/span> paying that much attention.)\n\n<\/p>

\n\nSo, with that in mind, I found<\/span> the English in the lower-left of this sign\nto be funny:\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\nThey have a copy of this fairly large sign at each of the many cash\nregisters around the store.\n\n<\/p>

\n\nIf you do<\/b> read English and don't<\/b> read Japanese, do you have\nany idea whatsoever<\/i> what it's trying to say? Heck, I read Japanese<\/span>\n(at least enough for this) and don't really understand what they're saying.\n\n<\/p>

\n\nThe red Japanese writing above the English says, in part, “please\nunderstand that the purchase with intent to resell is prohibited.”\nOkay, that's fine, and makes sense, although I certainly<\/span> didn't get that\nfrom the English version below it.\n\n<\/p>\n \n

\n\nThe red Japanese text also notes that sales to those “in the\nbusiness” (such as a camera<\/span>-shop owner) are also prohibited. This\nseems sufficiently odd that I figured<\/span> that I must<\/span> be misunderstanding the\nJapanese (and again, the English version is of no help), but I checked<\/span> with\nFumie and indeed, that's what it says. She doesn't understand why, either.\n<\/p>

\n\nOdd.\n\n<\/p>

\n\nThe English did make slighlty more sense once I realized<\/span> that\n“theresale” is supposed to be “the resale” rather\nthan the “there sale” that I'd originally parsed it as. Still,\nit's funny. The whole<\/span> bit about “impossible for other person to buy\nit” is not at all reflected in any of the Japanese on the sign.\n\n<\/p>

\n\nIn case you're curious, the other parts of the sign are not related to\nthis. The text in<\/span> the green box on the right says that the warranty proof\ncard is included on their receipt. Above the credit-card logos it says\n“you can use these cards.” In the top yellow section, it's\nadvertising the store's point card, where you basically get some percent of\nyour purchase total as store credit for a future<\/span> purchase. (Such point\ncards are common at consumer electronic places, and can sometimes represent\na 20<\/span>% discount. I still<\/span> have over $100 in credit at a local<\/span> place from when\nI bought<\/span> my camera, and chip away at it from time to time when I need<\/span> a\nprinter<\/span> cartridge or something.)\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was at Yodobashi Camera in Osaka the other day, the largest camera store in this part of the country. It's something like six expansive floors, selling everything from obscure large-format camera accessories to luggage (but, alas, not the out-of-production AF-Nikkor 28mm f\/1.4 I was looking for). <\/p>

They're a national chain, and internationally minded: the \"welcome to Yodobashi Camera\" jingle that continually plays storewide cycles among a bunch of languages (at least Japanese, English, German, Chinese, and I think Portuguese. Maybe French too? I wasn't paying that much attention.) <\/p>

So, with that in mind, I found the [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}