Why do Japanese games often have the titles in English but.....

[Tanooki | 4,953]

Just so you know, https://engrish.com/ still is alive, and it has a facebook account and a couple others who piggyback off it to fun result.

 

That said RH is right, but so is the comment about the fear of failure culture they pound into the kids with how schooling works.  I mean if you don't crank out enough overtime in doing class and study you can't even get into a good highschool there and you're pretty well hosed.  I mean I get not wanting to get caught fouling up stuff with the failure aspect.  Where I am now having to work in the outside again some days, I still have a general grasp of spanish, enough I could catch enough of a conversation to get it, but not enough to put a sentence confidently back so I just don't bother.  Japanese to a lesser degree at this rate but I keep trying to re-remember that stuff as it's more relevant to me.

[wongojack | 224]

7 hours ago, Tabonga said:

So this is some nit-picking quest to prove in your mind that I am some sort of elitist in your bizarre (IMHO) world view?  Everyone else seemed to snap to what I was asking rather than your focus.  D00d - you need to get a non woke life.  Would you be assuaged if I bought some game that I can't play? 'Tis a strange strange world you live in  Master Jack.

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               You might find the definition of metaphorically of use and applicability here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just trying to give you some feedback.  My first response was a question as I didn't understand what was making you so angry.  Now I understand that you just don't use the word "infuriated" the same as me.

[Link | 2,738]

8 hours ago, Sumez said:

Thinking about it I don't think I'm familiar with any language where hamburger isn't literally called "hamburger". That's not the same as the word not existing in that language, there's just really no reason to invent a new one. Similarly, Americans will also use words like "macaroni", "pizza" and "pasta" (even though they are frequently used incorrectly). It's not really unusual for words to come from other languages. English is almost entirely comprised from that.

In general it seems to me that food items are among the words that most frequently don't get changed when adopted by other languages, and quite obviously the same is often true for tech-related terms.

Maybe it varies by country but in school I was taught "hamburger" in Spanish is "hamburguesa". Loan words are a thing (see: "los blue jeans") but a quick trip down Google Translate Lane tells me that even excluding those with different character sets there are quite different words for hamburger in many languages, e.g. pljeskavica (Bosnian) or jauhelihapihvi (Finnish).

[fcgamer | 4,754]

15 minutes ago, Link said:

Maybe it varies by country but in school I was taught "hamburger" in Spanish is "hamburguesa". Loan words are a thing (see: "los blue jeans") but a quick trip down Google Translate Lane tells me that even excluding those with different character sets there are quite different words for hamburger in many languages, e.g. pljeskavica (Bosnian) or jauhelihapihvi (Finnish).

Then there are those weird foods, such as "Taiwanese hamburgers". Here's an article:

https://lifeoftaiwan.com/food/taiwanese-hamburger-goes-global/

I do disagree about one point though. English speakers refer to these as Taiwanese hamburgers because that is what our local Taiwanese colleagues and friends refer to them as, rather than it being something we coined ourselves! I'd personally just refer to it as a guabao, similar to how I refer to fried noodles as cao mian (chowmein), a lunchbox as a bento/biendan, etc. But the locals insist on using these weird translations...

 

[attakid101 | 273]

Chat GPT answered your question without fretting over your dubious use of the word “infuriating”:

The prevalence of English on Japanese products and in advertising stems from various factors, including globalization, modernization, and the influence of Western culture. It started gaining traction notably after World War II when Japan opened up to the world economically. English became associated with modernity, sophistication, and global appeal, thus it's often used to add flair or attract attention in marketing and branding efforts, even if the primary audience is Japanese. Additionally, many Japanese people study English in school, so incorporating English words can also appeal to younger generations and those with some proficiency in the language.

[AlternatorDelux | 61]

I read somewhere that until the mid-80s, Nintendo had a policy of exclusively using English in games so that they'd be ready for international release (they didn't have overseas localizers yet), and it's likely other companies were the same.  This doesn't explain how games this day are decided game-by-game what kind of logo to use, but it does show that for those in Japan, it's never been weird for it to be in English text.

[twiztor | 855]

this is my favorite use of Engrish:

[T-Pac | 7,590]

I see a similar thing in a lot of the 70s Japanese superhero shows I watch (like Super Robot Red Baron and Space Cop Gavan). They yell out English names for their "special attacks" that usually don't make much sense, but it's just a stylistic thing. 

"Baron Hammer!" "Spiral Kick!" "Gavan Dynamic!"

[T-Pac]

[Tanooki | 4,953]

On that note of the store above...enjoy gooooooo Wendy's I mean let's get Fakkin!  FIRST KITCHEN get your head out of the gutter.