Bad English T-Shirts

In Japan, it’s fairly easy for an English-speaking foreigner to get around, even if they have little to no knowledge of the Japanese language. This is because English is one of Japan’s main foreign languages. In subway stations in Japan, there are many English signs. There is even a word for the phonetic spelling of a Japanese word in English, romaji (ローマ字). English is very popular because it looks aesthetically pleasing, and it’s especially popular among young people (college students and high school teenagers). One interesting thing I noticed was that all the graffiti I saw was in in English.

A very popular trend in Japan in to wear t-shirts with English on them. However, these shirts can be very poorly translated. They are worn as a status symbol in Japan, similar to how a certain brand of clothes is worn to be cool. These shirts can be found in any store in Japan, especially smaller shops that have shirts that may have been locally printed. Larger stores in Japan may have these notorious bad English t-shirts, but they are more likely to have correctly translated English shirts.

These shirts are worn to look cool, as I’ve said before, and are very popular among young people. In Japan, fashion is much more important to teenagers and college students than in America. Because English is so popular, even shirts without any real English words (just letters) are worn. Even if the language resembles English, it could become a popular t-shirt.

During my homestay in Japan, I told my host family that the shirt I bought had incorrect English on it and it was funny. The whole family thought I was really cool for being an English speaker. I explained to them how the shirt was incorrect, and eventually they understood and laughed. Then, they brought me a shirt that was in French and asked me to translate it, thinking it was English. So even if it’s a similar alphabet, if it looks like an English t-shirt it is considered cool.

Below are some examples of bad English t-shirts: