Originally Posted by
robatsu
I've been going back and forth between the U.S. and Japan for 30 years now. I still get entertained by all the engrish, but it is a lot more tempered in recent years by my awareness that Japanese folks find my japlish attempts similarly amusing. This starts at home with my wife and Japanese-fluent 7yo boy.
My brother who lives in Japan (his wife is Japanese) recently confided in me that his 3 younger kids weren't allowed into the international school where his two older boys are going because they don't speak enough English (the probably speak some engrish). He says from now on he's going to try speaking just English with the kids because for too many years it's been all Japanese. When he comes to the states and pulls out his Japanese laptop, I can't even begin to comprehend how he uses that thing, but I guess with enough total immersion in a culture and language you eventually pick it up.
I once watched him reading a newspaper and with one article he was reading horizontally like our papers then I saw him jump to reading vertically on the next article. When I asked which way they normally write (up-down, across) he said they just do whatever fits into the available space best, and when you start reading you just read which ever direction makes sense. It blew my mind.