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Bad English Tokyo 2003

adorno - it's an ordinary life but my true life.

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Beware of ‘good’ English, Renaissance scholar Margaret Ferguson warned a Concordia audience, “because behind it lies a history of imperial expansionism as well as the policy of denouncing academics for their use of jargon.”

Strolling around in Tokyo (or in Japan in general) you will come across a lot of slogans in peculiar or even bad English.

"Humanity are fighting against tired. Charley supports you." on a bath soap package. What does it mean?

It's certainly hopeless to blame the educational system or a lack of interest in a foreign language in general for these faults. We'd rather have to acknowledge both the distance and the fascination of the authors with a dominant world language.

What we find here is the joyful mis-usage of denotation in favour of connotation. It's the intention which counts, spray a feeling of happiness, make a positive statement, just say Hello I'm Here to everybody.

Samples

exposing to interrogation the history, conventions, and assumptions underlying the designation ‘bad writing’ and its almost inarguable efficacy [as a rhetorical weapon].