New Year … new ‘fuckin’ engrish

The new year has the new winner for “fuckin” engrish for the start of the January sales here in Tokyo Japan.
fuckin-sale
via

UPDATE:
The “Fuckin’ Sale” signs have been taken down and the poor store has been forced to offer apologies! More…

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Taro

I'm a pale, alien, quadruped who has worked for 25+ years at "Maybe-the-Largest Inc." in Tokyo.

20 thoughts on “New Year … new ‘fuckin’ engrish”

  9. someothergaijin wrote:
    Japan is going has gone ‘Fuckin’ Crazy.

    Nah, Japan has always been crazy about “Fuckin'” as evidenced by…

    —Sign at a vibrator store in the Akihabra district of Tokyo:
    fuckin-cheapEmbiggen

    Hell, “fuckin'” is even in the Japanese dictionary…

    Japanese-for-Fuck-You

  10. jlist-fucking-sale
    A Big Fuckin’ Sale in Osaka
    J-List side blog: 2012/01/11
    Last week a department store in Osaka held a very interesting sale with a sign that went viral on the Internet almost at once, for obvious reasons.

    This hilarious sale shows us several things, first and foremost that the Japanese primarily view English as a decoration that's kakko ii (meaning cool, good style) rather than as a serious vehicle for communication, and don't think too deeply about what they write.

    It also shows that the word in question has no power to shock when the context is changed to a place like Japan, where people know the word through Hollywood films but don't care if it's used around them. (In this context its meaning in Japanese is something like sugee, pronounced “suu-GEH,” a colloquial version of sugoi meaning “amazing, incredible” sale)...more...

  11. How a Foul-Mouthed American Chef Brought “Fuckin” to Japan
    Gawker.com Jan. 10, 2012 by Adrain Chen

    After publishing this post about an Osaka department store hilariously advertising its “Fuckin sale,” we got an email from Ron Silver, owner and chef of New York's Bubby's restaurant. “I feel personally responsible for this Fuckin Sale,” he wrote. He attached a picture from the opening of Bubby's branch in Yokohama, Japan in 2009, where a sign advertised Bubby's Fuckin Fresh lemonade and Fuckin Fresh & Delicious food. Much to the surprise of visiting English-speaking tourists, Fuckin Fresh is the the unofficial slogan of Bubby's Japanese branch, printed on menus, signs and t-shirts.

    “Fuckin Fresh” (sometimes written “Fucking Fresh”) started as an inside joke about Silver's obsession with fresh produce. Silver said his Japanese employees weren't as accustomed to using fresh fruit, which is harder to come across in Japan. Lemons, for example, are astronomically more expensive, but Silver insisted they use fresh lemons for their lemonade.

    “I trained these guys and trained these guys, and they called me up and said, 'By fresh do you mean frozen?' And I was like, 'I mean fucking fresh, man. Do not fuck around with this thing.'” Silver said in a phone interview, the frustration still audible in his voice. But they didn't get it.

    “The very next day they were like, 'By fresh do you mean canned?' And I was like, 'What do you not understand about fucking fresh?'”
    MOAR! . . .

  13. Japanese department store makes grovelling apology after plastering shop windows with “F***in Sale” posters
    The Daily Mail Online | 13th January 2012
    …    The unfortunate slogan was meant to be a pun on fukubukuro – or 'lucky bags' – relating to the Japanese New Year retail custom of selling off discounted unwanted stock from the previous year in big grab bags.

    Obviously, the pun was lost on English-speaking visitors to the store, and while most were amused by the unsubtle example of the language barrier, others complained.

    It's hard to imagine how the managers must have felt when they were told that they had adorned a store, in one of ultra-polite Japan's biggest cities, with potty-mouthed slogans.

    The signs were hastily torn down and the store publicly apologised for any offence caused.

    More…

  14. Hark! Can you hear the frapping sound of a thousand fart bubbles burbling through a brassy sphincter? This is the best website for anyone who wants to find out about this!!

  15. Unbareiverable. U take sign down. U must gradry take u own rife for dis shame! Sweep the leg!

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