# Why do Japanese video games have so much English? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 27, 2009, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-japanese-video-games-have-so-much-english/490933 "2009-03-27T00:05:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2009, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-japanese-video-games-have-so-much-english/490933/21 "2009-03-27T19:03:27Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > Did the vehicle have the Buddha nature? Nice one. ---
**Author:** ![snailboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/97f17d/32.png) [@snailboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snailboy)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2009, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-japanese-video-games-have-so-much-english/490933/22 "2009-03-27T19:52:01Z")
> [@jovan](#): > > I really, really wish people would stop repeating this canard. French absorbs a _huge_ amounts of foreign words, especially English. 5% of French vocabulary is of English origin, up from 2.5% 100 years ago. English words are especially common in vernacular speech. In French, you leave your car at the “parking” and eat “fast-food” when you go “shopping” on “weekends” for stuff to put in your “living”. [Here’s a list](http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mots_fran%C3%A7ais_d'origine_anglaise); most of these words are very common. I can’t stand it when they take our present participles (ending in -ing) and make them nouns. The first time I saw _shampooing_, I thought it was Engrish. Maybe it’s their retribution for how we mangle a lot of their words and phrases. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2009, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-japanese-video-games-have-so-much-english/490933/23 "2009-03-27T20:21:04Z")
> [@Bosstone](#): > > It’s not like the same doesn’t happen over here, if to a lesser degree. You could wear a shirt or get a tattoo with kanji that means “dog turds” and it’d be cool, because it’s Asian. Hell, some people get tattoos of random Asian characters without having any clue what they mean! (oh, but that Japanese guy in their Calc class _totally_ told them it meant “strength.”) ---
**Author:** ![Apocalypso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Apocalypso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apocalypso)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2009, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-japanese-video-games-have-so-much-english/490933/24 "2009-03-27T21:11:25Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > It’s cool to use English in Japan, even if it is meaningless or worse in actual English. I recall seeing a vehicle (it was a van or SUV) when I was in Japan that had large letters “MU” on the rear. I was curious and went closer to see what the full words after the two letters were. It turned out that the full model name was “Mysterious Utility”! I asked my Japanese host what this could possibly mean and he replied that it meant nothing; it was sufficient that it be in English. > > Mysterious, indeed. Seconding this. I remember reading a book about the author’s visit to Japan, and he said the Japanese people love English, the sound and look of the letters. It’s not uncommon to see T-shirts there with nonsensical phrases written in English. I’ve heard similar stories from other sources. ---
**Author:** ![BurnMeUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@BurnMeUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BurnMeUp)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2009, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-japanese-video-games-have-so-much-english/490933/25 "2009-03-27T21:12:18Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Filipino TV is even stranger, when they switch from Tagalog to random words in English with perfect American accents. They almost certainly already have words for these terms already. Yeah I was watching a filipino tv station once at about 2 am and for a second I thought “oh my god I can understand part of this!” Then I realized it was actually English. ---
**Author:** ![Cyberhwk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7993a0/32.png) [@Cyberhwk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyberhwk)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2009, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-japanese-video-games-have-so-much-english/490933/26 "2009-03-27T21:45:03Z")
> [@johnspartan](#): > > Because they’re training for the day when all our base are belong to them? 😉 Untli then…make your time. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Pyper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Pyper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pyper)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2009, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-japanese-video-games-have-so-much-english/490933/27 "2009-03-28T01:57:08Z")
> [@Max\_Torque](#): > > Japanese is a very malleable language. New words are absorbed at an incredible rate. They just take the word in English (or whatever language) and adapt it into Japanese phonemes for easy pronunciation, and there ya go. There’s a whole Japanese “alphabet” used almost exclusively to write words from foreign languages (_katakana_). I remember looking at pictures of Tokyo in a **National Geographic** magazine once, and reading the sign on a McDonald’s: “do-ra-i-bu su-ru”. Ah. “Drive-through”. Again, you’d think they’d either have a term, or would create one, but nope, just pull in the English words and call it a day. I’ve never been to Korea, but here in Southern California they do the exact same thing with the Korean language. I learned to read and write the Korean alphabet in high school to pass notes to my Korean friends in class, and it’s actually served me surprisingly well, considering I hardly speak the language at all. I would say a good 75% of the Korean on signs around here is actually phonetic English. ---
**Author:** ![CutterJohn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/91b2a8/32.png) [@CutterJohn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CutterJohn)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2009, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-japanese-video-games-have-so-much-english/490933/28 "2009-03-28T10:58:17Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Filipino TV is even stranger, when they switch from Tagalog to random words in English with perfect American accents. They almost certainly already have words for these terms already. Oh lord.. I served in the navy with a couple Filipinos, and that drove me insane. They would have a conversation half in english, and half in tagalog, just mixing and matching whatever seemed to fit best. My friend said that a lot of people from the philippines were so completely bilingual that they just did that without thinking about it. > [@Max\_Torque](#): > > Japanese is a very malleable language. New words are absorbed at an incredible rate. They just take the word in English (or whatever language) and adapt it into Japanese phonemes for easy pronunciation, and there ya go. There’s a whole Japanese “alphabet” used almost exclusively to write words from foreign languages (_katakana_). I remember looking at pictures of Tokyo in a **National Geographic** magazine once, and reading the sign on a McDonald’s: “do-ra-i-bu su-ru”. Ah. “Drive-through”. Again, you’d think they’d either have a term, or would create one, but nope, just pull in the English words and call it a day. So pretty much like english then? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2009, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-japanese-video-games-have-so-much-english/490933/29 "2009-03-28T12:32:28Z")
> [@CutterJohn](#): > > Oh lord.. I served in the navy with a couple Filipinos, and that drove me insane. They would have a conversation half in english, and half in tagalog, just mixing and matching whatever seemed to fit best. My friend said that a lot of people from the philippines were so completely bilingual that they just did that without thinking about it. SBS sometimes shows news shows from the Philippines and sure enough, it’s this incomprehensible mixture of Tagalog and English, freely alternating between the two with no rhyme or reason: _“somethingincomprehensibleandforeign Defence Minister Smith on a visit to Manila last Tuesday somethingincomprehensibleandforeign”_ and I find myself sitting there with a 😕 expression on my face. There are several Asian students and university who wear T-shirts with nonsensical English phrases on them- “It is up to us to be the strength of one” and things like that. As far as I can tell, they just like the way the words look. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2009, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-japanese-video-games-have-so-much-english/490933/30 "2009-03-28T13:22:47Z")
> [@jovan](#): > > I really, really wish people would stop repeating this canard. French absorbs a _huge_ amounts of foreign words, especially English. 5% of French vocabulary is of English origin, up from 2.5% 100 years ago. English words are especially common in vernacular speech. In French, you leave your car at the “parking” and eat “fast-food” when you go “shopping” on “weekends” for stuff to put in your “living”. [Here’s a list](http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mots_fran%C3%A7ais_d'origine_anglaise); most of these words are very common. True, but there’s also some resistance going on from the Académie (and therefore, most newspapers and so on). Officialy, we can’t write emails, only courriel. No spam, but pourriel. No freewares, but graticiels ; sharewares being partagiciels. Obviously a ridiculous neologism is better than a filthy foreign word, don’tcherknow. CD-ROMs don’t exist officialy, they’re cédéroms… And so on, and so forth. Of course, most people use the English anyway. There’s also the somewhat recent law that any and all English words used in signs, adverts and so on must have their translation somewhere on the sign, even something as evident as “Just do it”. ---
**Author:** ![Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hypnagogic_jerk/32/4252_2.png) [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2009, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-japanese-video-games-have-so-much-english/490933/31 "2009-03-28T17:34:58Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > True, but there’s also some resistance going on from the Académie (and therefore, most newspapers and so on). Officialy, we can’t write emails, only courriel. No spam, but pourriel. No freewares, but graticiels ; sharewares being partagiciels. Obviously a ridiculous neologism is better than a filthy foreign word, don’tcherknow. CD-ROMs don’t exist officialy, they’re cédéroms… And so on, and so forth. Of course, most people use the English anyway. Language regulatory bodies propose neologisms, but usage decides what words end up in the language. For example, I happen to like (and use) “courriel”, but I usually call spams “spams” even in French. We’ll see how it is in 10 years. Also consider the recent orthographic reform that’s been proposed for French, which would lead to, for example, “événement” becoming “évènement”, a whole lot of words losing their diereses (trémas) and a bunch of other changes I’ve forgotten. It’s being said that this is the way we’ll be supposed to spell in the future, and apparently it’s already taught in schools. I personally think these new spellings look weird – I recognize that this is merely because I’m more familiar with the old ones – so I don’t use them. We’ll see what French speakers around the world do with them. ---
**Author:** ![Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8edcca/32.png) [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superfluous_Parentheses)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2009, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-japanese-video-games-have-so-much-english/490933/32 "2009-03-28T18:32:39Z")
> [@snailboy](#): > > I can’t stand it when they take our present participles (ending in -ing) and make them nouns. The first time I saw _shampooing_, I thought it was Engrish. Maybe it’s their retribution for how we mangle a lot of their words and phrases. We Dutch do that all the time. If it’s a noun, it can be verbed. Even if it’s a foreign word. ---
**Author:** ![snailboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/97f17d/32.png) [@snailboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snailboy)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2009, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-japanese-video-games-have-so-much-english/490933/33 "2009-03-29T15:35:14Z")
> [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](#): > > We Dutch do that all the time. If it’s a noun, it can be verbed. Even if it’s a foreign word. Yeah, but I bet you add your own ending to it. It wouldn’t bother me so much if they made a verb shampooer. The thing is they add -ing to it, which I don’t think I’ve seen on any French word not ripped from us recently. So I’m thinking they took the suffix from us too, but they’re using it totally differently. Shampooing is a process we use to clean our hair. Shampooing is a chemical they use in that process. But I don’t want to derail my own thread too far, just make a simple point. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2009, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-japanese-video-games-have-so-much-english/490933/34 "2009-03-29T20:19:26Z")
> [@CutterJohn](#): > > My friend said that a lot of people from the philippines were so completely bilingual that they just did that without thinking about it. I understand the situation is very similar in US/Mexico border towns. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-japanese-video-games-have-so-much-english/490933.md?page=1)