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When Understanding Doesn't Matter
"Please refrain from the following acts in the store"
Many of the Japanese customers to this store will be unable to read with understanding this text, so what's its purpose?
Writing from Harajuku, back of | March 19, 2006 | Permalink
Comments
If the japanese culture is so, that these acts are refrained from in stores, maybe it's a suddle attempt to share knowledge of local etiquette to the gaijin?
Posted by: vt at March 19, 2006 4:11 PM
More likely: english language = more cosmopolitan
Posted by: Jan at March 19, 2006 6:29 PM
eh, maybe it's an attempt to educate the dumb foreigner?
as an aside: i was in the usa a few weeks ago. i was amazed at how much text was in the signage relative to equivalent signs here in finland.
Posted by: charlie at March 20, 2006 10:22 PM
I agree that the English language does appear more "cosmopolitan," thus the use of English on the sign. But there are pictographs too, so it is not as if the sign isn't completely useless to non-English speakers.
Strange, really...
Posted by: Bryan at March 22, 2006 4:11 PM
No more strange than t-shirts with Japanese text, tattoos with chinese characters worn by westerners.
One persons normal is another persons exotic.
Actually, its all exotic, we just don't see it...
Posted by: Jan at March 23, 2006 4:11 PM