For the Love of Engrish...

So I recently got into a debate on Facebook....I never really get into debates on facebook. Do you? It's mostly one side saying what they thing, another side not listening but disagreeing on principle, the first side following the same method and so on. Very little listening or learning, which is why I usually choose not to engage.

Then someone called me a bigot.

Well it didn't start that way, did it? Let me back up.

I run an account on Patreon (like kickstarter but ongoing for artist support) that is called Weird Box of Japan and specializes in Engrish goods as well as other weird semi-uniquely Japanese things. People give me money, I send them a monthly box of weirdness that usually makes people happy. One of my patrons posted on one of the Amanda Palmer facebook fan groups about the contents of her recent package, which met mostly with responses like "What is that?" and "Why haven't I heard of this?"
The one vocal Chinese member of the group (ethnically and globally. Like she really lives in China and is Chinese. She is the only one who meets that criteria and regularly posts anything.) even mentioned that she could read the label and knew what the mystery item was but wouldn't tell anyone.

But there was also a negative response that got a couple of likes, which was something along the lines of "I don't see how Engrish is anything but bigotry."
And I wasn't the only one to be taken aback by the offended tone, especially when we're having fun at our own expense.
There were a few comments present when I checked this out (at 5:30 AM after a road trip) which basically when along the lines of "What?" and "Let Jessica explain. She probably knows."

So I explained, via an essay written on my phone using my thumbs while I lay in bed next to my slumbering family. I mentioned that I thought I knew where the girl was coming from and if anyone were using the term against people I would agree that it is racist and awful, but we are only using it to describe commercially produced products coming out of companies that didn't bother to have their copy checked by a native speaker. We're laughing at companies that either believe that whatever they put on a shirt/cup/whatever will do since it has those western letters or that it will sell better for its flaws.
I went on to explain that my Japanese husband thinks Engrish is the appropriate term and is hysterical.

The girl responded in one sentence paragraphs racked with errant commas that the word Engrish is racist because it mocks phonemes present in several Asian languages and I should use "comical translation error" or something similar instead. She then compared me to a schoolyard bully and insisted that the companies producing these things are victims of my racist labeling practices.


Here's the thing. I have said many stupid things in my life, from when I once told the hispanic boy I had a crush on in 3rd grade to "speak American" (because I was embarrassed to not know Spanish) to when I kept insisted on calling America "my country" when having dinner with several international  folks in Minneapolis last December, despite the fact that one of them was born in the states. I didn't mean any harm and still think these were stupid things to say.

Calling these products Engrish is not racist, because people of any race could be making these mistakes and anyone can laugh at them. I am not condoning telling people they "speak engrish" because Engrish is not a spoken thing. Spoken language is different and more difficult. Even having someone read over everything you plan to say is not a full-proof way to avoid errors. Written things,  especially words and phrases that wind up on products, are different in that there is room for editing. Someone can check your work and make sure it goes out right most of the time.

That's why it's funny and not mean. That's why we can call it Engrish.

The fight with the girl went on a few more volleys, with me dissecting her one analogy and her confessing it wasn't even an analogy but a reflection of something she once saw in her job. She's calling me a bully because she has seen bullying once.

Then she called me a biggot, though "not in a character defining sort of way." which was really the icing on the cake.

I did respond by pointing out some errors and trying to add guidance and positive feedback to the mix. She acted like I farted in her face.

The saddest thing is that I have been there, trying to relate the vast realm of human experience to whatever I knew at 16 or 18 or 22 and being offended on behalf of races and cultures I don't belong to for imagined injustices as much as real ones.

But I've grown up since then.

I used to think no one should use the n word. Then we wouldn't have to keep reminding non-black people to avoid it. It took some time and growth for me to understand that a maligned group has the right to reclaim words used against them if they so choose, and that choice doesn't even go for every member of that group. Bottom line, white girl from suburbia doesn't get to be offended on behalf of anyone unless there's actually someone saying "I am offended by this."

This is also why it is good to have friends of many cultures and races. You can ask, "Is this offensive?" and they can tell you.

So that's what I did. In a comment anyone could see, I asked the only vocal Asian in the group, and she said that the way the term was being used was not offensive at all. If it were being used against the way an actual person was speaking, then it would be. I agreed.

I then wrote my last paragraph to the offended girl and hid the post. Then I laughed. And laughed. And had a beer. And told my friends. And told my grandmother.
And laughed.

And I am still laughing.


But there were some interesting thoughts in this whole affair for me. The first was the realization that the nut jobs are not all on the right wing. Sorry conservative friends, I've heard enough hollering for crazy crap from my youth in Texas, and I've seen scores of people who can only believe in a politicians the way they believe in Jesus which is so wrong on so many levels, but that is people. I never knew we had (just as many perhaps) people plugging their ears to discourse and screaming offense about things that the potentially maligned group has judged as OK.

The next interesting thought was the debate in communication between being concise and being politically correct. I could write out a longer, potentially less offensive phrase (that I don't have the brain power to come up with now) every time I want to say "engrish" but definitely won't since I don't know anyone who is both Asian and offended by this term. The real heart of the debate lies more with words like Korean to describe the language of Korea. Koreans call the writing system hangul and take offense at calling it anything else, but if a friend of mine shows me a picture of some Asian writing they found and says, "Hey, what's this say?" the best answer is "I can;t read it. That's Korean."
Otherwise I have to have a whole conversation about hangul every single time I get asked about Asian writing, which isn't that often but still would be a waste of my time. We should all call it hangul and one day we will all know this, but for now, it saves me time and patience to use the less delicate term.

The last interesting thing...has been forgotten unfortunately. Such is life when this was what I did with the break I took when cleaning for several hours straight made me woozy.

Onward to other things!