mika_shiramizu@yahoo.com (Shira) wrote in message news:<fe028880.0306092256.8fb5b86@posting.google.com>...
> I myself am Japanese.But I often think what would I feel if I were a
> foreigner.For example,we see too many English words in daily
> life.Watch around you!Surely you easily find a person whose
> clothes,bag,or shoes have print of
> English.(Actually,first,English.Second,French.)We,Japanese,look them
> just as patterns.But all the words have meanings.If I used English as
> my mother tongue,I  would catch them first.If so,the prints would be
> really strange!Most prints have many errors and don't make perfect
> sentences.When there is a sentence,it is all the more strange because
> the sentence often says really silly thing.Let's take an example."Love
> something"is a so common word used in print(especially...on girls'
> T-shirt?).The girls in those T-shirt will be ashamed when they wear a
> T-shirt with Japanese(Chinese) character,"ai".(You know?A Japanese
> word for "love".)
>  I went to France three years ago.There,I saw people in T-shirts with
> Japanese character.They had errors,too.And it was strange that the
> words were rare characters in our daily life,like terms of SUMO.
>  Then, what language is used for print in America,or England,or
> Australia,...and so on?None?    ???


I had a Japanese friend visit me in the States once.  We went to a
sushi bar.  This place was not owned/operated by Japanese and had
these kanji characters displayed on the walls for decoration.  My
friend was looking around, both amused and bewildered.  He commented
on how strange those characters looked just haning on the walls -
their meanings irrelevant to the surroundings, just decorations.  Then
I commented to him that this was exactly the same thing native English
speakers observe in Japan.  He spent the next few minutes in an
introspective silence :-)

-MB