Japanese English ability

Tokyo Five picked this video by Scatman Ultraman.


We have snake-type fireworks that look like snakes or poop when you light them, they’re not very attractive. A guy lit off 520 snake fireworks… and a new monster appeared.


I like this English learning site: "Heikin Nihonjin Eigo (Average Japanese English)," it is useful and fun to read. A Japanese phrase or word is shown, and people try to guess the correct way to say it in English. There are three cartoon characters on this site, and the top three responses are listed below the Japanese words with one of the three cartoon characters next to each, giving an explanation for each English equivalent. Then people vote on which character's answer is best, and finally, native English speakers judge the results. Here are some examples from the page:

• Kara Mawari (Empty Circling) : Japanese people think of this as meaning "air spin" or "wasted effort" or "try hard, and get nothing." Most people chose "wasted effort" as the closest meaning. Then the native English speaker said that "Going in circles" was the closest native phrase to this Japanese. 
• Manual Ningen (Manual Person): This "Manual" means like "owners manual" or "rule book". The top three Japanese people's responses were: "manual human", "rule person" and "text action human." The native speaker though that "By the book" was the closest English, although I think that "By the book PERSON" is closer. 
• Morai Naki (Received Crying): This is when we see someone else crying and we cry because of their crying. Japanese thought that "given cry", "crying effect", and "moving cry" were the top three for being close to real English. The native English speaker said "Sympathetic crying" was closest, but don't you think it's more "Empathetic" than "Sympathetic"?. 
• Chikuru (Tattling) : Japanese thought that "sell (out) friend", "leak" and "secret report" were the top three choices, and the native speaker said "Squeal" was the closest English.  Click the bubble part then you can see how Eric rated the level of understanding. 

When you click the box below of the top three choices you can see the voting result and the native speakers explanation.

This is a page that collects impressive photos. Most are funny, but do you know this picture? I didn't know that the photojournalist committed suicide.

Comments

[Aion Frank]

I cannot believe this is true!

[brain]

Mari, your links are all broken.

Example:
http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Carter">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Carter">http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Carter

should be

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Carter

[mari]

scat means jazz singing. didn't know it. Thank you

[PB]

Hello! I just found your writing on-line, its very interesting! I am an American girl living in New York City, and I will definitely be keeping up with reading your blog - I love hearing about people in other big cities, other places!

[RMilner]

Did you know that "scat" means something else as well as jazz singing?

[abraxis]

Ultraman Scatman tribute is way cool! Best thing I've seen in a while.