JapanNewbie

You Should Lose your Ability to Reason

Posted on 09. Apr, 2010 @ 7:14 am by harvey in Humor, Language, Travel Views: 655

Can you spot the bad Japanese?

Don't add this Japanese to your SRS deck

Found this sign in Lijiang China while I was there on vacation a few weeks ago.

「外遊は文明を忘れない、買い物をするのは理性を失うはずです」

There is a LOT wrong with the Japanese here, but I want to point out one especially fatal mistake.

「理性を失うはずです。」

First we must learn the 「はず」grammar point. 「はず」 means “should.” For example, 「彼はもうすでに来ているはずです。」 would be, “he should already be here.” Note, this isn’t like “he should go to the store,” or, “I should do my homework.” It’s more like a state or situation that should be occurring. The nuance there is a bit tricky, but further explanation is beyond the scope of this blog post. Just read up on 「べき」and 「方がいい」 (ごめん、ここでは説明しません。オレは怠け者です。)

Now, in this except you can see that they have said 理性 (ability to reason) を失う(lose) はずです (should). Which means. “You should lose your ability to reason.”

Whoops.

Btw, the English isn’t right either… and I would dare to guess that the French could be improved as well!

Get your Japanese checked Newbies!

Here’s a bonus sign also from Lijiang. They’re not even trying in this one…

Throw in some の's and call it a day.

If you’re curious about Lijiang check out some of our Lijiang youtube videos from that trip.

- Harvey