Do You "Love" Me💗 Or "Rob" Me🔪? - Pronunciation Issue in Japan 愛してるの💗？強盗するの🔪？- 発音は大事です-

Japanese follows English. 英語の後に日本語が続きます。

Something or sometimes everything may be lost in translation.... 

The head of the legal department of a company I used to work for (I will call him "Hiroshi") is Japanese and didn't speak English at all. He had forgotten everything about English, not only the vocabulary but also the grammar. The problem was that like many Japanese people, Hiroshi wanted to use English whenever he could. For example, he spoke in English to me, who am Japanese, and then translated what he had said to me into Japanese. You find it stupid? It is but I sympathize with him, too because I know how he felt, i.e., inferiority complex regarding English. The company was his first non-Japanese employer. I just hoped nothing bad would happen to him. 

One day, the CEO, who's American, told me to come to his office. As soon as I entered the room, he thrust some paper to me, asking me to read it. That was a one-page report Hiroshi had prepared in English. I couldn't help but smile. It must have taken him hours to write this. But then I found it! - i.e., the term "regal," not once, not twice, but more than five times, used to mean "legal," such as "'regal' department" and "'regal' issues." The CEO wryly said, "I didn't know we had a regal family in the company." Hiroshi quit several months later. I don't know this incident had something to do with his resignation. 

The reason for such a simple but possibly costly mistake is that in the Japanese language, the term "regal" is pronounced the same as "legal" because Japanese has no sound of "r" and therefore every "r" is pronounced the same as "l." Hiroshi must have confused the two words.

Do you find it funny and/or stupid? Maybe you do, but this type of mistake often happens in Japan. And this is one example that something or everything is "lost in translation"....

So, don't be turned off if someone you love who's Japanese says to you, "I ROB you" because she or he may be just meaning to say "I LOVE you"😂 (I'm 99.9% certain of that...)

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以前勤めていた会社の法務部トップのヒロシ（仮名）部長、「英語は全く話せない、でも使いたい」という典型的な日本人でした。なぜか私にも先ず英語で話し、その後日本語に言い直すという、ちょっと変わった方。これだけならよかったんですが｡｡｡

ある日、米国人社長に渡されたのがヒロシ部長の書いた「英語」の報告書でした。読んでびっくり！ 何度も「regal department（王の部）」、「regal issues（王の問題）」と書かれていたんです。（本来は「legal department（法務部）」、「legal issues（法的問題）」）読み終わって社長を見たら「うちの会社に王族がいたとは知らなかった」と薄笑いしてました。ヒロシ部長は数か月後消えました｡｡｡ その事件が関係していたかどうかは分かりません。日本語は「R」と「L」を区別しないので仕方ないか｡｡｡

でも恋人が英語圏の方、発音くれぐれも気を付けてくださいね。間違っても「I rob you」とか言わないでね。「love」の「L」、舌先を前歯の裏にしっかりと付けてください😂

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