LANGUAGE｜CULTURE

5 Things Both Native English Speakers and English Learners Need to Know

Duolingo’s grammar trolling stirs up controversy in Japan

The other day, a tweet with the hashtag #泣いちゃう英語 (English that makes me cry) went viral on Twitter. The creator of the tag—an American author—posted a photo of a notice that the Japanese MHLW (Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare) had issued and she corrected grammatical errors in red. She wrote:

It’s obvious that no native English speakers have checked this document given the grammatical errors and unnatural phrases. They are not critical to cause major confusion, but it doesn’t give a good impression.

Japanese and English Are Linguistically and Culturally different

According to the author, she intended to raise awareness of the importance of accurate translation, especially in official documents issued by the Japanese government.

It is undeniable Japan has been failing at English. In an English proficiency survey conducted by Education First, Japan ranked 80th among 111 countries in 2022[1].

However, we shouldn’t forget that Japanese and English are two structurally very different languages. Take a look at the U.S. Embassy’s website. Its articles state[2]:

下記の日本語文書は参考のための仮翻訳で、正文は英文です。 (The following Japanese document is a provisional translation for reference; the official text is in English.)

As this implies limitations, you will find the translated Japanese fine, but not natural, if you’re a fluent Japanese speaker. Translation between English and Japanese is a herculean task even for professional translators.

The next time you feel the need to correct someone’s second language, please remember this article. Here are my thoughts on why grammar trolls on social media do more harm than good, particularly in non-English speaking countries.

1. Average Native English Speakers’ Proofreading Isn’t Good Enough

I’m a native Japanese speaker, but I don’t dare say I can edit someone’s medical thesis or technical writing in Japanese. Writing needs expertise in many cases, and what we need is usually expert proofreading, not an average native speaker's comments.

Paid native speakers have shocked me many times with their unnatural English writing, especially when I was tutoring English. We should keep in mind that every native speaker isn’t a great writer. Not so many translators can step up and say, “It needs different wording in this context.”

I don’t deny the fact that average native English speakers can do a better job than machine translation and Grammarly, but asking for their help doesn’t necessarily mean a perfect solution. We should pay extra for skillful translation before taking people’s random posts at face value.

2. There’s No Single Correct English

Native English speakers account for only 25% (380 million) of the total English speakers in the world. 1.1 billion people use English as their second or third language, which suggests English as a lingua franca needs to be discussed more to eradicate linguistic discrimination[3].

Besides, ‘native speaker’ is an unreliable, and a little bit discriminatory label, which doesn’t match the zeitgeist of this era.

Imagine you’re a fairly bilingual writer and your editor says, “Don’t make a change after my editing since you’re not a native English speaker.” The policy that mandates native speaker proofreading is almost a curse for non-native creators. If it happens, I will stop writing for that media no matter how much I’m grateful for their compensation.

3. Localized English Serves a Wide Range of Purposes

Many Americans claim that Japanese business owners need to be aware of the risks of English such as double-meaning words, sexual slang, and eventual miscommunication due to grammatical errors.

However, needless to say, Japanese companies’ customers are mainly Japanese speakers except for their global marketing. Thus, localized English suffices for their promotion needs, even if Americans find the advertising copy a bit awkward.

I don’t want to imagine “flesh salad” at grocery stores in my neighborhood, but if the purpose of the sign is to give a cool vibe in the shop design and nobody except me notices the problem, it’s not a total failure (and it gives me chills anyway.)

For instance, some Americans were amused finding the little sexy catchphrase “Come Come Christmas” at 7-Eleven stores. But if you live in Japan, you may recall the famous drama カムカムエヴリバディ (Come Come Everybody), which NHK aired until April 2022 and arguably inspired that copy. In this example, no one is guilty because language is highly context-sensitive.

4. Grammar Nazis Are a Threat to Foreign Language Learners

For non-native English users like me, spreading information in a second language means handling insecurities and unpredictable feedback.

In particular, it is a nightmare for beginners and intermediate English learners to be dragged into a discussion by grammar trolls. Everyone learns from their mistakes when it comes to language learning, but the journey shouldn’t be painful.

That’s why I feel sorry for those whose mistakes got copied and exhibited at the Museum of Wonky English produced by Duolingo. It is disappointing to learn Duolingo is sneaky enough to rummage around for real-life English errors in Japan and ask followers to post their findings too only to make fun of them.

5. Heartfelt Voice Is Invaluable Irrespective of Proficiency

English in Japan still needs a lot of work. But the key to effective communication is all about respecting one another, isn’t it? And everything starts from voicing our opinions in our second language unless our counterpart uses Japanese.

During this World Cup period, Japan’s Samurai Blue surprised me with their dedication on the pitch as well as the second language skills which they demonstrated in the interviews after the matches. Not only captain Yoshida, but Mitoma, Dōan, and Kubo confidently handled the press conference in English or Spanish.

There might have been grammatical faux pas in their English. Some may think they should have asked for interpreters’ help to avoid miscommunication. But I bet I’m not the only one who considers that imperfect yet heartfelt expressions move us more deeply than perfectly toned speech and writing by someone else.

Final Thoughts

Some say Japanese people should be grateful for free corrections by native English-speaker trolls, but that is like forcing someone to listen to mansplaining on the street. There are many other respectful means to give helpful feedback other than publicly exposing someone’s mistakes on social media.

If one wants to give an open-style lecture, grammar police should keep in mind their limitations of knowledge to understand the underlying context and the violation of privacy before they go on patrol.

I hope younger generations in non-English speaking countries flourish with their second language skills. Arigathanks gozaimuch for reading my grumbling to the end.

Sources: [1] EF English Proficiency Index Education First [2] 日米が「経済版2プラス2」会合を初開催 U.S. Embassy & Consulates in Japan [3] 世界の英語人口15億｜日本も急増中！英語を習得すべき8つの理由 The English Club

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