英語を正してもいいですか

Correcting a person's language in any setting that is not a teacher's or editor's office is rude. There's no way around it. If English is your second language, do you want me to correct you if I see or hear something wrong? You might say, "Yes," but when will the opportunity arise? It's better to be face-to-face, somewhat private, and with a gentle tone. No matter how careful one is with wording, when it comes to communicating to someone in a second language, handling something so delicate cannot work well over the internet. And—oh!—have I learned this much! :(

However, as an ESL teacher and former editor and writer, I see English everywhere here in Japan. Many of these instances (though it should be noted, not all) are filled with simple mistakes and misspellings.

What kind of a jerk would I be if I went to a company and said, "Oh, by the way, this is spelled or worded completely wrong!" Such confrontational approaches, even when handled gently by American measures, are unacceptable here. Yet, the idea that any business, particularly those large and rich enough to host ad campaigns, should handle foreign language copy so poorly stirs my inner editor's ferocity.

English is standardly taught at nearly every level of school here in Japan, and there are numerous tutoring schools for both children and adults. However, the level of proficiency seems low. It makes me wonder about Spanish classes back in my home state of Texas, and how poorly we must have sounded to native speakers of the language.

I'm thinking of adding a subsection to this blog strictly for such instances, which are usually referred to as "engrish," but I will not be using the offensive term. There are any number of sites that show odd or twisted English as used by non-English countries, usually doing nothing more than pointing the phrases out. For this blog, I would make any company names anonymous, focus only on the phrases or words in question, and try to correct them with the same information I would provide one of my students in a classroom setting. Would this be okay? I would especially like to hear from my Japanese friends their feelings on the subject.

そして、私の日本語を正してください！