Japan isn’t the only country that suffers from engrish. Apparently there’s also dunglish too. I often wondered, if english is a mandatory subject in Dutch schools, would people needlessly slip it in trying to be hip and cool? I’ve seen some odd phrases here and there, even in the Rijksmuseum where they used ‘of’ instead of ‘off’. I usually wrote them off as being dunglish without knowing there really is a term call dunglish. It’s out there and this site indicates it’s on the rise. One phrase I frequently see in my correspondence with others is “I hope that I informed you sufficiently.” The site makes note of this sentence too. It’s perfectly valid English, I know what they’re telling me, it’s just not something a native speaker would say. I’ve even went as far as being a bit puzzled as to what I really would say in that context, or even if I’d say anything at all.
Another site I ran across is dutchgrammar.com. It has a ton of useful information about grammar, pronouncation, rules. I discovered last night it has several lengthly audio dialogs with a side-by-side Nederland/English written translations to follow along. Flash is the greatest thing ever to happen to learn-a-language website. The audio clip is embedded right there in the page, no spawning of Realplayer (gack!) or Quicktime.
