Sunday, October 19, 2014

7-11 Coffee Machine -- Why English Only??

This is the coffee machine in the 7-11 convenience store near Demachiyangi Station in Kyoto.  As you can see, all of the English labels have been carefully translated into Japanese for the benefit of the customers.  I'm sure that they appreciate it. After all this *IS* Japan.  Why all of the English?

Now, this particular model has been made just for the 7-11 convenience store chain. Why did they design it with English labels only?  Maybe they thought that it would look more modern or 'high class' that way?

I suppose at the 7-11 headquarters, it didn't occur to anyone that they might lose *customers* if they couldn't understand how to operate the machine!

Why "Let's"?

Let's Vitamin!

Despite all of the grammar thrown at students in junior high school and high school, why is it that they think that "Let's" can be followed by a noun?  Is "Bitamin shimashoo", a direct translation, good Japanese?  Me thinks not!