Is イングリッシュ a good translation of "Engrish"?

Question

Is イングリッシュ a good translation of Engrish?

The Japanese-language Wikipedia article on the subject only uses "イングリッシュ" at the start (presumably just as part of Wikipedia indicating how the subject of articles are pronounced). When trying a google web search, many hits were referring to English schools referring to English, not Engrish (for example english-bell.com), and a google image search mainly gets hits for Johnny English, or the English cocker spaniel.

If it's not a good translation, what words or phrases, if any, are likely to be easily understood, preferably without being offensive?

Possible duplicate of Does Japanese have a term equivalent to "Engrish"? — broccoli forest, Sep 19 '16 at 05:26
@broccoliforest isn't that describing the opposite - low quality Japanese, not low quality English? — Golden Cuy, Sep 19 '16 at 07:20
@AndrewGrimm Ah! I misread that question. That's what I somehow felt weird... — broccoli forest, Sep 19 '16 at 08:21

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 15 '15 at 16:23

Translating Engrish in Japanese is no easier than pulling yourself up by your bootstrap, since they use it while they don't notice using it. (Transcribing Engrish would face the same paradox, too.)

So, basically you should explain instead of translating. The first sentence in your Wikipedia link shows one of the most thorough samples.

日本人が日本語の文章を英語に翻訳を^[sic]する時、あるいは英語で文章を書こうとした時に生み出された、語法・文法・綴り・語彙などの点で奇妙な英語表現

But for the sake of brevity, you can just express it as 「（日本人の）変な英語」「怪しい英語」「奇妙な英語」 etc.

You could throw a visual knuckleball like イングりッシュ (cf. トイザらス Toys"R"Us), which might convey the intended oddity but not guaranteed to be understood as you expect, either.

score -5 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 15 '15 at 06:53

-5

In this case, the word イングリッシュ is much more acceptable.

The term is a bit derogatory though.

answered Jun 15 '15 at 06:53

guestdave

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Much more acceptable than what? – Golden Cuy Jun 15 '15 at 08:03
Much more acceptable than any other "Engrish". Though instead of using the Katakana, the spelling "Engrish" in itself already a meaning in itself. – guestdave Jun 15 '15 at 08:25

Is イングリッシュ a good translation of "Engrish"?

2 Answers2