15 August 2005

Ideograph idiocy

Via Christa Faust, I learn of Hanzi Smatter, a blog "dedicated to the misuse of Chinese characters (Hanzi or Kanji) in Western culture." It's a strangely fascinating object lesson in dumbth, particularly around folks getting Kanji tattoos that mean unintended things --- or that are "typos" that mean nothing at all.

Which of course makes me think of J-List's famous "stupid foreigner" t-shirt.

2 comments:

Erik said...

Mind you, the use of kanji to write out "baka" (stupid/idiot) is akin to calling someone a "square" in English; the point is made, but the usage is arcane.

Ken said...

Mind you, the use of kanji to write out "baka" (stupid/idiot) is akin to calling someone a "square" in English; the point is made, but the usage is arcane.