"Janglish" news report

[AAllan at AOL.COM]

'Janglish' is simply just jangle for many

Date: 17/01/2000

By JULIET HINDELL in Tokyo

Half of all Japanese adults say they cannot understand what young people say,
partly because of a flood of new English and other foreign words entering
everyday conversation.

A survey by the Yomiuri newspaper found that 81 per cent of people were
confused by words borrowed from English. More than half said they had trouble
understanding Japanese because new words entered the language so quickly, and
48 per cent said they found the way that young people spoke was impenetrable.

Mireniamu and ribenji (millennium and revenge) were just two of the words
that have crept into Japanese from English which people have difficulty
understanding. Only half the respondents knew what they meant. Many
complained that young people used so many foreign words that they might as
well be speaking another language.

(story continues:  http://www.smh.com.au:80/news/0001/17/text/world8.html

- Allan Metcalf