Japanese and English have significantly different grammar:
Japanese word order, the
frequent omission of
subjects in Japanese, the absence of
articles, a near-complete absence of
consonant clusters, and
difficulties in distinguishing /l/ and /r/, or /θ/ and /s/ sounds, all contribute to substantial problems using Standard English effectively. Japanese people have tended to score comparatively poorly on international tests of English. Further, English is frequently used in Japan (and elsewhere) for aesthetic rather than functional purposes; i.e., for Japanese consumption, not for English speakers
per se, as a way of appearing "smart, sophisticated and modern", in much the same way as Japanese and similar writing scripts are used in Western fashion. Such decorative English is not meant to be read and understood by native English speakers, so emphasis is not placed on coherence or accuracy. The Japanese language also makes extensive use of loanwords, especially from English in recent decades, and these words are transliterated into a Japanese form of pronunciation using the
katakana syllabary. Japanese speakers may thus only be familiar with the Japanese pronunciation or Japanese meaning, rather than its original pronunciation or meaning. This is particularly the case when the source English word contains sounds or sound clusters which have no equivalent in katakana. ==In popular culture==