As I tutor ESL ( English as a Second Language ) students sometimes I encounter some interesting phrases and use of English in their writing. Last week I was
tutoring a lady from Korea, and I noticed she wrote in her child care class essay "Last week I visited child care
preschool and I did an optical examination in their playground." She admitted that she learned English in her native country ( and got mostly
A's in English), but had no idea if "American English" was different. I had to explain to her that Americans wouldn't use the phrase
"Optical examination" unless it had to do with an optometrist examining someone's eyes. She explained to
me that is how she wrote English in Korea, and never had a problem until she moved to America and teachers told her that she needed to brush up on English.
Well, I set her straight on the "Optical examination" as I told her "Visual examination" was a better choice when it came to "American English".
This isn't the first time I have came across Engrish at work as we have a diverse group of students.One elderly man we used to have come in for help with his English would put computer generated logos, with slogans on them, on his notebooks. Some of his home made logos with their witty slogans offended one of my supervisors, but I got a kick out of them as they were much like the t-shirt slogans we have on this site. His grasp of American slang terms wasn't too good though he had been living in the U.S. for a while. He wrote something about " Brave police officers and their d**** fighting crime to protect us Americans against terrorism"
and I almost burst out laughing when I read it. He said "Why is that so funny to you as police officers have detectives working for them?" I had to
explain that in these days we don't call detectives "dics" anymore, and we suggested that he get an American slang dictionary as he needed to be
updated on the American language.
Also it's a bit embarrassing when you have to explain the English terms for the human body because an ESL student found the words "prostate cancer" or "AIDS" in a magazine article they read. Oh well, my job is rewarding as we teach people about American culture as well as English.
This isn't the first time I have came across Engrish at work as we have a diverse group of students.One elderly man we used to have come in for help with his English would put computer generated logos, with slogans on them, on his notebooks. Some of his home made logos with their witty slogans offended one of my supervisors, but I got a kick out of them as they were much like the t-shirt slogans we have on this site. His grasp of American slang terms wasn't too good though he had been living in the U.S. for a while. He wrote something about " Brave police officers and their d**** fighting crime to protect us Americans against terrorism"
and I almost burst out laughing when I read it. He said "Why is that so funny to you as police officers have detectives working for them?" I had to
explain that in these days we don't call detectives "dics" anymore, and we suggested that he get an American slang dictionary as he needed to be
updated on the American language.
Also it's a bit embarrassing when you have to explain the English terms for the human body because an ESL student found the words "prostate cancer" or "AIDS" in a magazine article they read. Oh well, my job is rewarding as we teach people about American culture as well as English.
. I guess she has learned that we put so much emphasis on 
