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J-rock refers to Japanese rock music, and Ellegarden is the name of a punk rock band that often uses English words as lyrics. One such song is titled Windy Day. Another is Santa Claus, which is sung partly in Japanese, partly in English.

KONGLISH

Konglish describes several types of Korean and English mixtures. One is anglicized Korean with Latin letters of the alphabet. Examples of such words are: ge-im for game, bi-di-o for video, syo-ping for shopping, cho-ko-lit for chocolate, bol-pen for ballpoint pen, a-I-seu-keu-rim for ice cream, and haem-beo-geo for hamburger.

Another type of Konglish is transmogrified English with results that are often hilarious. For example, a sign for a traditional barbecue comes out as LEGITIMATE BARBECUE. Another is a sign in a store window saying “Family Photo,” with a line that reads, “Memorize Your Marriage.”9

Koreans also like to shorten long words in ways that even Americans themselves might envy. For example, an office-hotel complex boils down to officetel, a word processor becomes wo-pro, and a digital camera becomes di-ca.

Koreans are especially clever at fabricating words with English letters such as skinship, which means physical contact between two or more people that is not necessarily sexual. Another is hwai-ting, pronounced like fighting (with heavy emphasis on the last syllable), a term for an all-purpose type of cheering or encouragement.

Korea Times columnist Jon Huer, who supplied the above examples, says Koreans “are ingenious in creating all sorts of combinations, subtractions, modifications, distortions . . . to suit their purpose. There are literally hundreds of such Konglish inventions and creations in use.”

MANGLISH

At first, Manglish and Singlish seem to be essentially the same, but Manglish is said to represent more of a Malaysian influence in the ports of Malacca and Penang. Unlike Singlish, it doesn’t follow any grammatical rules. As a result, some of its variations are not understandable to people speaking other versions. It might be said, therefore, that English is more mangled in Manglish than in Singlish.

According to Wikipedia, Manglish grew out of street lingo in Malaya, while English prevailed in British administrative offices. In Malaysia, the Chinese tend to speak Malay when conversing with other Chinese, but they speak English when they converse with other Chinese in Singapore.

PAKLISH

English is one of two official languages of Pakistan. It is the language of government, the courts, and the media, although Urdu, the national language, has more speakers. Most large daily papers are published in English or have English editions. English is also taught in school, where much of the instruction in other courses is also in English. Almost all Pakistanis know at least some English words.

Like India, Pakistan first learned English from its early British occupiers, which explains the predominant British accent. But it is changing to American, largely because of the substantial influence of U.S. films and TV, and more recently the presence of many American military and security personnel.

However, English words are sometimes hard to understand because of native accents and frequent misspellings, this according to the Business Rules Forum, an international organization seeking to make business firms more effective. An item on its site says, “The chief reason for the misspellings is because [forum] members love to parody Pakistanis.”

If a word is accidentally misspelled in a leading Pakistani newspaper or journal, forum members are likely to quickly pick up the mistake and adopt it as their own. An example is the common phrase “going for the jugular vein.” It’s more likely to come out as “jaguar vein.”

Among English terms, according to various sources, are shopper, not as a person but as a bag; open/close, with the meaning of turning something on or off; get no lift (receive no attention or assistance); tight in the sense of high quality; and being out