Lissette Lorenz

和製英語 (わせいえいご) Wasei eigo, or Japanese-manufactured English, is everywhere in Japan. Even though the words are in English, an English-speaking person might not understand wasei eigo. For example, if your Japanese friend asks you for consent to use their phone, they are not asking you for permission, they are asking for a power outlet to charge their phone. If they say they want to invite you to their mansion for a high-volume, high-tension viking, they are not saying that you will be fighting a Viking in their loud, giant home. They are inviting you to their apartment for an exciting, all-you-can-eat buffet.

Most wasei eigo hasn’t made it back to the English-speaking world, like “beauty up,” but “power up” and “level up,” and the pop culture products associated with them, are alive and well in the English-speaking world wherein Nintendo and anime-laden childhoods took place.