Gratuitous English/Literature

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Examples of Gratuitous English in Literature include:

  • In The Yiddish Policemen's Union, the Jews of Sitka speak Yiddish as their primary language, but prefer to swear in American English.
  • The Japanese Harry Potter books, in addition to featuring the English title as well as Japanese on the cover, have English romaji beside the kanji for their publishing company - and it's written "Say-zan-sha (Seizansha)."
  • Lampshaded throughout Chris Jericho's first book, A Lion's Tale, while recounting his times in Japan. He often referred to it as "English just good enough to make no sense."
  • In the Japanese translations of the Warrior Cats series, the names of the characters, which are usually combinations of nouns, verbs and adjectives, are left in English.