Chocolate and advertising language

Here is an example of advertising Japanese. It seems a language all of its own. The grammar is there; the vocabulary is there; the meaning is completely lost.

Here is the same text all in hiragana/katakana:

Here is the same text all in rōmaji:

Here is an initial translation of words only:

Here is a translation after putting an initial order into place:

Here is a possible translation, if not interpretation:

But what does it mean? No idea what so ever! Just flowery words with hints of promises lost in the meadows of the ethereal imagination of one’s chocolate fanciness. Right! It’s plain nonsensical waffle!

The problem for the student who wanders aimlessly through the supermarket and who has been studying Japanese is a sense of “Yeah! I can read this!” Only to not comprehend. If one were to ask a Japanese shopper, chances would be that the person wouldn’t be able to translate it into English either; the real truth would be that they really don’t understand the Japanese either. Now there’s advertising for you.

PS: we had no idea what コクのある meant. We guessed. Of course, we realise too that word order in Japanese is different, so a lot of the confusion is only because of grammatical differences. We mention it for fairness’s sake. It still is waffle though.

A good friend suggested: コクのあるチョコレート to describe extra-rich, creamy chocolate.

So: The extra-rich creation of rounded flavours and fragrances leaves a lingering memory behind.  Well… nah, … still advertising words. There you have it.

Here is the second part:

Here is the same text all in rōmaji:

Here is an initial translation of words only:

Here is a translation after putting an initial order into place:

Here is a possible translation, if not interpretation:

This type of language is fairly typical in advertising. It is beautiful, wordy language devoid of real meaning, in whatever language.

When buying we would suggest looking for the cocoa content percentage – in any language.