Duolingo celebrates mistranslations with 'Museum of Wonky English'

The space in Japan shows examples of some of the funniest language fails

Published On
Dec 04, 2022

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Attention—if you don't brush up on your language skills, you might end up in a museum.

At least, in Japan that could happen, because Duolingo has opened a "Museum of Wonky English" that showcases some of the funniest Japanese to English mistranslations it could find.

Created via Tokyo agency UltraSuperNew, the free pop up museum is located in Harajuku Tokyo, and contains 16 of the best examples of "wonky English" found all over Japan, from menus to signs to t-shirt slogans. It will be open until Dec. 7.  Supporting the campaign is a hero film that invites people to visit the museum and participate in a social activation to share the humorous and interesting mistranslations they come across in daily life on Duolingo's Twitter channel: @duolingo_japan.  The best submissions will be exhibited in the museum and those who sent them will be rewarded with a free month of Super Duolingo.

“Why do mistakes have such a bad rep?" said Andrés Aguilar, associate creative director, UltraSuperNew. "They’re the unsung language-learning heroes, and we wanted this campaign to settle the scores."

Francois Claverie, group creative director, UltraSuperNew added: “The beauty of wonky English translations is entirely lost on those who don’t have a good enough command of the English language. Roughly 88 million people in Japan are being left out! By giving them a taste of how wonderful these mistranslations can be, we’re hoping that they’ll give Duolingo a try, to be able to quickly appreciate them by themselves too.”

 

Credits

Date
Dec 04, 2022
Client :
Duolingo
Agency :
UltraSuperNew
Japan Country Manager :
Sho Mizutani
VP Marketing :
Manu Orssaud
Director of Regional Marketing Asia :
Haina Xiang
Creative Director Brand & Marketing :
James Kuczynski
Director of Social Media :
Katherine Chan
Group Account Director :
Yumi Esposito-Pueblo
Group Creative Director :
Francois Claverie
Associate Creative Director :
Andres Aguilar
Associate Creative Director :
Oguzcan Kaganoguzbeyoglu
Copywriter :
Nobuaki Nogamoto
Art Director :
Sayu Fujil
Designer :
Belle Sim
Strategist :
Isobel Walker
Producer :
Alex Watanabe
Content Planner :
Kazuki Chito
UI/UX Designer :
Yerai Zamorano
Gallery Coordinator :
Alex Schmidt
Contributor :
Jinshi Itomi
Contributor :
Asumi Yamayoshi
Director :
Takeshi Kogahara
DP :
Ryo Ishida
Gaffer :
Keisuke Kamiyama
Art Design :
AKI
Sound :
Yuta Oido
Grading :
Yuta Yamada
Music :
Tommy Zee
Producer :
Yas Osawa

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Project Type