Years ago, I traveled on business to Japan. I stayed about a month each trip and I went there 3-4 times. It is always interesting when you travel to another country, especially one where the native language is not English. What is even more challenging in Japan and parts of Asia, is that the signs on the streets and at the train and bus depots are written in their characters, not Romanized English characters, although today, that has changed somewhat. When a sign is not in Romanized characters, you can’t sound it out, unless you know the three character types used in Japan, which are Kanji (kahn-gee), Hirogana (hero-ghana) and Katakana (kahtah-kahna).
Although difficult to exactly write in this document, with the tools available, these symbols phonetically sound out my name: “Jeff.” I show you this to help you realize the difficulties that are presented when one tries to translate from English to Japanese, or the other way around. There is nothing straight forward about it!
Now, having made that point I must tell you the point, which is that while traveling in Japan, I noticed that the young Japanese people were all wearing t-shirts written in English. The problem was that as an English speaking person, I recognized that the English on their t-shirts didn’t actually make any sense. One perfect example was on the t-shirt of a young Japanese man, who I happened to be standing beside on a crowded train. Smiling and happy to see a foreigner, he struggled out the word “Hello.” I returned the greeting and looked down at his t-shirt. It had a red and white iconic symbol known throughout the world. It was in the shape of a bottle cap and had the name of that famous cola, just like it would here in the USA. Then I looked at the words just under the symbol, which read: “I Feel Coke!”
This was, interestingly enough, not an uncommon experience. He noticed me admiring his “English” t-shirt and pointed to it, smiling brightly and said, “I feel coke!” I couldn’t burst his bubble. I smiled and said “Wakarimashita.” Or “I understand.”
It leads me to ask myself, “What is written on my t-shirt?” Walking around day-to-day, what is the message my life translates to others? Is it what I think it is? Am I translating my message so that others can clearly read it?
Today, why not make an effort to review what message your t-shirt of life is sending and make sure it’s what you want it to say. Blessings!

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