Sparkring Soda

~Just some quick Japanglish today:

^ I saw this "Sparkring Soda" at a discount store and couldn't resist buying it. For the record, it was not half bad, albeit lacking a certain "spark" in its flavor. Look, you can see my reflection above the label, holding a camera.

I can only assume that this is Japanglish and not an intentional misspelling of the word "sparkling". The reason, I imagine, is due to the lack of an 'L' sound in the Japanese language. The closest equivalent is a blending of the 'R' and 'L' sounds, created by briefly touching the tip of your tongue to the roof of your mouth.

This is one reason why it's good for Japanese children to study English at an early age; it's much easier for kids to properly pronounce the sounds for 'L' and 'R'. By contrast, older students who haven't seriously studied English find it much harder to differentiate and reproduce the sounds. It creates some amusing mistakes, such as when you ask a student what they ate for lunch and their answer sounds like, "A bowl of lice." Mmm, mmm, good! ~Oyasumi.