Deciphering Linguistic Stereotypes in Polandball Comics: A Qualitative Analysis of 'Engrish' and Cultural Representation

Weitao Ke

doi:10.54254/2753-7048/42/20240811

Research Article

Open access

Published on 14 March 2024

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Ke,W. (2024). Deciphering Linguistic Stereotypes in Polandball Comics: A Qualitative Analysis of 'Engrish' and Cultural Representation. Lecture Notes in Education Psychology and Public Media,42,18-26.

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Deciphering Linguistic Stereotypes in Polandball Comics: A Qualitative Analysis of 'Engrish' and Cultural Representation

Weitao Ke *^,1,

¹ Montverde Academy Shanghai

* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

https://doi.org/10.54254/2753-7048/42/20240811

Abstract

Polandball, or Countryballs, are online user-generated comics about geopolitical satire, with countries personified in spherical characters. One of the most important aspects of Countryball memes is the non-standard English, or “Engrish”, used in the conversations between characters. This research delves into the “Engrish” phenomena by collecting and qualitatively examining 200+ comics in the subreddit r/polandball, proposing plausible causes of the phenomena, and raising concerns regarding the implications of the exhibited linguistic stereotypes. The investigation figures out that the language choice in Polandball comics on Reddit generally ranged between serious cultural misunderstanding and code-switching of English with another language. It is concluded that the linguistic stylizations of non-standard English in Polandball comics might be rooted in certain cultural and racial stereotypes and might further reinforce these biased cross-cultural perceptions. The research shed light on the long-ignored African-American Vernacular English appropriation in Polandball comics, and extensively enumerated and identified the most recent “Engrish” stylizations in Polandball comics.

Keywords

Polandball Comics, Mock Language, Engrish, Linguistic Stereotypes, African-American Vernacular English (AAVE)

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About volume

Volume title: Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Social Psychology and Humanity Studies

Conference website: https://www.icsphs.org/

ISBN：978-1-83558-339-5(Print) / 978-1-83558-340-1(Online)

Conference date: 1 March 2024

Editor：Kurt Buhring

Series: Lecture Notes in Education Psychology and Public Media

Volume number: Vol.42

ISSN：2753-7048(Print) / 2753-7056(Online)

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