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Bookshop Worker Uses 'Devil's English' to Summon Demon in New Manga's Story
posted on by Jennifer Sherman
English can be a notoriously difficult language for people from a variety of backgrounds to learn. Although students in Japan begin learning English in elementary school nowadays, the level of English proficiency remains relatively low among Japanese people. Capitalizing on this situation, Damurushi launched the Akuma Eigo Shabereru Hito dake ga Shitteiru Kindan no Hōsoku (Forbidden Laws Known Only to People Who Can Speak the Devil's English) manga in Kadokawa's @vitamin web magazine on Tuesday. The first two chapters of the mini-series are currently available to read for free.
In the story, bookstore employee Kōsuke is one of many Japanese people who believes he has no ability to speak English. He buys a book titled "Devil's English" and accidentally summons a demon. Kōsuke is confused because the devil can only speak English, but the devil says to him, "You can speak English already! You just need to throw away four things."
The excerpt below, which is the first three pages of the first chapter, begins with a telling of the biblical story of the Tower of Babel. Then it jumps to Kōsuke accidentally summoning a demon, apparently by using a machine translation. The demon does not approve.
Yuka Aoki, author of the best-selling book Zurui Eigo (Sneaky English), provided the original concept and is supervising work. The manga teaches English conversation while telling a humorous story, and it is planned as a mini-series. Kadokawa will release a compiled book volume on April 20.
Source: Comic Natalie