近年宜家進軍泰囯, 設立商店, 卻處處因語言問題碰釘, 要急急請个翻譯, 来渡難關。
Redalen,
是挪威的一個城市, 也是IKEA 出售的一張床的名稱, 但不幸地, 这字跟泰文一个与性行為的話同音。
去年IKEA已碰到同样問題, 一個名為Jättebra的花盆, 也跟泰文性行為同音。
不得矣, 唯有另請高明。
Ikea has apparently
hired translators in Thailand to make sure its product names don’t run afoul of
the country’s conservative mores.
Redalen, a town in
Norway after which a bed sold by the Swedish furniture chain is named, sounds
similar to a sex act in Thailand, says a Wall Street Journal report.
As the retail giant
continues to expand into new markets, it is discovering that the
tongue-twisting Scandinavian names utilized for merchandise may have untoward
meanings in other languages, the paper said.
The company, which was
unable to respond to questions by the Star Wednesday, realized that terms like
Jättebra, for a plant pot, can echo a crude Thai term for sex after it launched
its fifth-largest superstore in Bangkok last year.
So, Ikea hired locals
to scrutinize product names to see how they sounded in Thai before
transliterating them into Thailand’s cursive, Sanskrit-influenced alphabet; and
in some cases, they changed a vowel sound or a consonant to prevent unfortunate
misunderstandings, said the Journal.
(Toronto Star)
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