Localization

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A Bounty on Engrish

by Richard Kazandjian December 7, 2011 Education

Visitors to South Korea, take note. The Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) has set a bounty on the awkward, low-quality translations known as “Engrish.” These malapropisms are a prime source of amusement for tourists abroad in Asian countries (see The Top 10 Asian English Translation Failures for examples), but locals are generally somewhat embarrassed by their [...]

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Zambian Farmers

by Richard Kazandjian December 1, 2011 Languages

One of the most important aspects of language preservation is the ability to record the language in writing. However, many endangered languages lack an orthography, or writing system. UNESCO notes that “it is extremely difficult to estimate how many written and unwritten languages there are in the world, and there is no established source of [...]

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Brand Name In China

by Richard Kazandjian November 29, 2011 Languages

Thinking of moving your business to China? A word to the wise: hire a skilled translator! As a recent article in the New York Times points out, translating a business name into Chinese requires much more than Google Translate; you also need a deep understanding of the nuances of Chinese culture to avoid utterly humiliating [...]

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Siri Doesn’t Understand Scottish Accents

by Richard Kazandjian October 31, 2011 Entertainment

At its last conference, Apple introduced Siri, a robotic virtual system that comes embedded in the new iPhone 4S.  Right after it was introduced, Apple caught a lot of flack for Siri’s name, which sounds vulgar in both Japanese and Georgian. Now that the product has been released to the general public, Apple is getting [...]

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Another Week, Another Tech Translation Fail

by Richard Kazandjian October 28, 2011 Entertainment

Last week, Apple was roundly mocked for using the name “Siri” for its new voice-controlled personal assistant.  Apparently, they didn’t bother to see if the name would have any negative connotations in other languages. In fact, it sounds very much like “buttocks” in Japanese and is a particuarly crude way of referring to one’s penis [...]

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Chinglish

by Richard Kazandjian October 18, 2011 Languages

Language barriers and mistranslations are fertile ground for comedy. Chinese translations of English seem to be particularly vulnerable to gaffes, possibly due to a shortage of fluent English speakers and a corresponding over-reliance on translation software. As an aside, it should be noted that English speakers have their own problems when it comes to translating [...]

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Buy the World a Coke

by Richard Brooks September 28, 2011 Localization

Coca-Cola may have gotten its start in America, but it’s clearly an international brand. As such, it markets to people in many different languages. On Facebook, Coca-Cola uses the social media site’s “geotagging” feature to localize the content it presents to viewers around the world. So, viewers logging in from America are presented content in [...]

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Thumbnail image for Original‎ Chinese Translation of “Colombiana”‎

Original‎ Chinese Translation of “Colombiana”‎

by Richard Kazandjian September 7, 2011 Entertainment

The distributors of the action movie Colombiana, which stars Zoe Saldana as a female assassin, ran into a bit of a hurdle when they tried to get the movie approved for distribution in Hong Kong. The problem? An unintentional double entendre in the movie’s original Mandarin title, “Hei-lan-jiao,” which means “Black Orchid Beauty.” Unfortunately, in [...]

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Majority Support for Gaelic in Scotland

by Richard Kazandjian August 24, 2011 Languages

In order for a language to survive, people need to want to speak it. Fortunately for the future of Gaelic, a new survey shows that the majority of Scottish citizens support efforts to promote the language. The survey, “Public Attitudes Towards the Gaelic Language,” was conducted by the Scottish government. It found that 70 percent [...]

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Translation Higher Priority‎

by Richard Kazandjian August 23, 2011 Customers

You’re familiar with the phrase “The customer is always right,” right? Unfortunately, when it comes to translation, new research from TransPerfect shows that businesses aren’t taking that advice to heart. The survey examined attitudes towards translation among consumers and executives from across the globe. Clear, quality translation was a priority among the respondents who completed [...]

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