Posts Tagged ‘japanese’
Taboo topics like weight are treated differently in other cultures
Years ago, in Chile, I was walking around a city on a warm day with a close American friend and colleague. As we walked up a hill, in business attire, my colleague began to perspire. A former basketball and football player, he was much larger than most Chileans and was in good shape, but inherently perspires more than most. Upon reaching the [...]
Camay soap in Japan
Procter & Gamble, like many other international corporations, learned U.S. portrayals of women in advertising are not always socially acceptable in other countries. In her book, “Soap Opera: The Inside Story of Procter & Gamble,” author Alecia Swasy relates the result of one misguided soap commercial. “A Camay campaign pitched the [...]
Typing in Another Language
Using your QWERTY English keyboard, would you like to type Spanish characters, Japanese characters, or another language? No, this does not refer to the process of inserting special characters from a list with your mouse. This refers to changing the input language for your computer without changing the operating system. Check out these links for [...]
Angry Twitter mobs wield ‘twitchforks’ in worldwide attacks
Shortly after the devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Microsoft tweeted the following message from its Bing Twitter account: “How you can #SupportJapan? For every retweet, @Bing will give $1 to Japan quake victims, up to $100K.” The response from the Twitter public was not at all what Microsoft intended. An angry mob pounced [...]
Cultural Perception of Gender May Influence Localization
Sometimes cultural perception of gender relations may influence how marketing and advertising is localized for other markets. See several examples in the article "Some international ads are perceived as sexist due to different cultural norms," by Globalization Group vice president Adam Wooten. Examples include a TV commercial that seemed harmless [...]
Some international ads are perceived as sexist due to different cultural norms
Procter & Gamble, like many other international corporations, learned U.S. portrayals of women in advertising are not always socially acceptable in other countries. In her book, “Soap Opera: The Inside Story of Procter & Gamble,” author Alecia Swasy relates the result of one misguided soap commercial. “A Camay campaign pitched the [...]
Cheap Translation Kills
Not all mistranslations mean the difference between life and death, but some do. Some cheap translations can actually kill. See the following examples from the article, "'Airline pulp' and bad translations that can crash a plane," by Globalization Group vice president Adam Wooten. ...a 2008 helicopter crash in France... was suspected to be the [...]
“Safe” and “Comfortable” Flight
Misuse of punctuation - even small quotation marks - can quickly change the meaning of a sentence. For example, how reassuring is the following invitation from Japan Airlines? Please enjoy our "safe" and "comfortable" flight Read more airline-related translation bloopers in the article "'Airline pulp' and bad translations that can crash a [...]
“Conglaturation” from Nintendo Video Game Localization of Ghostbusters
Like "a winner is you" and "all your base are belong to us," Nintendo's Ghostbusters video game from the 1980s included some interesting broken English, "Conglaturation !!! You have completed a great game. And prooved the justice of our culture. Now go and rest our heroes !" View a video of the NES game's ending here.
A Winner is You!
The 1986 Nintendo video game Pro Wrestling congratulated winning players with the broken English phrase, "a winner is you." Like "all your base are belong to us," this translation from Japanese to "Engrish" became a popular internet meme. View the context of the NES game in the video below.
