Posts Tagged ‘portuguese’
Wrong Flowers Can Mean Death for Global Business
A leading U.S. cosmetics and fragrance brand once tried to market flower-scented perfumes in Latin America. Unfortunately, one of these fragrances reportedly failed in Brazil because the flower was reportedly used for funerals in the region. What woman would want a scent reminiscent of a funeral parlor? As consumers consider flower purchases [...]
Airline Rendezvous Lounge
Author David A. Ricks writes of another airline promotion lost in translation in the book "Blunders in International Business." You can read about several airline translation bloopers in the international business column "In global airline marketing, idioms must be handled carefully," but this one caused serious PR damage. A U.S. airline that [...]
Localizing Humor
According to the article, "I don't get it: Humor lost in translation," it can be difficult to translate humor from one language or culture to another. Translators can sometimes find equivalent jokes that will be funny in the target language, but here are a few resources to help identify country-specific humor and jokes: Reader's Digest, "The [...]
Language Use by Region
What are the top 10 languages by population in New York and other states? Where are the most Armenian speakers living in the United States? The U.S. Census used to track and report the number of language speakers for virtually every language in every state and county. This data was very useful for companies planning localized multilingual [...]
Video Game Localization Improves Revenue 15X
A video game publisher recently told the Brazilian newspaper O Globo that it sees 15 times more revenue from a video game localized in Portuguese than it does for a video game left in English. How much of a return on investment do you see from your localization? Read the Portuguese article in O Globo or get the gist of it from an English [...]
Language and Country Codes
Many multilingual websites are organized using subdomains and subdirectories based on language codes or country codes. These are usually ISO codes. See the following example that Google gave for a French website in Canada using the alpha-2 code for the French language: French language code subdirectory: www.example.ca/fr French language code [...]
Language and Country Names List
English speakers expect that a link to an English language/country option on a website will be listed in English, not translated into another language. Otherwise, how easily would an English speaker find a link to English content if the language name were written in Asian, Cyrillic, or Middle Eastern characters? Or how easy would it be if the [...]
World Cup Translation Bloopers
The New York Times recently noted that at least 17 languages are spoken by 32 teams at the 2010 World Cup, and FIFA referees have supposedly been brushing up on cursing in those languages so they know when to eject a player for committing the offense of "Using offensive, insulting or abusive language and/or gestures." Even in an international [...]
Microsoft Language Portal Update Includes Office 2010 International Terminology
The Microsoft Language Portal has recently been updated to include International Terminology from Office 2010 in 90 languages. As mentioned previously, Microsoft has produced great free resources for download and/or search that include all of its style guides and glossaries, which can double as translation memory.
International Export Businesses Love the Edge!
International export businesses love the translation tips and bloopers on The International Business Edge! The recent release of the "Color Meanings by Culture" chart has been particularly popular. Many international export consultants have provided great feedback via Twitter and LinkedIn. Here is what they are saying on various blogs and [...]
