In my previous blog post I gave an example of failed localization by a car manufacturer. It seems that the branding of automobiles is prone to localization mistakes.
When General Motors in Canada launched their Buick LaCrosse, they had to rebrand it after realizing that the name referred to masturbation in French Canadian slang.
Exactly the same mistake was made by Mitsubishi in Spanish-speaking markets. The name of their Pajero is Spanish for masturbation (the word can also refer to a lazy or stupid person).
Ford Pinto was a popular model in Europe, but when it was launched in Brazil, the importers discovered that the name is Brazilian–Portuguese slang for small penis. The car was renamed Corcel, which means horse.
A similar mistake was made by the Chinese auto maker Chana. In Brazil, chana sounds like the slang word for female genitalia, and so the name was changed to Changan.
Not a likely victim of localization
Arguably, localization is crucial for brand reputation, and it is important to know about false friends (which you can red about here).
Localization adapts content to suit local and regional norms. A product is adapted to a specific market. In business, it is crucial to understand what connotations a word may have in a certain region.
The South Korean car maker Kia presented a new model at the Geneva Motor Show in 2013. The car was named Provo, which, according to Kia, referred to the Italian word prova, test or prototype. (Provo is also the name of a city in Utah, USA.)
Rock Canyon Temple in Provo, Utah
However, the name of the car was met with strong reactions in the UK, particularly in Northern Ireland, where the name Provo is short for the Provisional IRA, an organization that was blamed for almost 2 000 deaths during the so-called Troubles in Northern Ireland 1970–1997, a campaign of violence to gain independence from Britain. The Provos were also blamed for bombings and murders in England.
After a member of the British Parliament tabled a motion that said that the name would be offensive to many victims of the Provisionals, Kia issued a clear statement that they would not launch the model in the UK.
To succeed with localization, you must understand what connotations a word has for your target audience. I will have more examples of failed localization in my next blog post.
Connotations are associations and feelings that a word evokes. They can be positive, negative, or neutral. Connotations are shaped by culture and context and may differ from person to person.
The difference in connotations between two languages must, of course, be taken into consideration by those communicating in the two languages.
Connotations can be shared by many people. The English word house to most people has a neutral connotation – it means a type of residential building, especially a one-family dwelling. The word home, on the other hand, has positive connotations of warmth, security, and family life.
Connotations may differ also between languages. While the Swedish word hem has the same connotations as the English home, Swedish hus has wider connotations than English house and may refer to any residential building irrespective of size, such as a block of flats.
Another example of a word with different connotations in English and Swedish is villa. In English, a villa is a large and luxurious country house, especially in continental Europe. In the UK it is a large, detached house in a residential area, especially from Edwardian or Victorian time. Villa can also refer to a large country house of Roman times with farm and residential buildings around a courtyard. The Latin word villa meant manor, country estate.
In Swedish, a villa is a one-family house or a bungalow. The main goals in life of medelsvensson, the average Swede, are said to be villa, Volvo, vovve, a house, a Volvo, a doggie.
To make things more complicated, the Swedish word villa can also mean illusion or delusion.
A city in English refers to a large town. In Swedish, city has the connotation of downtown.
An amusing, and arguably misleading, example is North American restroom, a euphemism for lavatory or toilet. To non-native speakers the connotation with the verb rest, relax, will be natural. In my book about English–Swedish false friends I relate a story about an American who was picking up his Swedish friend at an airport. When they got in the car, the American said, ”Perhaps you need to go to the restroom?”, and without hesitation, the Swede answered, ”No, I can do that in the car”.
Restroom?
To recognize connotations is crucial in localization, by which a product is adapted to a specific market. You can read more about it here.
Finally, a denotation is the dictionary definition of a word, the objective meaning of the word.
What’s the difference between unsatisfied and dissatisfied?
UNSATISFIED
When you are unsatisfied, you are not yet satisfied or fulfilled. There is incompleteness, a lack of something. You are not getting everything that is needed. Unsatisfied can refer to both people and things and ideas.
Children often feel an unsatisfied hunger for love and acceptance. The defendant argued that the obligations under the contract were unsatisfied.
DISSATISFIED
When you are dissatisfied, you feel unhappy, displeased, disappointed, frustrated. Dissatisfied refers to how people feel.
Fred was dissatisfied with the wallpaper in his living-room.
Fred was dissatisfied with the wallpaper in his living-room
To sum up,
Unsatisfied = unfulfilled Dissatisfied = annoyed, not happy
Price refers to the amount of money you pay when you buy something.
The price of coffee had gone up by 12%.
Price is also used figuratively in the sense of consequence or cost:
He had to pay a high price for his support of the party’s failed candidate.
Price can also be used as a verb meaning to put a price on something, to say how much something costs or is worth.
He was reluctant to price the old furniture. The young couple thought the house was priced too high. Entrance is priced at €7 for adults and €5.50 for children.
To price in (with the stress on in) has two meanings:
1. To include the cost of something in the total price
You need to price in the cost of packaging and freight.
2. To consider a factor when deciding a price
We must price in the risk of increased raw material costs.
This price for a cellphone seems exorbitant
PRIZE
Prize (with a voiced s-sound) refers to an award earned in a competition or through talent. It is associated with achievement and recognition.
My daughter won first prize in the baking competition.
A prize flower or animal is one that is of very good quality, one that has won or deserves to win a prize.
A prize idiot is the same as a complete idiot.
As a verb, to prize has two meanings:
1. To value highly
That old photo is one of my most prized possessions.
2. To force open (sometimes also spelled prise)
I prized the lid open with a spoon. She prised the little boy’s fingers apart and took the pill from him.
Brackets and parentheses are punctuation marks used to set apart a segment of text from the surrounding text. (By the way, parentheses is the plural form of parenthesis).
You are, of course, aware of the fact that British English and American English do not always agree. BE lift is elevator in AE; a BE pavement is a sidewalk in AE. Holiday is vacation, handbag is purse, queue is line, tube is subway, etc.
When it comes to brackets and parentheses, the situation is just as confusing.
These marks
are called brackets or round brackets in British English. In American English they are parentheses.
Brackets in American English are called square brackets in British English. They look like this:
Then we have these:
They are called braces in both British and American English, but in BE they are also called curly brackets.
Historically, the earliest form of brackets were angle brackets or chevrons. They look like this:
In a later post we take a look at how to use these brackets and parentheses.
It may be difficult to understand the difference between critic and critique.
A critic in English refers to a person. It is someone who criticizes something, in other words, expresses criticism.
A critic is also someone who gives an opinion about books, films, music, etc., usually professionally in a paper or magazine or on radio or television. A critic writes a review.
Future critic?
A critique is a detailed analysis and assessment, usually of a literary, philosophical, or political theory.
The problem for Swedish speakers of English is that both criticism and critique correspond to the same word in Swedish, kritik, and that critic can be mistakenly taken to mean kritik.
The words technique and technology are related to each other, but it is important to understand the difference between them.
TECHNIQUE
Technique refers to how you carry out a particular task, an efficient way of achieving something or the skill needed to do so. In order to swim fast, for example, you need a good technique. The corresponding adjective is technical.
Technique
TECHNOLOGY
Technology is applied science, the use of scientific knowledge and methods to accomplish a task. Technology is used to improve products and services. The corresponding adjective is technological.
Technology
To sum up, technology gives us the tools and technique determines how the tools are used.
What’s the difference between biannual and biennial?
The two words biannual and biennial are easily confused.
Both come from Latin bi-, twice, and annus, year.
Biannual means occurring twice a year, and biennial means occurring every second year – think of the Venice Biennial (in Italian la Biennale di Venezia).
Perhaps you polish your car or clear out your garage twice every year – then that is a biannual activity. If you go to a conference that is held every two years, you attend a biennial conference.
Biennial can also refer to a plant that blooms or bears fruit in its second year and then dies.
Instead of biannual, you can write semiannual; both words refer to something happening twice a year or every half year.
Biweekly and bimonthly don’t have this distinction – there is no vowel as in annus that could show the difference. Biweekly could mean both twice a week and once every second week. A bimonthly magazine could be one that is published twice a month or every two months. As a writer, you need to make it clear what you intend to say.
The Venice Biennial is one of the most prestigious cultural festivals in the world
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