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 for Valentine’s Day in the United States, this

...Aribex is a Utah-based company that understands the importance of preserving its brand message in translation. Aribex efforts in multiple market segments are geared toward being "the worldwide leader in handheld X-ray." The latest models in the company’s NOMAD® product line are sleek, lightweight and uniquely positioned in the market. Product manager Marc Burrows realizes that a handheld

A regional business magazine added a creative design element to an article I wrote about translation. Ironically, that design included a translation error generated by a machine translation program, and the article, titled “Lost in Translation,” became self-descriptive...Read the rest at "Irony: Magazine mistakenly adds Google mistranslation to article about translation" by Globalization Group

It is a saying well-known to most Americans — “Nobody likes a show-off.” Resisting the urge to flaunt your language skills can sometimes be a strategic benefit, and a measure of modesty may earn you a better impression.The benefits of such modesty were exemplified in the aftermath of a disastrous 2009 German-to-English translation error. The German tuning shop AVUS Performance had “souped up” an

Twitter launched a Twitter Translation Center Monday in an effort to obtain volunteer translation services from users and localize its user interface into other languages. For years, Facebook and other companies have also been turning to users for volunteer translation in what is often called “crowdsourcing.” These high-profile examples have many companies wondering if they could get volunteers

Indonesian Information Minister Tifatul Sembiring experienced an awkward moment when shaking the hand of visiting U.S. first lady Michelle Obama in November 2010. What was so embarrassing about the handshake to inspire one U.S. journalist to jokingly label it “the cutest political sex scandal ever?”Sembiring is a proud conservative Muslim who attempts to emulate the Prophet Muhammad by avoiding

Considering all that can go wrong when exporting to international markets, businesses can find it very reassuring to have someone on their side when tackling new exporting challenges. Local export and import assistance proves to be a great resource when trade challenges arise.In the 1980s, the Iranian government encouraged a razor manufacturer to begin exporting after it attained considerable

We often consider only the connotations of colors in our own culture; however, colors carry various different – often strong – connotations in other cultures. What may be neutral in one country could carry sharp political connotations in another. What may be seen as positive in one culture may be negative in a neighboring country. For this reason, businesses will see greater success in

The Parker Pen Company has long advertised reliable fountain pens that will not cause embarrassment by leaking in pockets. The company’s slogan was once “Avoid embarrassment — use Parker Pens.” Unfortunately, when Parker Pen decided to enter the Latin American market, it translated the slogan into Spanish as “Avoid pregnancy — use Parker Pens,” apparently using the false cognate “embarazar” or “

Now that the 2010 holiday season has passed in the United States, companies will be back to business as usual for the next year, and business people need not worry about entire offices taking vacation at the same time, right?Wrong! International businesses need to plan for regional holidays that may affect the availability of clients and staff. Failure to do so may cause myriad scheduling

My weekly International Business Column is now available via subscription. New columns appear each Friday morning in the business section of DeseretNews.com, but these subscription options make it much easier to keep up to date. Subscribe via one of the following two methods: International Business Column via Email International Business Column via RSS Feed

Translation blunders made news throughout the year 2010. Cast your vote online for the top translation blunder of 2010.

In 1987, Braniff Airlines ran ads on television, on radio and in newspapers flaunting the fact that its jets were equipped with all-leather seats. Spanish-language radio ads in the Florida market were the first to reveal an unintended double entendre. Braniff had translated its "fly in leather" slogan as fly "en cuero," which sounds like Spanish slang for "fly naked."Some speculated the gaffe was

Each country has its own gift-giving etiquette. If you do business internationally, you may benefit from understanding the gift-giving customs of your international clients and partners.In March 2009, when U.S. President Barack Obama had been in office less than two months, then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown made an official visit from the United Kingdom and the two heads-of-state had the

In business, we give gifts to strengthen relationships and to thank those who keep us in business. However, without intercultural understanding and due diligence, the wrong gift can unintentionally offend international clients, partners and employees.A gift as simple as $4 can be dangerous to an international company if it is culturally misunderstood. Philip Graham, an international executive who

Bridges are incredibly useful and help many people reach important destinations quickly and easily. However, bridges can also be dangerous when misused, and exceeding a bridge's maximum load capacity can obviously result in disaster.Similarly, bilingual workers can be incredibly beneficial and can help bridge the gaps many organizations must cross to expand internationally. In fact, some

Are you planning to start your next international business presentation with a little joke to break the ice? Well, you might want to reconsider or, at least, share a joke that will not fall flat in the other culture. The story is told of a businessman who gave a speech in a foreign country through an interpreter. Without warning the interpreter beforehand, he inserted a joke into the

Few things are more ironic than signs that use poor grammar and spelling to proudly declare fluency in another language. For example, some U.S. business signs attempting to state "Spanish is spoken here" (se habla espanol), are misspelled as something like "se hablo espanol." Popular English examples include signs reportedly seen on a Majorcan shop entrance declaring, "English Well Talking" and

A friend of mine once said he wished he had known more about Brazil's cultural dos and don'ts before accepting an assignment to work there. While presenting to a group of his Brazilian peers, he repeatedly used a hand gesture that in the United States would emphasize everything was "OK." Unfortunately, in Brazil, this "OK" gesture has roughly the same vulgar meaning as the middle-finger

Many global companies, like Coca-Cola, Nike, Google, Intel and Microsoft, choose to use the same brand name in multiple countries.This is not possible for every brand, but it can often be an advantage. Think of the degree to which a single brand name simplifies marketing and increases return on advertising investment. By comparison, how much more would one of these companies need to spend to