Tonight, I noticed the following sign of a cycle shop in Uppsala:
From where I was sitting, I read it as SKITOTAL. Depending on where you separate the word it may be something stinky.
One can understand why IKEA in Thailand didn't notice that Swedish product names meant something offensive or sensitive in Thai (see Wall Street Journal article here) but one wonders how come that a Swedish company didn't notice the stinkiness of its name in Swedish.
One can understand why IKEA in Thailand didn't notice that Swedish product names meant something offensive or sensitive in Thai (see Wall Street Journal article here) but one wonders how come that a Swedish company didn't notice the stinkiness of its name in Swedish.
Along similar lines, I do a double-take when i see door signs for a therapist.
ReplyDeleteGreat observation! The only difference is that "therapist" is an existing word (which can be read differently) whereas "skitotal" is a chosen word.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, does this Vietnamese food chain exist in CA? I saw it in Washington (State) 4 years ago.