This one would have been more timely 18 months ago but it’s still a good example of thoughtless naming. From what I understand, it’s a Korean word for “we”. I’m guessing the bank’s clientele is predominantly Korean, but the branch is located in the center of Fort Lee, NJ, and I noticed at least 10 or 12 non-Korean residents in the vicinity of the bank. Of course I’m not saying the bank shouldn’t have adopted a meaningful Korean word, maybe just one that wasn’t SO ridiculously inappropriate in a predominantly English-speaking location.
Posts Tagged ‘naming mistakes’
[Today it was announced that the Russian energy giant Gazprom would enter into a joint venture with the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation. The new firm, to be called Nigaz, is set to build refineries, pipelines and gas power stations in Nigeria.]
Apparently Gazprom, a Global 500 company with nearly 400,000 employees (no exaggeration) doesn’t have a single marketing person who speaks ENGLISH or is even remotely familiar with American slang. YO! Gazprom! I don’t mean to be dissin’ ya’ll, but Shizzle! What the hizzle??? Nigaz??? I might just have to shoot the five witcha, or at least sick the naming po-pos on ya. Again: Nigaz???? Have you NO skrilla to do some of that linguistic or cultural screenin’?? Were you guys crunked up when you thought of that name??? Look, I gotta bounce, I got some, well, stuff I gotta do, but damn, Gazprom. Nigaz?? That sh*t’s cold. Hire a naming company next time.
Max Plank Research cover, before and after
As reported in the Sydney Morning Herald (and then in Pharyngula, where I saw it), the German language version had already been sent out to subscribers by the time the error was caught, and the cover replaced by calligraphy referring to a book written by the 16th century Swiss Jesuit, Johannes Schreck, titled Illustrated Explanations of Strange Devices.
Here’s the thing I don’t get. SMH says
The calligraphy, which was vetted by a sinologist before publication, was believed to have “depicted classical Chinese characters in a non-controversial context”.
Vetted by a sinologist (a student of Chinese language and culture)? Really? I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that the sinologist in question either 1) didn’t look at it too carefully (“Yeah, that’s Chinese”), 2) has a greatly inflated opinion of their knowledge of written Chinese (“Beautiful something…stirring fire…something something something”) or 3) lives on another planet where “hot young housewives” means “new guest cottages are well insulated”.
If you’re going to put something like that ON THE COVER, you might want to hire someone who can actually read Chinese, or a firm that can do some honest-to-goodness linguistic analysis for you, with native speakers in your target country. It might save you some time, money, and face. I’m just sayin’.
