Lost in Translation
We've all seen the funny 'Chinglish' bad translations on the email circuit. But in business, a few poorly chosen words in a translation may not be funny.
They may create a totally wrong impression or a fudged communication. It can mean the difference between connecting with a customer or missing the boat.
When Coca Cola was first introduced into China they named it Ke-Kou-Ke-La. Unfortunately, the Coke company did not discover until after thousands of signs had been printed that the phrase means 'bite the wax tadpole' or 'female horse stuffed with wax", depending on the dialect.
What should have been done was transliteration. This is where the
appropriate written and verbal pronunciation is matched. It cost the
company more to re-submit their trademark applications. In the meantime
someone else had trademarked the characters and it cost Coca Cola a fortune to get them back.
Coke Cola then researched 40,000 Chinese characters and found a close phonetic equivalent: Ko-Kou-Ko-Le, which can be roughly translted as "happiness in the mouth."
You can read more about Translation & Transliteration here: http://www.nzcta.co.nz/chinanow-strategy/