News
We all benefit when global business leaders share lessons learned from their failures when translating their products to other languages
January 14, 2011/
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 "embarazo." Talk about embarrassment!
By Adam Wooten,
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Globalization Partners International, LLC. provides document, software and website internationalization, localization and translation services into over 75 languages including Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Russian . http://www.globalizationpartners.com/



