Haiku News - September 26, 2011

A robot butler would be great, but is it really worth the risk?

Lingodroids are the
forerunners of self-aware
'bot butlers, T-1s.

Natural pupils,
kids could be key in saving
dying languages.

Conundrum: "Text slang"
and technologic ease could
damage language skills...

...But video game
technology may also
enhance language skills.

Words have great power.
Semantics change their meanings,
as if by magic.

Language Barrier: Finger Lickin' Good

In the first installment of Language Barrier (longer ago than I care to admit), the original "Got Milk?" ad campaign was discussed, along with its nearly catastrophic translation into Spanish. The recent update to the campaign and the controversy it started inspired me (reminded me) there were cases of brand translation issues that hadn't yet been explored. At least at this blog.

When products make the trip to new markets overseas, new advertising campaigns in the local language must be crafted for them. Often, a company will simply take the concepts and tag lines of an existing campaign and translate them directly, sometimes without consulting resources that might have helpful cultural knowledge. This can lead to some very interesting interpretations from one language to another.

Kentucky Fried Chicken, now known as KFC, learned that the hard way when it first entered the Chinese market in the 1980s. "Finger Lickin' Good," its slogan since the 1950s, was mistranslated into Mandarin as "Eat Your Fingers Off." Though the chicken is quite tasty, that's probably not the right message to send in any language.

Making a gaffe like this could have doomed a brand, but in this case it was because KFC was new and relatively unknown in China at the time that it was able to recover. After the clumsy translation was fixed, Chinese citizens who were curious about all things from the West snapped up buckets of KFC chicken and licked their fingers. Today it is the most popular Western fast food in China, with the largest KFC market outside the U.S. at more than 1,200 franchises.

Supplemental: After more than 50 years of “Finger Lickin’ Good” as a tag line, KFC decided earlier this year to change one of the most successful slogans in advertising.  As part of its attempt to establish a healthier image, it was changed to simply “So Good.” The rebranding coincided with the introduction of healthier frying oils and meals cooked on a griddle or baked instead of fried. There are also plans to show the calorie content of all items on KFC’s menus starting this September, though at the time of this post there doesn't seem to be any evidence of that having happened yet.

Sara Duane-Gladden is a freelance writer in the Twin Cities area of the great state of Minnesota.   

Women, the Workplace & Profanity

Three random nouns, right? Apparently not. As I've mentioned before in this blog, I rather enjoy profanity and I fully believe it has a place in our culture, even if organizations like the Parents Television Council does not. Because of that fondness, I occasionally search for recent news about cursing. A story from Yahoo seems to have that business world buzzing about profanity in the workplace. And not just any profanity, but unladylike maledictions!

It all started after Yahoo chairman Roy Bostock called CEO Carol Bartz earlier this month on her cell phone to tell her that her services were no longer needed. In an interview shortly afterwards, she called the board members that fired her a bunch of "doofuses" who "f----- me over." Since her firing, Bartz's penchant for profane language throughout her career has become recurring themes in discussions about her and whether or not cursing is proper in the workplace.

Profanity in the workplace! What a great idea for a blog post! So I searched for just that, and wouldn't you know it, the first five news titles that popped up in Google’s results were questioning or commenting about women using salty language in the workplace. The stories ranged from simply asking the public's opinion through a poll to an essay about how "Cursing in the Workplace is a Lose-Lose Strategy for Women."

The article does make an interesting point that basically women are natural communicators who shouldn't resort to blue language to get their points across. By singling out women and not addressing the issue of men swearing in the workplace, I’m left with the belief that the author lets males off the hook when they fail to mind their “French” in the office. The writer also implies that using profanity calls a person's judgment into question. Since the article is aimed at women in the workplace, does this imply that a man's credibility isn't ruined by profanity but a woman's is?

Women, swearing and the workplace sheds some light on this, though I don’t like the observation’s pallor:

“It stands out because it's not expected," said Deborah Tannen, a linguistics professor at Georgetown University and author of "You Just Don't Understand: Women and Men in Conversation."

"We always take notice of what's unexpected and women are still not expected to curse, so when they do, it's noticed more."

Further:

"If women talk in ways expected of them or project a feminine demeanor, it's seen as weak. But if they talk in ways associated with men or bosses, then they're seen as too aggressive," she said. "Whatever they do violates one or the other expectation, either you're not talking as you should as a woman or as boss."

Naturally, I don't like this "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation. Either profanity isn't acceptable for anyone to use in the workplace or it is okay for everyone. It should really depend on the verbal standards of the unique office culture and the individual's choice whether or not to curse.

I've worked in professional offices where profanity was a part of everyday conversation and others where I thought I might by swallowed by the flames of hell dare I say the word "damn." I learned to adjust my vocabulary thusly; it should be easy enough for others to do it. But if there are mixed messages as to which gender can acceptably use such words and which can't, there may problems far bigger than profanity plaguing that particular workplace.

What is your view on swearing at work?

Friday Photography ~ Downtown Saint Cloud Icons

St. Cloud is relatively close to me, but I don't end up visiting very often. My mom lives near there, though, so I do get there once in a while. I was there in July and snapped these two photos of Saint Cloud icons.

Val's Hamburgers

Paramount Theater

Language of Work & Labor

A new glossary takes a look at the language and etymology of the words we use to talk about jobs and work.

"The Wage Slave's Glossary" by Joshua Glenn and Mark Kingwell is a guide to the language of labor. Though it includes a collection of interesting new words, like "cube farm" and "work-life balance," what I found to be most interesting were some of the older words.

For example, the word "downtime." It was a mid-century term that meant time when a machine is out of action or unavailable for use. And today, of course, this means that human beings who aren't working are compared to machines that being serviced, or robots that are being recharged. And the worst thing of all, is that many of us now use "downtime" to describe our own weekends and vacations.

And:

There used to be a term in the 18th century called the "after-dinner man," which was somebody who went back to work after they'd eaten their dinner. And of course at the time, that was considered a very strange thing to do -- dinner time's when you're supposed to be done with work, why would you go back? Either you're unhealthily addicted to work or you have too much of it. And of course today, we're all after-dinner men and we think nothing of the people who open their laptop after dinner and finishing up a Powerpoint or sending out some work emails.

Finally, apparently the word "boss" actually comes from Dutch plantations? A "work boss" was somebody who was the overseer of the slaves on the plantation, but now the word has come to mean "A person in charge of a worker or organization."

Though I haven't actually read the book, the interview with one of the authors and the excerpt on the American Public Media website has piqued my interest. I may just have to check it out!

Haiku News - September 6, 2011

Using text slang for
a "cover letter" won't get
you the interview.

Duchess of Cambridge
Kate Middleton wows Wales by
learning to speak Welsh.

A short lesson on
baseball terminology
you might not savvy.

Uniting a Swiss
language has divided the
people who speak it.

Facebook has trouble
with basic features. "Translate"
will likely be lame.