Customs vary from country to country and foreign visitors are often left perplexed by the cultural differences. It’s easy to assume that because we celebrate certain traditions, everyone else does too. Whether these are annual holiday routines or country-specific cultural habits, every family has a few strange practices they’re used to.
Just look at tea. It’s seen as a stereotypically renowned British pastime, typically presented in ornate chinaware with a saucer. Cross the English Channel over to France, however, and the British would have a heart attack after seeing the French habit of drinking tea from a bowl.
Our infographic explores the way customs and traditions differ from country to country.
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- United Kingdom | Confusing Sing Taps – The UK is a modern country at the forefront of engineering, yet unlike most countries around the world, many sinks have separate hot and cold water taps. This means that visitors need to carefully navigate both freezing and scolding taps at the same time!
- United States | Tax Not Displayed – To the confusion of many visitors to the USA, prices for most items are shown without tax, while the rest of the world includes it in the listed total price.
- Australia | The Bush – Australians tend to refer to any large area of land that contains plant growth as the “the bush”, while most others differentiate between grasslands, woodlands and forests.
- Turkey | Camel Fighting – In Turkey, spectators take delight in watching two camels fighting, but unlike cockfighting, the animals don’t get hurt. Even still, agitated camels often discharge sticky, foul-smelling saliva very accurately.
- Fiji | Your Every Day Drink – Guests to the Pacific island of Fiji are served strange earthy cocktail made from squeezing plant roots. The concoction is called Kava and is considered a narcotic in many countries.
- Spain | Snatching the Goose – The Day of the Geese is a tradition in Spain that sees a greased goose tied high above a body of water, with young men competing to rip its head off in a show of strength.
- United Kingdom | Law Abiding Citizens!? – Britain’s are notorious for their drunken antics while abroad, so visitors often find it a stark contrast of behavior at how rigorously the majority of the British public treat the drink driving laws.
- Venezuela | Late Eaters – People in many Western countries tend to eat dinner relatively early, typically between 5pm and 7pm. South American countries like Venezuela tend to eat much later in the even, often between 9pm and 10pm.
- United States | Cars That Actually Stop – Visitors to the USA are often surprised by how respectful drivers and pedestrians act towards pedestrian crossing. Heavy fines for drivers who don’t show that respect, will have that effect. Western visitors in particular, will find the roads in Vietnam very unusual. Due to the small number of traffic lights and pedestrian crossings, visitors are left to cross the roads in whatever manner they can, while hoping cars will stop!
To the outside world, national mottos are often used to describe the intent or motivation of the country in a short phrase, but they’re also intended to bring enthusiasm and a sense of patriotism to the people. National mottos can also have a deep meaning, often representing what a nation stands for or strives for, which is why you can find national mottos included on a country’s coat of arms, coins or banknotes.
Our infographic explores a number of countries and their choice of national mottos translated, from the Roman Empire’s ‘’Roma Invicta’’ meaning ‘’Unconquered Rome’’, to Moldova’s ‘’Limba Noastră-i o Comoară’’ meaning ‘’Our Language is Our Treasure”.
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When The Translation Company discovered that the unmistakable Coca Cola contour bottle was celebrating its 100th birthday, we suddenly couldn’t help noticing all the other iconic bottlesand jars that have embedded themselves in our everyday life. From our breakfast table to our nightstand, the world’s most recognisable bottles are often sitting right under our noses – and now they’re also on our very own infographic.
These bottles and jars have been so instrumental in defining the quality of a brand that companies have often been quick to patent their valuable designs. For multinational companies this means lawyers and translators getting to work ensuring these bottles are properly protected in countries all over the world, the designers at least can sit back and relax – the bottles speak a universal language.
Of course if you dig a little deeper you’ll see that there’s much more to these bottles and jars than meets the eye. Did you know for example that the designer of the humble Kikkoman soy sauce dispenser, the late Kenji Ekuan, went on to design a Yamaha motorcycle and the Tokyo bullet train? Or that the Absolute bottle was the inspiration for over 1,500 advertisements ran from 1981-2007? Or that Heinz tomato ketchup that leaves its bottle at more than 0.028 miles per hour is rejected from sale?
If you have any favorites or can think of a bottle that we should’ve included why not let us know in the comments below.
The best books have the power to touch people on every corner of the earth, not just the country they’re written in, allowing readers to expand their horizons and discover new cultures and different ways of thinking. But if these books are to be enjoyed all around the world they need to be translated into different languages first.
To celebrate World Book Day we’ve created an infographic that takes a look at 50 of the world’s most translated books, from The Alchemist (first published in Portuguese) to Wolf Totem (Mandarin). We hope that the list will inspire you to open your mind and find a book that speaks to you, whatever your mother tongue!
For a full list of the sources used to create this infographic please take a look at this Google Doc.
Con el Día Internacional de la Lengua Materna 2016 a la vuelta de la esquina (domingo 21 de febrero), The Translation Company echó un vistazo a todo el mundo, desde el punto de vista legal, para encontrar algunas de las leyes sobre idiomas más extrañas. Hoy en día, el debate sobre la libertad de expresión es más feroz que nunca antes, y es el momento más adecuado para echar un vistazo a las formas en que los gobiernos, del pasado y del presente, han tratado de promover un idioma a expensas de otro y, en casos extremos, han tratado de prohibir del todo algunos idiomas.
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Com o Dia Internacional da Língua Materna de 2016 às portas (21 de fevereiro, Domingo), a The Translation Company fez uma pesquisa por todo o mundo para descobrir as mais estranhas leis sobre idiomas já criadas. Com o debate acerca da livre expressão cada vez mais acirrado, nunca foi tão oportuno examinar a forma como os governos, no passado e no presente, tentaram privilegiar um idioma em detrimento de outro, chegando em casos extremos a tentar banir idiomas completamente.
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The Translation Company has taken a legal look around the globe to find some of the world’s weirdest language laws. With the debate around free speech getting fiercer than ever there’s never been a more appropriate time to take a look the ways in which governments past and present have tried to promote one language at the expense of another and in some extreme cases tried to ban languages altogether.
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There’s a simple reason why a lot of different business fail today – poor economy that’s affecting the whole world. But, there’s also a simple way to save your business, which many don’t consider. No matter how much we’re afraid of changes and find it difficult to adopt them, this is a sacrifice we need to make in order to save our business and withhold a certain quality of life.
The obvious thing to do when it comes to improving your business and helping it survive the tough competition is a change, and not any kind of change – you need to go online. But, be aware of the fact that having a website and a Facebook page isn’t enough anymore, because that doesn’t make you any different from the rest. Doing consistent research and always being updated will help you determine which pieces of software you should adopt and which to dismiss as irrelevant. Check out what Oracle has prepared for the business world, which shouldn’t be taken lightly.
The Oracle Family
Every leader who plans on creating a strong foundation for the future of his or her business must’ve heard of Oracle. They’ve been releasing many useful tools that upgrade the way to do business by making it more efficient, especially if a business is strictly related to having and maintaining a database. So, if you’re not ready to give up and let the economic crises consume you, you should consider using this piece of software.
Toad for Oracle
Being a part of Dell Software’s Information Management group, you can expect some big things from it before even checking its reviews. What makes this so special is that it’s capable of connecting a wide group of specialized experts that can all communicate and help each other solve their problems. If we take a look at the past, we can remember the former idea of creating an open source website, like Wikipedia, for example. This is very similar to that, with only one exception that makes it unique – exclusive.
Now in Simplified Chinese
The twenty-fourth of July was when Oracle released a new edition of Toad for Oracle translated to Mandarin. Being aware of the fact that up to this date, Toad for Oracle had over two million users, and only then was it released on a new market that counts a large number of potential users. Along with a completely localized installer, personalized interface, and all documentation, this new product came with about 6-8 hours of free training for the new users. They’ve stepped up here, haven’t they?
The perfect time to strike the market
Higher and more efficient IT equipment should be considered necessary in China – their pricing for labor increases by about 10 percent each year. This requires that all establishments, at least the ones that want to stay in business, need go to the next level when it comes to the IT products they use. The modern way of working with a database has most of the standards already set – it needs to be fast, there’s no room for mistakes, and efficiency is considered a priority. All those things are implied when using Toad for Oracle. It’s expected that the growth of database management will be increased by 9 percent in China only in 2014, and Oracle will represent an amazing 43 percent of the whole market.
Toad for Oracle is getting so much attention for a good reason – they are capable of connecting you with a strictly oriented group of people sharing your expertise, so you can communicate with them with no one reason to worry. Your data will stay private, and it’ll be shared only with people you intend to share it with. Besides, accurate and efficient communication is very important in business today, and Toad for Oracle can guarantee it. If you need to make the workflow of your company more productive, this innovative piece of software is the right solution to your problem.
For further information, you can contact Dell Software on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or YouTube, where you’ll be greeted with more useful information.
La creazione di una forte identità di marca, il brand appunto, è un aspetto fondamentale di qualsiasi attività nel campo dei prodotti di largo consumo, e gran parte dell’identità di un marchio risiede nel nome. Sebbene molte marche derivino il proprio nome dal fondatore della relativa azienda, altre hanno un’origine più interessante. Alcuni nomi si ispirano alla mitologia greca, altri sono completamente inventati, ed altri vengono alla luce per puro caso. Abbiamo dato un’occhiata ad alcuni dei marchi più noti nel mondo per scoprire in che modo e perché sono stati chiamati così – siamo certi che alcuni di questi nomi non mancheranno di sorprendervi.
Die Schaffung eines starken Markenauftritts ist ein unverzichtbarer Aspekt im Konsumgütergeschäft, wobei ein großen Teil der Markenidentität mit dem Namen verbunden wird. Während viele Marken einfach nach ihrem Gründer benannt sind, haben andere einen interessanten Ursprung. Einige Markennamen wurden von der antiken Mythologie inspiriert, andere sind vollständige Kunstnamen und wieder andere sind aus reinem Zufall entstanden. Wir haben einen Blick auf einige der bekanntesten Marken aus der ganzen Welt geworfen, um herauszufinden, wie und warum sie ihren Namen bekamen – wir sind sicher, dass wir da die eine oder andere Überraschung für Sie bereithalten.
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