That's why it's called a language barrier

If you've ever been looking at an ad sideways because what you read is technically correct but culturally unsound... then you've recognized just one of the limitations language presents to various industries.

Advertising and marketing constantly do faux pas due to people not recognizing the subtleties of language and how a slight miscalculation might make your ad read something about "The Peter penis overplants the cock" instead of "so and so swats the bug". It sounds ridiculous but such a massive mess-up is more than possible, it's happened. Local expressions and territorial jargon force foreigners working in your home country to be careful what they say because what you generally know as cake is actually vagina someplace else, and a regular bag is suddenly a nut sack.

Don't believe me? Ask Argentineans, Mexicans, Cubans, Americans, Spaniards, and British people how they say pussy. See how many times local dishes are exchanged for the same word that means vagina someplace else. I'm not giving these examples because I'm obsessed with vaginas.... well maybe I am, but that's not the point. The point is that little details in language can make for hysterical mistakes because someone’s tick could be someone else's penis. It's that simple.

And also, local expressions are rarely if ever based on pure logic. These phrases depend on catchy rhymes filled with alliteration, some sort of punch line and local fortune cookie knowledge in a saying. As posted in a previous blog, jumping ship to Dubai, Kuala Lampur or Neo Tokyo includes the risk of running into these cultural crashes that will force you to either yield to the power of the local language, or look for another employment.

Either way, do try and be mindful of people with these cultural limitations unless they're asking to fuck up. It's good to be kind, but sometimes it's better to let some transferred advertising deity screw up, crash back to reality and appreciate the knowledge some of the "lesser life forms" can share with him or her. Happy proofing.