Very early
this morning I was reading an article in Employee Benefit News. Not normally
how I start my day, but there you have it. The piece started off well. It
included plenty of relevant examples. The quotations were just fine, "'Stop
using the word translation. It should be adaptation,' advises Scott Anderson,
senior communications consultant at Mercer Human Resource Consulting. 'You can
accurately translate something and totally miss the point.'" Good point,
Mr. Anderson. And I am thinking the reporter has written a good piece on what could
be an otherwise dull topic. But, then, the article is laid low by the sentence
that immediately follows the Anderson quote. Namely, "Anderson has worked
on Spanish communications for 14 years, starting in Los Angeles and working in
Brazil and Mexico City."
So now they speak Spanish in Brazil - go figure.
The article
reminded me of an anecdote that Victor Arroyo at Cultura shared with me the
other day. He was in Spain trying to locate his hotel in Madrid. Victor couldn't
find the address so he called the hotel chain's call center in the United
States and asked for it. Logical, no? Upon hearing his request, the person who
answered the phone asked him, "What state is [Madrid] in?"
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