Swedish giant IKEA loses right to use that name in Indonesia

boing
1

[Read the post]

1 Like
2

I’m getting a literal word-by-word translation of “Diamond Equator One Timeless” using Google Translate - without any mention of rattan (“rotan” in Indonesian), but machine translation can be iffy at the best of times.

1 Like
3

At least your hovercraft isn’t full of eels.

18 Likes
4

IKEA with dicks?

1 Like
5

I would like to return this record, it is scratched.

5 Likes
6

Hindi > English is fun:
Ktulistiwa population that undergo internship training

7

Meh. Ikea is sort of a horrible company, so I am fine with this.

8

OT, but how do you spell shit in Swedish? I-K…

1 Like
9

That’s just their pictographic way of saying you’ll need 3 guys to help you assemble it.

6 Likes
10

dIKEA in Indonesia.

11

That is an accurate rendering of each word, and it isn’t strange for an Indonesian company name. You’re right that it doesn’t refer to rattan at all except perhaps metaphorically, if their rattan is likened to an eternal diamond -equator (or equator-diamond). Esa is hard to put into English in this context. Another place where it often occurs is “Tuhan yang Maha Esa”, something like ‘God who is one’ [that is, not more than one] (The oneness of God, or in any case ‘divinity’ (ketuhanan) is an article of state ideology here). So connotatively imagine a quasi-divine rope or fiber with the hardness of diamond ringing the earth!

6 Likes
12

I missed that in the instructions, I was always the only dick there… with extra screws. Maybe that should have been the first clue.

13

I believe the official product name is SHLÖNNGANBALLS

1 Like
14

Thank you very much for the insights and poetic imagery.

I love learning about languages. My wife taught English as a second language to groups of visiting Indonesian students when we lived in Iowa City, 18 months after we returned from Taiwan where we taught English and studied Mandarin for a couple of years. There were times in Taiwan when I saw paragraphs in Chinese where I understood the meaning of each individual character but was clueless about the meaning of the paragraph overall, so I understand the pitfalls of literal translations.

One of the strongest insults I heard over there translates literally as “king eight egg.” I thought that was hilarious when I heard it in public but it prompted the insulted party to produce a length of pipe and threaten to beat the name-caller.

Thanks again for your insights.

4 Likes
15

Thanks for taking the time - very enlightening!

1 Like
16

Nope it is much simpler than that. Intan is acronym for ‘industri rotan’ - rattan industries, while having the double meaning of diamond

1 Like
17

This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.