James Hookway

The Wall Street Journal reports that the Swedish home furnishings chain spent almost four years researching what the names of its products sound like in Thai, lest some of the translations sound a bit, well, crude. And for good reason: Hookway reports that the "Jättebra," a grey plant pot, could sound like slang for sex. So Ikea hired a team of Thai speakers to make sure that when the more than 9,000 items from its catalog are translated from Swedish to Thai, the translations are appropriate.