I like to show logos and signs of familiar worldwide businesses that are written in both English and Arabic. This one is Bath & Body Works taken in a local Jeddah mall.
If the shopper is ignorant of English and understands only Arabic that must be pretty meaningless, well apart from the fragrances which presumably waft out the door and the pretty packaging ;)
That was the point I was making; the so-called Arabic version is merely a phonetic transliteration of the words in English and has no meaning in Arabic at all. Arabs reading it may have some knowledge of English admittedly (which obviously many educated Saudis will have, specially if they have attended universities in the English-speaking world), to make sense of what is in fact "gibberish" in Arabic.
If the shopper is ignorant of English and understands only Arabic that must be pretty meaningless, well apart from the fragrances which presumably waft out the door and the pretty packaging ;)
ReplyDeleteMost of the expats in KSA speak some English, and Saudis speak Arabic, so it works for most segments of the population here.
DeleteThat was the point I was making; the so-called Arabic version is merely a phonetic transliteration of the words in English and has no meaning in Arabic at all. Arabs reading it may have some knowledge of English admittedly (which obviously many educated Saudis will have, specially if they have attended universities in the English-speaking world), to make sense of what is in fact "gibberish" in Arabic.
DeleteWhat is written in "Arabic" reads: baath and/"wa" buudee wurks; it is not Arabic at all even though it is written in Arabic script.
DeleteI like how they manage to have a logo in English and Arabic that seem to be in the same style.
ReplyDeleteWe have some of the shops here. Different design for the English lettering, though.
ReplyDelete