It’s as important to use a native speaking translator who is totally familiar with the culture of the country you’re targeting. Cultural misjudgements can be expensive: one company printed the OK finger-to-thumb sign on every page of its catalogue – unaware that in many parts of Latin America the sign is an obscene gesture. Months of sales were lost while they redesigned and reprinted all their catalogues.
In some African countries it is usual to show an image of the contents of a box or container on the label. When staff at an African port saw the international sign for “fragile! – a broken wine glass – they presumed all the boxes contained broken glass, and to save space they threw them all into the sea.
