How do you say 'facepalm' in Cantonese?

Mitch Wagner, Executive Editor, Light Reading

September 9, 2016

1 Min Read
iPhone 7 Slogan Translates to 'Penis' in Hong Kong – Report

International marketing is tricky -- sometimes statements that are perfectly innocent in one country have unfortunate connotations in another. That's a problem faced by Apple, whose slogan for the iPhone 7 translates to "this is penis" in Hong Kong, according to a report.The slogan is bad enough in the US -- "banal," as the report on the business news site Quartz notes. But in Cantonese, the Chinese dialect spoken in Hong Kong, the word for "seven" is pronounced "tsat," and is also slang for "penis.""The word isn't particularly offensive. Instead, it is often used to describe a hilarious person or thing, or mock someone gently. Let's say a friend slipped in public, or got a goofy haircut: you can say to him in Cantonese 'You are so seven,' without hurting his feelings too much," says Quartz writer Zeping Huang.Or tsat can mean, literally, "penis," Huang notes.Suggestion for Apple: In Chinese, call the iPhone 7 a "ding-a-ling."Related posts:Apple iPhone 7 Rides LTE-A Speed Curve to 450 Mbit/sEurobites: Irish Cabinet Decides on Apple Tax TacticsApple Buys AI Startup Turi for $200M – ReportApple Seeks 5G Interoperability Know-HowApple Boosts the Enterprise CloudWWDC: 5 Top Updates for Apple's tvOSApple Quietly Hiring for 5G?— Mitch Wagner, , Editor, Light Reading Enterprise Cloud

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About the Author(s)

Mitch Wagner

Executive Editor, Light Reading

San Diego-based Mitch Wagner is many things. As well as being "our guy" on the West Coast (of the US, not Scotland, or anywhere else with indifferent meteorological conditions), he's a husband (to his wife), dissatisfied Democrat, American (so he could be President some day), nonobservant Jew, and science fiction fan. Not necessarily in that order.

He's also one half of a special duo, along with Minnie, who is the co-habitor of the West Coast Bureau and Light Reading's primary chewer of sticks, though she is not the only one on the team who regularly munches on bark.

Wagner, whose previous positions include Editor-in-Chief at Internet Evolution and Executive Editor at InformationWeek, will be responsible for tracking and reporting on developments in Silicon Valley and other US West Coast hotspots of communications technology innovation.

Beats: Software-defined networking (SDN), network functions virtualization (NFV), IP networking, and colored foods (such as 'green rice').

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