Thursday, April 10, 2008

Dual Languages... Not Programming Languages Either

Does having more than one language on the outer packaging of a product bother you as much as it does me? I was in Dissmores today when

I needed to buy some windows cleaner. I have almost always purchased Windex for my glass cleaner. Today I noticed that Windex has everything in dual languages. So when you read the label you're assaulted with a lot of foreign words.

I was at Safeway doing my weekly shopping a few weeks ago and I needed some cans of corn. I found that the Green Giant can was nearly impossible to read the nutrition label as you had to sort through all the words written in a foreign language in order to read the actual things you want to read.

It felt very cluttered and I didn't find that appealing at all. I always read the nutrition label of all the food I buy comparing one brand with another for health facts. When I got to the Green Giant food can it was enough of a pain to read that I just put the can back and went with the can that was easier to read.

Today while in Dissmores I pulled out my phone with Internet access. I pulled up the website that was listed on the label of Windex. I wrote to them using their comments form.

I let them know they lost a sale today because of the dual languages. I told them that I bought the store brand which was written in English. I think that I will make it known that this is the case whenever I pass up one product for another due to the dual languages.

The last thing I want to see is our US currency have sub-words in foreign languages.

From my high school days, anything that wasn't English was considered a foreign language. Michael Savage has it right... Borders, Language, and Culture.

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