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Ikea product names sound like sex acts in Thailand

The company has hired translators to fix the problem

Most of us have probably owned a Borje, an Expedit or a Vika, but how about a Redalen.

It's a town in Norway and a bed being sold by Swedish furniture chain Ikea. But it's also a word that resembles getting to third base in Thailand.

As the Wall Street Journal reports, the company is having trouble getting their hard-to-pronounce item names to work around the world.

In addition to the Redalen bed, they are selling the Jattebra plant pot, which sounds in part like a crude sex term.

Ikea's solution is now to hire translators so the terms stop being misinterpreted.

"The Swedish...words are important because they bring a unique character to the brand," said Natthita Opaspipat, who spent nearly four years preparing for Ikea's Bangkok launch, to the Journal.

This is a growing problem for many companies. In China, Microsoft's search engine Bing sounds like "illness" or "pancake" so they changed it to "biying", similar to an expression meaning "seek and ye shall find."

But no matter how hard companies or other entities try, some will always find humour in names.

Take for instance a city named F*&!ing, Austria. City residents have been trying to rename their home Fugging, but were told in April they can't because the name is already taken.

(Reuters photo)