Condoms are good at adapting to your body, but so far they have not adapted to the linguistic realities of Spain. Now Catalans will have a condom which speaks their language. “This was long overdue”, says Erik Wirdheim, the Swedish entrepreneur behind the project.
The condom business is dominated by multinational companies with huge advertising budgets, but none of them communicates with Catalan speakers in their first language. “When infection rates of sexually transmitted diseases again increase among young people, condoms should be promoted in as many languages as possible, and certainly in Catalan”, says Erik Wirdheim. “Potentially there are 10 million Catalan speaking consumers and still – until now - product descriptions on condoms have only been available in Spanish.”
Erik Wirdheim’s company, Puck Import, S.L. (http://www.rfsu-spain.com/), is the official distributor in Spain and Andorra of RFSU - the leading condom brand in the Nordic countries. “So far we only sell small volumes but RFSU deserves better. Firstly, because our condoms go through more quality tests than those of the competitors. Secondly, because RFSU has an ethic profile – the profit is reinvested into an NGO which runs campaigns about sexual health.”
RFSU’s condoms in Catalan will be sold in pharmacies and specialty stores – “condonerias”. Until a Catalan web-page is launched, a list of where the products are for sale can be found on http://condonsisexe.blogspot.com/ . Already today are they available at La Condoneria on Plaça Sant Josep Oriol in Barcelona.
Erik Wirdheim entered as a partner of Puck Import, S.L. in November 2008 but since 2005 he lives with his Swedish family in Vilanova i la Geltrú. This year he passed the Generalitat’s exams for the intermediate (B) level of Catalan.
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Technorati tags: Catalan, Catalonia, Spain, Spanish, Vilanova, Wirdheim
12 comments:
Enhorabona Èrik per la premiere i per apostar pel mercat català!
I had heard somewhere, probably in a newspaper article, that Catalans tend to speak Spanish when flirting and courting the opposite sex. Since this is heresay, I will let the Catalans confirm or deny this, but it it good that you are including Catalan in some aspect of the mating ritual.
Vad kul! :-)
..eftersom jag nu är tillbaka i Barca så kan jag våga mig på att lova att nästa gång jag köper kondomer så blir det på katalanska ;-)
Förresten - du är inte intresserad av att göra en drive, lite reklam och så på något av universiteten? Jag har en hel del fritid just nu så jag skulle kunna hjälpa till på ett eller annat sätt ;-)
(Pompeu Fabra studenterna kommer bli galna av lycka när de får reda på att det nu finns kondomer på katalanska! haha)
Anonymous,
You deserve a Salvador Sostres's type of reply, but I will control myself.
Sara,
With all this free time, you could, for instance, update your blog (just kidding, no pressure).
Haha - but it's free time reserved for improving my Spanish and my Catalan ;-)
Daniel,
Gràcies per animar-me, com sempre. Espero amb molta il-lususió les reaccions d'aquest mercat català. Segons els clips de persones com ara en Eric Bertan és un gran advantatge de posar etiquetes en català. Ja veurem si serà també la meva experiència.
Anonymous,
I would not know if you are right. I moved here with my wife so I have not had many opportunities to practise advanced flirting with the Catalans.
However - and good for our new products - most people are in quite a different mood when they buy condoms than when they use them. ;-)
Sara,
Klart att vi skall samarbeta. Jag kollar upp om du har din e-mail på bloggen, men om inte annat så hittar du min i min profil.
Ian,
To defend Anonymous: Just imagine how many poorly researched investigations are carried out by magazines and TV-shows when it comes to sex.
And on a more serious note: I would not be surprised if immature Swedish men use English words during the act, to make themselves feel stronger, since that is the language used in all adult movies in our country.
In Catalonia, the same movies are usually dubbed into Spanish and that might give the language a flavour of being "the language of sex".
Maybe this is all too hypothetical, but I want this blog to be a place where I can discuss the use of languages.
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I have to agree that the word "polvo" is never translated, even in a 100% Catalan conversation. I will not offer any examples out of respect to your female readers.
On the flip side, I am a defender of the word "cardar" versus the more eclectic word "follar".
Note: in general I do not read the instructions for use for any equipment. I believe that the way of navigating the devices should be intuitive enough. In addition to that, I start to need reading glasses for the small print, what adds an additional challenge to the foreplay, though having them at reach may become handy while looking for replacing batteries for your backup device. So, unless your products are not intuitive (let's say they have to be placed on the nose to have full effect or something like that), I would not mind that you only use big size icons.
Molt bé! Grattis!
Sara,
Var är du? Jag har försökt att maila dig, men vet inte om du har sett det.
Sitter du instängd i någon universitetsbyggnad bland studenter som protesterar mot Bologna-processen? ;-)
Ian,
You are totally right - any "toy" intended to stimulate arousment has to be so intuitive that it does not create the opposite effect.
Thanks for the advice for the day when I reach more advanced products.
Monica,
Gràcies per animar-me!!
//Erik
Læs mere om det catalanske sprog her:
http://www.barcelona-rejser.dk/det_catalanske_sprog.html
Mvh.
Kasper
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