Found in Translation

Naming the Newest Space Travelers

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Astronauts, cosmonauts, and taikonauts all carry out the same essential duties
—they just do them for different space agencies and nations. The terms
astronaut and cosmonaut (from Russian
) have been around at least
since the launch of their countries’ space travel ambitions in the 1950s. Both
terms simply mean “space sailors” or “space navigators.” However, in recent
years, when China began its own extraterrestrial explorations, Western
journalists were quick to embrace a new term to refer to the Chinese
astronauts. The term they latched on to was taikonaut, a hybrid of the Chinese
word for outer space, tai kong or
(literally, “great emptiness”) and the
English word astronaut. The closest term linguistically to taikonaut in Chinese
is tai kong ren or
, but the term never caught on in China—it’s used only
in Hong Kong and Taiwan and was first introduced by a Malaysian journalist.
In China, the term hangtianyuan or
(sky sailor) is the preferred name for
space travelers. An older but related term that predated the Chinese space
program was yuhangyuan or
(space sailor). And which word does the
Chinese government use for its official publications in English? Not taikonaut,
but rather, astronaut.
15
Flowery Words
Back on planet Earth, we arrive at the Bellagio. From the opulent Chihuly glass
ceiling in its lobby to the sumptuous fabrics in its guest rooms, the upscale Las
Vegas hotel exudes elegance and luxury. The hotel prides itself on meticulous
service and exceeding guest expectations. One in every four guests at the
Bellagio comes from another country, predominantly Brazil, Mexico, Japan,
Germany, France, Portugal, Italy, and Spain. For its most elite guests, the
Bellagio goes even further to cater to every whim. It isn’t uncommon for the
hotel staff to run last-minute errands and to source hard-to-find items for these
top-tier visitors.
Once, when a well-heeled guest at the hotel decided that she would like to
have an orchid in her suite, she didn’t think twice about asking a Bellagio staff
member to go and fetch one on her behalf. Even though it was around 11 p.m.
when Erden Kendigelen saw the request come in, he did not bat an eyelash. His
job was to take care of exactly these types of needs for his customers.
Kendigelen had his marching orders.
He quickly ran off to one of the hotel’s gift shops to obtain the orchids,
placing them in a gift bag and tying it with a beautiful ribbon. He then
proceeded to hand-deliver them to her suite. When the guest answered the door,

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she was happy to see that her request had been fulfilled so expediently, but was
surprised that the staff member had put them in a bag. When she questioned
why he had done this, he answered, “For your privacy, Madame.” She
shrugged and opened the bag. But instead of resting her gaze on the delicate
flower she was anticipating, she saw a very different sight—a box of sanitary
napkins. Horrified, she ordered him out of the room.
How could such a misunderstanding take place? Far from the glowing lights
of Las Vegas and back in Kendigelen’s homeland of Turkey, Orchid is the
brand name used by Procter & Gamble to market the product known as Always
in the United States. In most parts of Asia, from China to Pakistan, the product
is sold under the name Whisper. In Italy, it’s marketed as Lines, and in Spain
under the names Evax and Ausonia. When the call came in at 11 p.m., he
assumed that the guest’s request related more to a biological need than merely
an aesthetic one. Thankfully, Kendigelen’s supervisor stepped in to explain
what had happened. When the guest learned the true reason for the botched
delivery, she erupted with good-natured laughter.
Seventeen years later, as Kendigelen recounts the story, it’s obvious that he
understands the difference that a single word can make for a guest at the
Bellagio. Today, he is the executive director of guest services. He oversees all
of the areas where multilingual staff are of key importance—from the front
desk to the valet to the box office.
“Bellagio employees speak forty-eight different languages,” Kendigelen
explains, holding up a twenty-nine-page list of staff members with skills in
languages as diverse as Amharic, Ilocano, Lithuanian, Malayalam, and Navajo.
The roster not only says which languages each employee speaks, but whether
they can read and write in those languages, too. “For the languages we don’t
staff internally, we have twenty-four/seven access to interpreters via telephone
for nearly two hundred languages,” he explains. In the previous year, the hotel
used the phone-based interpreting service on sixty-eight hundred separate
occasions—an average of nearly twenty times each day.
Perhaps in part due to his firsthand experience with the orchid-seeking guest,
Kendigelen doesn’t take language for granted in his role at the Bellagio today.
However, even that linguistic misunderstanding had a happy ending, creating a
lifelong relationship between him and his customer. “She has been coming
back to the hotel as a personal guest of mine for the last seventeen years,” he
points out with a chuckle. “And she loves telling people the orchid story.”
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