Similar Sounding Foreign Places

Places with similar sounding names often caused confusion in geography tests at school. So it was kind of fun to write a blog about real world instances, where such confusion cost more than just a top grade.

I remember my friend who was supposed to pick up his wife at the airport when she landed in the US. His wife told him she was landing in New York, when in fact she was landing at Newark! My friend ended up at the wrong airport, but fortunately, Newark is just half an hour driving distance from the more famous city.

The next incident was after the Boston marathon bombings this year. The bombers were identified as ex-Chechyans but many Twitter users confused that with the Czech Republic! Very bad publicity for the Czechs, right? So much so that Petr Gandalovič, the Czech Ambassador to the US, had to issue a statement:
“The Czech Republic and Chechnya are two very different entities - the Czech Republic is a Central European country; Chechnya is a part of the Russian Federation.”

And the last one: You know how rock bands like to start a concert with the traditional “Hello, !” greeting? Now check out the list of rock stars and bands that confused Bucharest and Budapest, the Romanian and Hungarian capitals: Iron Maiden, Lenny Kravitz, Metallica and Michael Jackson! Tired of the confusion, they’ve now launched a “Bucharest not Budapest” campaign this summer! Their website describes this one time when:
“You might remember those 400 Spanish football supporters who, in 2012, after years of waiting for their team, Athletic Bilbao to play in the finals, instead of buying tickets to Bucharest, they ended up in Budapest.”
The campaign includes videos, T-shirts and airport billboards. The part I loved about this campaign? They even installed a “Welcome to Not Bucharest” sign at Budapest airport!

Comments

  1. KumarAugust 11, 2013 at 2:17 PM

    I recall an incident, which is not about places but about how much difficulty a close sounding word may cause. The similarity I took off from is that footballers landed up in 'Budapest' instead of the required 'Bucharest'!

    In a Tamil drama, in which great sets were organized meticulously and the scenes changed amazingly rapidly, the hero had to climb up to a platform of height about 4 or 5 feet and then further climb on to a chariot on the platform, between two scenes. This, he had to do in total darkness, because between scenes everything got done so fast after light goes 'off' and before light comes 'on' again.

    The hero had fumbled that day and was unable to find his footing on the chariot and he needed a few extra seconds. So, he shouted, "iru" which is the Tamil word for "wait". The chariot puller and the light operator heard his shout and assumed he said, "izhu", which was the agreed word for "starting the next scene". Actually the word means "pull" and that was the signal to the chariot puller. So the chariot puller pulled the chariot and the light operator switched on the light too.

    In front of the entire audience the hero had a great fall! Apart from the awkwardness, the drama came to a halt that day and the hero had to be hospitalized and he took many weeks for him to recover. All because the word "iru" and "izhu" sound almost the same.

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