Visiting French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault presented South Korean media with a novel headache today: how to transcribe his name.
The daily Chosun Ilbo, the country's widest-circulation newspaper, chose Korean script that signifies "erotic" while Yonhap news agency also used a translation that means "difficulty".
The French embassy in Seoul, which issued a statement on the arrival of the head of the French government in Korean, chose a neutral translation by omitting the letter "r".
Last year Ayrault left Arabic-language media in a similar, though slightly more embarrassing, quandary.
Transcribed into Arabic from the French pronunciation of his name, "Ayrault" refers in several Arabic dialects to the male sexual organ.
Published 25 July 2013, 13:47 IST