Zune or Zoune? It's All Rude in Quebec


Macworld UK reports on the embarrassing faux pas Microsoft has committed. But only in Quebec. Fortunately for them.

Apparently, 'zoune' or 'bizoune' are colloquial and rather more polite ways of referring to male/female genitalia, particularly when speaking to children. We assume the fact checker on the Zune project at MS has already got the pink slip.

Giggling Quebecois have had fun with this one. One local quoted by Macworld UK came up with this gem: "All of Quebec has been giggling for the last couple of days at the thought of Mr. Gates swearing that there was an 80 per cent chance that he'd whip out his little zoune before the holiday season."

For those of you with longish memories, you'll recall that Mitsubishi had to take the Pajero nameplate off their 4WD in Spanish-speaking markets and swap in the less-offensive Montero.

Let's not get started on how the Rolls-Royce Silver Mist translated into German...