When all else fails, you can always go back to the basic international language of gesturing, pointing and acting out the use of something to get to your point. (Or more boringly, point at the name on your phone)
You could also try adapting pronounciation to what they might expect first, and then if you establish a friendly conversation, offer the real Swedish pronounciation next.
It sounds like that would be very much what use of Swedish names in a global brand should invite, and not annoyance for Swedes :)
Doesn't really work for the kind of products they sell. E.g. going to the spare parts place and asking for a replacement part for Mörbylånga or Nackanäs. And I don't know the international gesture for a table. Besides, they have many tables.
I don't think saying "Bläddra", and signing that you're flipping through a book, helps at all either.
> You could also try adapting pronounciation to what they might expect
Right. This is what one has to do. But it feels like if you were to go to Russia and slowly and loudly say "I-ski want-ski a-ski table-ski". Except, you know, not offensive because I have the objectively right way to say it and the staff doesn't.
I'm not saying it's hard to do, but since once you know a language you pretty much cannot go back to hearing and reading it as noise, I stand by that it's a bit annoying to need to simulate how someone else would mispronounce it.
And this is unlike someone experiencing their names constantly mispronounced, because the people who get it wrong literally work for IKEA.
For comparison, say there was an English store in Netherlands, and you would have to look at the spelling every time in order to "simulate" which "s" should become "sch" to make the staff understand you. Saying it the dutch way may, to you, become a tongue twister.
> It sounds like that would be very much what use of Swedish names in a global brand should invite, and not annoyance for Swedes :)
You'd think so, but while a great brand, it causes practical annoyances sometimes.
They have a great selection of products. You could say they have a smörgåsbord of products. Or as you'd have to say in English to be understood, a schmoargoesboard.
As much as it may feel that way sometimes, I don't think IKEAs in foreign countries are sovereign Swedish territory.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metal_umlaut
> When Mötley Crüe visited Germany, singer Vince Neil said the band could not figure out why "the crowds were chanting, 'Mutley Cruh! Mutley Cruh!'"
But like those German speakers assumed German orthography, English speakers will assume English orthography when presented with Swedish words.
Only foreign words learned by sound have a chance of getting pronounced correctly, e.g. croissant or Djokovic... maybe even Smörgåsbord?
If there were a British furniture shop operating globally and using placenames for products, British people would have trouble asking the locals for HAWICK (hoik), LOUGHBOROUGH (luffburra), FROME (froom) or YNYSYBWL (anissabul)
At least you’re definitely right.
Try speaking or writing English English to US English natives.