Comments on: Preferably lost in translation

By: eszter

eszter — Fri, 24 Oct 2003 16:42:21 +0000

Jobb egy sör has mint egy Pizza Hát? Harry, that’s really funny, I hadn’t heard that before. Sorry everyone else, it’s too complicated to translate..;)

By: Anthony

Anthony — Fri, 24 Oct 2003 08:37:49 +0000

In Japan there were little mini snowploughs called ‘Little Bugger’.

By: Belle

Belle — Fri, 24 Oct 2003 04:21:01 +0000

Re: gogg’s comment. Attack is still popular throughout SE Asia. Here in Singapore, for example, it’s one of the top detergents and I’ve got two boxes right in the next room. It just attacks dirt, and doesn’t appear to overrun your city and re-name it “Syonan”, herd Chinese people into the surf of Changi and then machine gun them, etc. At least, not so far.

By: Zizka

Zizka — Fri, 24 Oct 2003 03:32:46 +0000

Well, the diet candy “Ayds” ended up going out of business, I think. Working in the other direction, it seems to me that “Ebola” would be quite a cute name for a girl, but I doubt that it will ever catch on.

By: Frolic

Frolic — Fri, 24 Oct 2003 00:13:53 +0000

When I lived in Spain, I could have a Horniman in the morning (tea), a few pieces of Bimbo for lunch (bread), and when I hit the bars I always had a Dyk (whisky). Not sure if those products would make it in the English speaking world.

By: gogg

gogg — Thu, 23 Oct 2003 23:09:59 +0000

Several years ago, I saw an ad for a Japanese laundry detergent named “Attack.” The ads ran on television in both Manila and Kuala Lumpur. As I recall, in Manila, the ad included the phrase “Attack from Japan.” I was really shocked. Given Japan’s history in the region, it didn’t seem like the greatest marketing slogan. I don’t know if they ever changed it, though.

By: Harry

Harry — Thu, 23 Oct 2003 22:28:08 +0000

Jobb egy sör has mint egy Pizza Hát?

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 23 Oct 2003 21:02:52 +0000

some reasons why products have different names in different countries. 1. The original brand name is difficult or impossible to say in the new countries language. 2. The brand name is owned by someone else in the new country. An example of this would be ‘Smarties’, which is a candy trademark owned by different companies in the UK and the USA. 3. The brand is named with an unused, but still well known name in the new country, for marketing purposes. A well known use of this is for washing powders.

By: pathos

pathos — Thu, 23 Oct 2003 20:57:15 +0000

And ripped from today’s headlines . . . http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20031023/wl_canada_nm/canada_gm_col_1 Embarrassed GM to Rename Car With Risque Overtones Wed Oct 22,10:46 PM ET MAKUHARI, Japan (Reuters) – General Motors Corp will rename its Buick LaCrosse in Canada because the name for the car is slang for masturbation in Quebec, embarrassed officials with the U.S. automaker said on Thursday. GM officials, who declined to be named, said it had been unaware that LaCrosse was a term for self-gratification among teenagers in French-speaking Quebec.

By: Antoni Jaume

Antoni Jaume — Thu, 23 Oct 2003 20:23:30 +0000

Even if nova is not used as such in Spanish, there are quite a few words that have a relation with it, so even an uncultured Spanish-speaker would probably understand its meaning. First there is the matter of the pronuntiation, Spanish use a tonic accent in words, so “nova” /’noba/ sounds different from “no va” /no’ba/. To a cultured Spanish-speaker there is the word nova with the same meaning it has in English. words related to nueva, nuevo: novedad, innovar, renovar. Most speakers know of fuerza-reforzar, puerta-portal, sueño-soñar, cuello-collar, trueno-tronar… DSW

By: Keith M Ellis

Keith M Ellis — Thu, 23 Oct 2003 19:29:33 +0000

I knew someone would mention the "Nova" urban legend in this comment thread. I strongly suspect most (but not all) such stories are urban legends or partial exagerations. Many of these have been discussed on alt.folklore.urban over the years, and most are debunked. Years ago, I wrote a satiric post on a.f.u. intending to illustrate what's wrong with the "Nova" story: Matsushita's "Notice"

By: novakant

novakant — Thu, 23 Oct 2003 18:52:18 +0000

- sorry for the double post – and where is the “edit” button anyway :)

By: novakant

novakant — Thu, 23 Oct 2003 18:50:06 +0000

Mitsubishi doesn’t sell their Pajero SUV under the same name in Spain, as they do in the rest of Europe, because in vernacular Spanish “pajero”, or something that is pronounced similarly, not sure, can mean something like, ahem, “wanker” ;) .

By: novakant

novakant — Thu, 23 Oct 2003 18:49:48 +0000

Mitsubishi don’t sell their Pajero SUV under the same name in Spain, as they do in the rest of Europe, because in vernacular Spanish “pajero”, or something that is pronounced similarly, not sure, can mean something like, ahem, “wanker” ;) .

By: ralphj

ralphj — Thu, 23 Oct 2003 17:57:43 +0000

In the Netherlands, a tobacco company once put a brand of cigarettes on the market named NSB. They sold absolutely nothing, since the political party that supported the nazi’s during WWII was named liked that (and, even to this day, traitors are commonly referred to as “NSB’ers”).