Thursday, October 27, 2011

Bite the Wax Tadpole

I guess I am on a BBC articles on China theme. The BBC has an article on Chinglish which is the language resulting unintentional often hilarious results when mandarin is attempted to be translated into English (by non-familiar speakers apparently). I do like the "Deformed Man's Toilet" sign for handicap restroom though it seems cruel. Also the transliteration for"No Trespassing" seems far more meaningful and effective than the English words.

Of course it goes the other way too, I recall various international aid organizations had abbreviations that meant sex parts in various places. I think Exxon was so named because its previous brand name for gas, Esso [from S.O. for Standard Oil], meant "piss" somewhere. The Chevy Nova meant "no go" in Spanish speaking countries (maybe just truth in advertising). And Pepsi promised ("Come Alive with Pepsi !"TM) to bring peoples' ancestors back from the grave in I think Central Africa.

1 Comments:

Blogger New England Guy said...

The "nova" story is apocryphal because it sounds like something car execs would do. But actually Mexico has or had a gas named "Nova" which doesn't convey the silly meaning

11:44 AM, October 27, 2011  

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