Posted by Murrisk on October 21, 2001 at 06:13:23:
In Reply to: Re: Well its the weekend.................. posted by Que on October 21, 2001 at 05:51:45:
You are up late Que. Anyway, I was reading Ahem's piece on the BB about the German fellow who was sent a gift from the U.S. but became frightened because 'gift' in German means 'poison'. In the 1970's General Motors tried to market a reliable car called 'Nova' in Mexico. It didn't sell because the Mexicans knew Spanish and 'no va' in Spanish means 'no go'! Then there was the Canadian oil company Poco Petroleums which explored in South America. Nobody took them seriously because 'poco' in Spanish means 'little or small'. And not to be out done there was a Castlebar couple who, after a holiday in Spain, named their twin girls 'Tia'and 'Maria' apparently without realising that they were naming the twins 'aunt' and 'Mary'!! Do these problems only arise with Spanish?? Now thats a question to be ruminated upon at JB's corner, over a meejum or just before going out on Halloweens night. A few years ago a Canadian paper published a photo of two teenage girls out 'trick or treating' on Halloweens night (I know I don't have to explain 'trick or treating' to Irish readers since I experienced it there in recent years). The caption read "trick ot treat"? Oh the importance of linguistic clarity.