At the risk of digressing here, we have mentioned (the euphemism tread?) how prison guards are now corrections officers and jails and prisons are now correctional facilities. Sounds like they do proofreading in there. But no matter what they call them, you don't want to be in one.I’ve gone cop native
How would you like this company name on your résumé? And how did that happen? The company was founded in Mexico City eighty years ago, and they forgot to check what it meant in English. (Much like how General Motors forgot to check what Nova meant in Spanish). I suppose when they started their American division, they could have come up with a different name but they didn't. (Mazda cars come from a Japanese company with another name.)
I also suspect that 80 years ago the English-speaking world wasn't as dominant as it is today. The average Spanish speaker (whether from Europe, Latin America or Asia) probably wouldn't have considered English the be all and end all of international business.
They probably couldn't have imagined it being an international business at some future point. General Motors, however, should have known better.
Yup. The "classic" part of it is when they value it for state taxes they don't value it as an old car they value it high cause...."classic"
In Australia, they've always been mobile phones, ever since they came on the market. I don't recall us ever calling them cellphones.
I agree, if an Australian tried to sanitize all the "Australianisms" from their story just in case someone didn't understand them, they'd alienate their actual Australian fans and have a weaker story for their efforts.
It seems that my example has taken on a life of its own in this thread.
Depends how many readers you wish to deter. It's a delicate balance: some local terms provide flavour, as long as readers can guess what they mean from context. Doesn't matter if they're brands or other terms.
I don't mean to give you or her a hard time, but celebrities are in effect - sort of - products and thus brands. Also, from what I understand, the loss of anonymity can be a downside. Some of them handle it better than others, but many of them have commented on it.My favorite band name model of the 1990s was Beverly Peele; in fact, she was a SuperModel. I wish I could've been her!
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Oops, you mean products. Well, I still stand by Beverly Peele, statement.
The idea of being famous is appealing athough, probably fortunately, hard to achieve. Some of us may think, "I would be the same person anyway. And I'd treat my fans well."
That would make an interesting thought experiment. Sorry, my references are dated because I'm rapidly losing track of popular culture. Let's say it's 1990 and John Updike and Tony Danza are walking together down the street, say In Manhattan. Who do you think would get recognized the most frequently? If it's in Jackson Heights, Queens, or Harrison, NJ, Updike would go down more drastically than Danza would. In The Bronx, Updike would barely register at all but Danza would still be noticed by some. "It's that guy from Taxi!"
I once had a chat about the weather with Arthur C Clarke, one of my favourite authors, but did not realise who I had been speaking to until afterwards.
