Messaggi: 27
Lingua: English
Senlando (Mostra il profilo) 19 febbraio 2009 18:48:13
摩門 (mó-mén)
摩 (is usually used as a phonetic element for foreign names, otherwise the meaning is "rub")
門 (door, gate,)
problem is the sound and tone of 摩(mó) is identical to 魔(mó) which means demon, therefor 摩門 sounds like 魔門 which means Demon's Gate, Gateway to Hell, or Devil's gate.
I've always thought that was funny (obviously I'm not a Mormon) but to be fair this kind of thing happens all the time with foreign words. I think the meanings of words (when possible), instead of the phonetic element, should be transilated, especially with religious terminology!
Also all foreign names that are translated into Chinese sound stupid to me when they are translated phonetically and have no meaning in of themselves. When i was really young and before i had a real Chinese name, someone thought it would be funny to give me a phonetic one. My name Preston, ended up Pu-la-si-deng. Which means nothing, and sounds absolutely stupid. So for anyone going to live in a Chinese speaking country for a long period of time, take my advise, get a real Chinese name (probably 3 syllables) with a meaning you like instead of a phonetically translated name, Or just use your English name, and be generous about letting people butcher it.
andogigi (Mostra il profilo) 19 febbraio 2009 19:41:17
Senlando:I have seen this also. My surname is Anderson. I allowed my Japanese friends to choose my transliteration in that language since I needed something to put on my stamp for the bank. They chose "safe Wisteria". (安藤) It works out well since "Mr" in Japanese is -san and it comes after the surname. The characters are pronounced "Andou", hence people would call me "Andou-san", which is close to Anderson anyway. It just isn't a common surname in Japanese and it is awfully boring.
My name Preston, ended up Pu-la-si-deng. Which means nothing, and sounds absolutely stupid.
ceigered (Mostra il profilo) 20 febbraio 2009 07:22:14
andogigi:My problem with my first name (Christian) is that I pronounce it 'Chris-ch'n' which when Japaneserised more or less equals 'Kurisuchan', so it would sound strange to introduce myself as 'Kuris-chan' (chan is what you call kids or close childhood friends etc, and is regarded 'cute' - for a boy you're more likely to call them 'kun').Senlando:I have seen this also. My surname is Anderson. I allowed my Japanese friends to choose my transliteration in that language since I needed something to put on my stamp for the bank. They chose "safe Wisteria". (安藤) It works out well since "Mr" in Japanese is -san and it comes after the surname. The characters are pronounced "Andou", hence people would call me "Andou-san", which is close to Anderson anyway. It just isn't a common surname in Japanese and it is awfully boring.
My name Preston, ended up Pu-la-si-deng. Which means nothing, and sounds absolutely stupid.
I'm not sure what they would think: That I'm arrogant referring to myself with a name suffix, that I'm stupid, or that I never got past childhood
. Of course, I could just change it to 'Kurisuchin' 
Rogir (Mostra il profilo) 20 febbraio 2009 10:30:33
ceigered (Mostra il profilo) 20 febbraio 2009 12:08:33
Rogir:I always give my Dutch name and let others stumble over it horribly.I thought it was just pronounced roĥir (with a bit more guts in the 'ĥ' so to say)? Although I wouldn't know, not being a dutchman myself
Rogir (Mostra il profilo) 20 febbraio 2009 13:29:50
erinja (Mostra il profilo) 20 febbraio 2009 16:41:23
andogigi:In the US, the American Dairy Council had a very successful ad campaign using the simple slogan "Got Milk?". It was so popular, that they wished to repeat that success in the American Latino market. Unfortunately, the translation of the slogan they used in Spanish meant, "Are you lactating?" Imagine the confusion that one created? I think it was eventually changed to "Familia, Amor y Leche" (family, love and milk) or some other such nonsense.The New York Times did an excellent article on cross-cultural marketing that included discussion of choice of slogans. I think people tend to assume that companies translate their slogans willy-nilly, and I think that this is not the case, that some thought goes into it. Certainly this is the case when marketing to the Latino market in the US (which is the focus of the article).
You can read the article here, I highly recommend it:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/23/magazine/23galle...
And FYI, the "Got milk?" ad campaign as described in the article has the slogan "Toma leche" ("Have some milk.")