Shower Thoughts

[OtheratheOtter]

Thank you Faust :3 the world is now a much more awesome place. I shall remember this. Hopefully the traffic sign fandom kicks off soon! I would like to have a Narrow Bridge Sign-Sona, then I can be always doing the cute ">.<" face:

Uff and thank you Rob as well! Public Enemy was not wrong when they said "Don't Believe the Hype". I feel less cynical and paranoid now, but also sad that human decency seems to be rare these days. Maybe indecency is just more prevalent nowerdays because we can uncover it more easily. Whatever the case, screw those bastards!

Is it just me or does the Narrow Bridge sign picture look like a pussy?

 

[Pomorek]

Reminds me of the two different Austrian towns called Fucking, both of which eventually changed their names to Fugging because people were making too many Fucking jokes and tourists kept stealing the Fucking road signs as souvenirs.

There was also Petting nearby, if memory serves.

Personally I've been in a town in Germany named Bad Orb.

I had a Greek friend once who was mightily amused by a seemingly-innocuous tobacconist's shop in London called 'Pouches and Pipes' (they specialised in pipes, baccy pouches and loose tobacco).

Apparently that's Greek slang for 'Dicks and Blowjobs'

There also used to be a stationary shop called 'Pen Island', but their website has since been changed to a porn site, on account of what happens when you remove the space from 'Pen Island'.

Just don't get me started on Polish vs Czech. It's as if these languages were composed mostly of mutual false friends. Despite many words being very similar, the level of mismatch in their meaning is absolutely wild.

 

[Faust]

Just remembered another one!

When Coca Cola wanted to expand into the Chinese market, they had to translate the name phonetically since the language was so very different. But every symbol has a meaning, so they had to find a combination of pictograms that didn’t mean something silly.

Apparently one of their first attempts literally translates as ‘bite the wax tadpole’.

I don’t think this version was ever used in practice though, and they eventually settled on symbols that mean ‘can mouth, can happy’.

Meanwhile, Pepsi mistakenly translated their slogan ‘Pepsi makes you come alive’ into Taiwanese as ‘Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the dead’.

 

[Faust]

On the other hand, Vauxhall didn't change the name of the Vauxhall Nova when marketing it to Spain, in spite of the fact that 'No Va' means 'Doesn't Go' in Spanish.

Apparently this didn't actually affect its popularity at all.

 

[OtheratheOtter]

If protogens are Toasters, where does the bread go?

 

[Pomorek]

On the other hand, Vauxhall didn't change the name of the Vauxhall Nova when marketing it to Spain, in spite of the fact that 'No Va' means 'Doesn't Go' in Spanish.

Apparently this didn't actually affect its popularity at all.

Well, Škoda means harm or damage in Polish and IIRC in Czech as well (the word itself is spelled szkoda in Polish). Doesn't make it any less popular though.

 

[Faust]

Well, Škoda means harm or damage in Polish and IIRC in Czech as well (the word itself is spelled szkoda in Polish). Doesn't make it any less popular though.

That’s weird, my Czech dictionary gives the translation of ‘Skoda’ as ‘what a pity’!

 

[Pomorek]

That’s weird, my Czech dictionary gives the translation of ‘Skoda’ as ‘what a pity’!

Okay, my bad. But only partially because this use of the word exists in Polish too! And this doesn't make the car brand any less funny. I mean, how about having a car brand named "Alas" or indeed "Pity"?

I can also tell you that people here avoid pronouncing the name "correctly", as if it was a taboo. Instead we say it with plain s as the first sound. That way, it doesn't sound like your car is named "damage", after all.