ChinesePod
aChinesePod
@ 50999 起名要小心
一個好商品如果起了個好名字，就可以說是成功了一半，可口可樂、奔馳汽車就是絕好的例子。
yī ge hǎo shāngpǐn rúguǒ qǐ le ge hǎo míngzi, jiù kěyǐ shuō shì chénggōng le yībàn, kěkǒukělè, bēnchí qìchē jiùshì juéhǎo de lìzi.
If a good product gets a good name, you can safely say that it's already halfway there. Coca Cola and Mercedes Benz are some extremely good examples.
不過中文博大精深，再加上各地方言和文化的因素，一些國外品牌的中文名字在中國明顯水土不服。
bùguò Zhōngwén bódàjīngshēn, zài jiāshang gèdì fāngyán hé wénhuà de yīnsù, yīxiē guówài pǐnpái de Zhōngwén míngzi zài Zhōngguó míngxiǎn shuǐtǔbùfú.
But Chinese is very profound. When you add in the different dialects and cultural factors, some foreign goods' Chinese names are really out of place in China.
好好的名字，如果被消費者作出可笑的解讀，再好的產品也被拖了後腿。汽車界就不乏這樣的例子。
hǎohāo de míngzi, rúguǒ bèi xiāofèizhě zuò chū kěxiào de jiědú, zàihǎo de chǎnpǐn yě bèi tuō le hòutuǐ. qìchē jiè jiù bùfá zhèyàng de lìzi.
No matter how good a product is, if consumers interpret its name in a ridiculous way, it will definitely be hobbled. The auto industry is full of examples of this.
就拿一款叫“榮威”的轎車來說，看似尊貴，但讀音卻像極了"wrong way'"，感覺像“跑錯了路”，品牌效應可想而知。
jiù ná yī kuǎn jiào `` róngwēi" de jiàochē láishuō, kàn shì zūnguì, dàn dúyīn què xiàng jí le"wrong way", gǎnjué xiàng `` pǎo cuò le lù" , pǐnpáixiàoyìng kěxiǎngérzhī.
Think of a name like ``Rong Wei" for a sedan. It seems very respectable, but it sounds very much like ``Wrong Way." You can imagine the effect of this brand name.
還有日本的汽車品牌“鈴木”，跟埋死人的“陵墓”同音，難怪中國人要嫌它晦氣！
hái yǒu rìběn de qìchē pǐnpái `` língmù" , gēn mái sǐrén de `` língmù" tóngyīn, nánguài zhōngguórén yào xián tā huìqì!
Then there's the Japanese car called ``Suzuki," which sounds in Chinese like the word for a tomb where you bury the dead. No wonder Chinese people consider it unlucky!
最近還有一個熱點，就是韓國電視臺SBS。這三個字母是漢城廣播系統的英語縮寫，但中國人聯想到的卻是京罵。
zuìjìn hái yǒu yī ge rèdiǎn, jiùshì Hánguó diànshìtái SBS. zhè sān ge zìmǔ shì hànchéng guǎngbō xìtǒng de yīngyǔsuōxiě , dàn zhōngguórén liánxiǎng dào de què shì jīngmà.
Lately there's another hot topic-- the Korean National TV station SBS. These three letters stand for the English abbreviation Seoul Broadcasting System. But they make Chinese people think of a filthy word.
商品名被曲解，不光外企，國內企業也防不勝防。比如有種藥叫“斯達舒”，結果被大家說成是“四大叔”。後來廠家乾脆自己幽默了一把，在廣告裡真的安排了一個"四大叔"的角色。
shāngpǐnmíng bèi qūjiě, bùguāng wàiqǐ , guónèi qǐyè yě fángbùshèngfáng. bǐrú yǒu zhǒng yào jiào `` sīdáshū" , jiéguǒ bèi dàjiā shuō chéng shì `` sìdàshú" . hòulái chǎngjiā gāncuì zìjǐ yōumò le yī bǎ, zài guǎnggào lǐ zhēnde ānpái le yī ge"sìdàshú"de juésè.
Not only foreign enterprises have their product names distorted. It's hard for domestic enterprises to prevent, too. For instance, there's a kind of medicine called ``Sidashu," which sounds in Chinese like ``Four Big Uncles." Afterwards, the company just made a joke of it- in their advertisement, they had roles for Four Big Uncles.
惡搞時代，起名要小心啊！
ègǎo shídài, qǐmíng yào xiǎoxīn a!
In an age of parody, be careful when you come up with a name!
Key Vocabulary
絕好 juéhǎo extremely good
博大精深 bódàjīngshēn broad and profound
水土不服 shuǐtǔbùfú not used to local habits
解讀 jiědú to decipher
拖後腿 tuō hòutuǐ to drag someone down
尊貴 zūnguì noble
品牌效應 pǐnpáixiàoyìng brand effect
可想而知 kěxiǎngérzhī you can imagine
陵墓 língmù tomb
晦氣 huìqì unlucky
京罵 jīngmà the Beijing curse
曲解 qūjiě to distort
防不勝防 fángbùshèngfáng impossible to defend against
惡搞 ègǎo to spoof
Supplementary Vocabulary
搞笑 gǎoxiào ridiculous
誤解 wùjiě to misunderstand
知名度 zhīmíngdù popularity
美譽度 měiyùdù renown
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