Business names and Chinese
An interesting post on the perils of translating company names into Chinese by John Biesnecker:
Intimate geeks
After we chose the computer we wanted at Best Buy, we were directed to the “Geek Squad” service center where they tested our machine and made sure that everything was to our liking. “Geek Squad” was translated as 贴心电脑服务, or “intimate computer service,” a difference that I believe shows how much Best Buy invested in market research before opening their first store in Shanghai. …
4 comments.
Technorati tags: translation
I think he meant that not as an example of a mistake, but as a reasonably smart choice. Rather than trying to translate or transliterate, they chose a name more relevant to the market niche.
Hi Lucien! Indeed, you’re correct - I was just referring to the article as a whole and picked out that bit because it caught my attention. He does say that the translation of Geek Squad was well done.
Somebody should write a book on what happens when brand names and trademarks cross the language barrier… Calpis has always struck me as an in interesting case, I’ve always wondered if its aural connotations haven’t limited its success here in the US.
I am happy to say that I enjoy Calpis thoroughly, myself. ☺
Hmmm, one thing I like in Chinese is that they tend to translate everything – no Chinglish à la Japlish/Konglish. “Centre” is 中心, “Service” is 服務, “Computer” is 電腦 [electric brain], etc… You can stumble upon cute things sometimes: Oracle™ is 甲骨文[中国公司], in reference to the Oracle bone inscriptions… HSBC is 匯興, convergeance [of] prosperity – what a nice name for a bank!
As a whole, Chinese translations beat loan words, even if sometimes we have to think twice :-)
Never liked those nicknames for those dialects :/.
Not sure I follow your argument here (but I can’t pronounce those characters… pinyin, take me away! nudge nudge ☺)
Does 服務 sound like “Service”? 電腦 [electric brain] is clearly a semantic translation.