In addition
to being part of an interesting community, I use this blog to keep my English
skills in working order. I hope I manage to make myself understood. It is not
so easy with a foreign language. My grandfather got to experience that. He
signed on board the freighter Polar Fart. In Norwegian fart means to travel, or be traveling. After the first quay in
Glasgow the crew re-baptized the ship with a single stroke of paint to Polar Traveller.
A couple of
years ago I had a visit by an Englishman. He howled his laughter over signs
that alerted for Fartshump, and had to get out of the car and take a picture of
each eternal one. The signs are there to get alert drivers of bumps in the road
and to reduce speed. I didn`t know that hump is slang for intercourse. I do
know what fart is. Humping and farting is an en embarrassing combination, that knows
everyone who has tried it.
Another
friend of mine worked for a period as a telemarketer, but had to take off the
rest of the day off when a potential customer was Englishman and she had to ask for
Steve Pick. In Norwegian the pronouncement of Steve means hard and Pick means dick. Lessons
learned was also she who started an IT company and called it FagWeb it. In
Norwegian Fag means skills or science. After very many hits via American
homoerotic sites, she changed the name to e-profile.
One should
tread carefully when it comes to international launch of national products.
Kavli is one of the biggest food companies in Norway, but in Greece they had
trouble launching their goods. No wonder, since the Kavli (Καβλί) in Greek means erect
penis (am I right, Jeff?). For the same reason Ford never sold any models of Ford
Pinto in Portugal, where Pinto means small penis. It also went wrong for
Chevrolet when they in the 80s launched the car model Nova in Latin America.
Nova means star in Spanish but in Latin America means Nova "does not
go". In France it went wrong with Toyota's launch of the sports car MR2.
The French pronunciation of the letter and number combination is namely merde, witch means shit/damn - isn`t that so, Cara?
There are
several car companies who have committed advertising blunders as a result of
imprudence or ignorance about the choice of name. Prior to launch in the Nordic
market, Honda had to change model name on Honda Fitta to Honda Jazz, as fitta
is a Norwegian name for the female genitalia. The wife of a friend of mine in Japan had
one of those cars. In the advertising brochure he could read that "Fitta is
small on the outside but big inside" and "Fitta is a daily pleasure".
It goes with the story that Honda previously dropped the model name Pervo. 
The people
in the hotel industry also have their challenges. In my hometown Larvik we have Farris Bad Hotel (Bad; norw. bath/spa) and a little further north is the village
of Hell (hell; norw. slope/hill). There will you also find the city hotel, wishing
you Welcome to Hell.
Jorn Lier Horst
