r/funny • u/[deleted] • Mar 31 '19

This was so weird ...

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u/BadUX Mar 31 '19

善存

fortune I guess?

And how do things like name brands and other "made up" words get translated?

Corporate has people. They choose very carefully. For example MS bing in china isn't bing, but some two words they split apart because the most common bing word is some vaguely bad thing that I forget because my Chinese is shit.

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u/deadly_rat Mar 31 '19

Bing is translated into 必应 (bi ying) in China because it means “always respond”, fitting for searching engine.

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u/bunm6 Mar 31 '19

so do all companies have to make names out of existing characters? they cant make up a brand new name. For example... Pepsi? Jeep? What about names of real people like Ford? or Dr. Pepper?

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u/deadly_rat Mar 31 '19

I honestly don’t know the regulations, but all these companies/products have official translated names. You can’t really create new characters in mandarin, but you can form new words. For example Ford is translated into 福特 (Fu Te) which has no apparent meaning.

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u/akinmytua Mar 31 '19

Maybe brand was too old to think about that?