It’s the wacky title of a new book by language enthusiast Elizabeth Little which has Martha and Grant talking about whether Coca-Cola and Chevy ran into cultural translation problems when selling products abroad. Did the Chevy Nova really sell poorly in Latin America because “No va” means “don’t go” in Spanish? You can find more information about it in Dave Wilton’s book Word Myths. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Biting the Wax Tadpole by Elizabeth Little”
Well, Grant, you know, earlier we debunked that so-called advertising snafu in which Coca-Cola was supposedly mistranslated as bite the wax tadpole.
But, of course, the other biggie in that department is the story about the Chevy Nova.
And lots and lots of people have heard this one, the story that the Nova, the car, didn’t sell that well in Latin America because in Spanish, Nova translates as it doesn’t go.
But I’d love to believe this one, but sadly it’s not true either, is it?
Nope. Actually, the Chevy Nova sold very well in Latin America, even surpassing General Motors’ expectations.
The reason it did so well is because the Spanish actually have a perfectly good word, Nova, that’s just like our English word, Nova.
And so it was no great mystery to them.
And they’re no more likely to divide the word up in two than we are.
And on top of that, at the time the car was introduced, they had a brand of gasoline called Nova in the country.
You’d think that would have been a problem, right?
Exactly, right.
And if your car doesn’t start in Mexico, you’re more likely to say something like Noanda rather than Nova.
There we go.
But, you know, in this country, we’re not much better at naming cars.
I mean, think about the probe.
I think it was Jay Leno who said, who wants to be rear-ended by a probe?
Well, anyway, if you have a probing question, call us.
The number is 1-877-929-9673.
Or reach out and touch us by email.
The address is words@waywordradio.org.
