Culture —– A Costly Mistake from an Incorrect Translation

This week I am going to tell you about a humorous textbook case of why it is important to know Spanish.

A long time ago Chevy® decided to start selling the Chevy Nova in Latin America. It was shipped down to dealerships but sales were unbelievably low. For quite some time Chevy could not figure out why. Finally they were able to figure out that the word “No va” in Spanish means “It doesn’t go”! So, basically Chevy® was trying to sell a car that was named “Chevy It doesn’t go”. Of course, you can only imagine why nobody wanted to buy it!

After finally realizing what was happening, they promptly changed the name and sales began to rise.

A lot of people believe you can get by speaking English to Spanish speakers. Sometimes if Spanish speakers do not understand, the English speaker will speak louder thinking it will help them understand a little better. This not only sounds ridiculous, but it also makes you look ridiculous if you try it.  There really is no substitute for learning the language well.

With our Visual Link Spanish™ course, an instructor will walk you through every step of learning to speak Spanish. You do not just learn individual words, instead you will learn how to put them together to form sentences as well as ask and answer questions. You will also learn how to sound just like a native speaker by learning the subtle nuances of speaking Spanish. Our priority is to help you learn Spanish correctly using fun and easy to learn methods! Click here to go to the free lessons at our web site or to purchase our course.

Good luck to all of you in your quest to learn to speak Spanish! To learn more, please visit our website www.spanishprograms.com