Tales From the Translation Industry - Stephanie Horn Prinzing | PGO 2023

What are the pros and cons of machine translation? Why are some people predicting an increased demand for French Canadian linguists this year? How do we make our translations gender-inclusive when the official rules of a language are not?
Join Stephanie Horn Prinzing, a translations project manager, as she discusses important trends and issues in localization and why it pays - literally! - to keep up with current events!
STEPHANIE HORN PRINZING
Stephanie Horn Prinzing is excited to be back for another Polyglot Gathering presentation (she previously spoke in 2021). She lives in the United States but gets to communicate with people around the world every day in her roles as a translations project manager and ESL teacher. Some of her favorite linguistic topics include the revival of endangered languages, the evolution of inclusive language in different cultures, and improving access to information during emergencies and resettlement.
This video was recorded at the Polyglot Gathering Online 2021 (www.polyglotga...).

[@JorgeRafaelNogueras]

I'd really like to know the source of this opt-repeated story that the Chevy Nova sold poorly in Spanish-speaking countries *because* the name means "doesn't go": it sounds specious to me.
"Nova" in Spanish also means "nova" as in "supernova", and in such context that's exactly how it would be understood. Also, the phrase "no va" is pronounced slightly differently from "nova": "NO-va" stresses the first syllable, while "no VA" stresses the second (and Spanish speakers are really sensitive to such differences since there are a lot of minimal pairs where the stress changes the meaning, e.g. "tomo" vs. "tomó", "papa" vs. "papá", etc.) Finally, it just sounds silly to me that people would not buy a car that would otherwise meet their needs because they feel the name possibly meaning "doesn't go" implies the product is, in fact, inferior: it frankly makes Spanish-speakers sound provincial, if not downright ignorant.
What is the source for this story? How are we sure that it was the name of the car model (and not say, its price, or other features) that affected its sales in Spanish-speaking countries (if that is indeed what happened)?