Word: fahrvergnugen
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...Remember Fahrvergnugen, the German tongue twister that Volkswagen adopted for ad campaigns in the early 1990s to express the thrill of driving its cheap, dependable, even lovable cars? For VW owner Ann Jones of Corona, Calif., the experience has been more like far from groovin'. Jones was lured to the Jetta by its stylish looks, elegant interior and solid road handling, which made it seem worth the $18,900 price. But a few months after bringing her new sedan home in 2000, she returned it to the dealer because of an oil leak...
...wouldn't have a clue about how to pronounce it. VW has tacitly admitted that they were right. Some of the first TV ads for the Touareg parody the pronunciation (which, for the record, is tour-egg). VW says Americans had difficulty pronouncing Passat when it launched. (Never mind fahrvergnugen.) But that doesn't dispel the sense that VW's marketing department is in triage mode. VW named the Touareg for a rugged tribe of African nomads. But it turns out that the tribe held and traded slaves until the 20th century--a poor association for a company that used...
...wider usage of the language, and is bound as well to contribute more words to other tongues. Already television viewers in the U.S. have seen signs of a heightened linguistic confidence on the part of the Germans. One example: a Volkswagen ad campaign that centers on the word Fahrvergnugen, or joy in driving -- however mispronounced it may be in the commercials. Only a few years ago, the use of a German word in an advertisement in English would have been avoided, if only because the sound of German was associated with the bad guys in World War II movies. Today...
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