Originally Posted by
MW147
know how to order Coke, beer, or water in Chinese, I do not know how to say Diet Coke.
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零 系 可 口 可 樂 (Coke Zero)
健 怡 可 口 可 樂 (Coke Light) pinyin "di dang ke kou ke le"
When Coca-Cola first entered the Chinese market, it called its drink ke-kouke-la. Unfortunately, the Chinese characters the company chose for those phonetic sounds meant 'bite the wax tadpole' or 'female horse stuffed with wax'. The Coca-Cola example reveals the pitfalls in translating Western brand-names into Chinese.
Transliteration of Coca-Cola Trademark to Chinese Characters
by H.F. Allman, formerly Legal Counsel in China for
The Coca-Cola Company
http://tafkac.org/products/coca-cola...a_chinese.html