Huawei goes on the campaign in NYC to teach people how to properly pronounce its name

8. Owlet (Posts: 450; Member since: 21 Feb 2011)

True, true, true.

19. aoikemono27 (Posts: 177; Member since: 27 Feb 2012)

Um, toy-yo-ta actually sounds much closer than the toe-yo-ta you are giving. Japanese actually has a toy sound (toi in toireto (toilet)), but not a toe sound. Agree on the whole wah-way shenanigans. The hwa sound is similar to when bruce lee goes hwaaaaa! when attacking people. So think of bruce lee going hwaaaa! when he kicks someone, then says "way".

NBC knockoff logo needs to go.

Chinese brand is chinese brand. Even Asian people would pick a more sophisticated sounding brand if money was of no concern. The less Chinese it sounds, the better. (e.g. Lenovo, MSI, Asus). Making a standout unique phone would also help too, instead of bargain bin plasticky carrier branded stuff and wannabe flagship knockoffs. *cough*

20. djteqneek (Posts: 8; Member since: 10 Jul 2012)

actually looking at the katakana characters of the company...

トヨタ

spells "to yo ta"

is defintely not a "toi" sound. If you write Toyota the way its pronounced in the US, it would look like...

トイヨタ

this is "toi yo ta", which is obviously not this company, otherwise the romanization would end up being "Toiyota"

21. Owlet (Posts: 450; Member since: 21 Feb 2011)

You were right about Huawei, but aoikemono27 is right about Toyota. Even though it's TO YO TA or とよた (hiragana) "TO" is not pronounced as "TOE". It's Japanese, not English. "To" is "to", not "toe". ;) Vowels are not pronounced as diphthong in Japanese.

14. whothisperson (Posts: 102; Member since: 06 May 2012)

We are cellphone freaks so of course we know them and of course the average person do not know the different brands. It's like someone asking you to name the manufacturer for a product you are not familiar or make a hobby of.

17. vvelez5 (Posts: 623; Member since: 29 Jan 2011)

I am aware sir. That's why I said "this is your standard consumer." Meaning all manufacturers should definitely do marketing campaigns to get the common consumer acclimated to their product. Hell, I still get friends who when they see my Nokia Lumia 900 they are surprised that there is a Nokia phone that isn't an old 3310.

15. whothisperson (Posts: 102; Member since: 06 May 2012)

Because it is a chinese name and that how it would be written in english. Why didn't we just spell weak as week since it's pronounced week.. sigh...

16. groupsacc (Posts: 232; Member since: 28 Feb 2012)

Weak and week are spelt differently to differentiate.

Hey, if it's pronounced Wahway, they should write it wahway, doesn't matter if it's a Chinese name, we use alphabets, not chinese.

18. aoikemono27 (Posts: 177; Member since: 27 Feb 2012)

Uh, its written in the roman alphabet, just like English, and dozens of other languages. English has no consistency anyway, so you will get a million responses regardless.