Reaction To German was Shocked by Pronunciation of German Brands All Around the World!

Added: 2026-05-22

[00:00:00]Today I'm going to be learning more about the German language by watching this video. It's called German was shocked by the pronunciation of German brands all around the world. US, China, Japan, and Spain. So yeah, I guess we're going to hear people from different countries pronouncing German brands. See how they differ.

[00:00:22]Uh see what the correct pronunciation is. Let's watch. Germany we say in America we would say Volkswagen.

[00:00:31]>> In China we will say Germany we say >> China we see [music] what that's quite cool as well actually cuz yeah rather than just hearing a brand in a different accent. It's interesting to see in some countries they actually just change it completely to something more localized to them. Uh should be cool to find out what those sort of things are.

[00:01:02]>> Hello.

[00:01:05]>> Uh sometimes I don't know. I think it depends on the brand, but I also think it depends on like what you consider correct cuz like I say the English pronunciation or the American pronunciation, but it's not like the perfect German pronunciation if that makes sense.

[00:01:20]>> In the art sometimes can appear like the German pronunciation, but I cannot do that.

[00:01:26]>> I don't know the German. So that's why like I I don't know what Asian is correct or not.

[00:01:34]>> Yes. especially like in Asian countries like Korea or China or Japan because like no sorry it's okay [laughter] >> but if you meet a lot of like foreign friends then I mean if I would be only in Germany then of course I wouldn't know how other people pronounce it but because we like also meet each other and like if someone pronounces something and means the same thing you're like me [music] >> okay this one I say Porsche I know like sometimes Like I hear people say like Porsche. I don't know. When I was brought up it was always Porsche. I think that's how Scottish people pronounce it. Let's see what the correct pronunciation is.

[00:02:16]>> In Germany we say Porsche.

[00:02:19]>> Porsche. Porsche. So that's probably more correct. The other people are probably more correct. I think in America a lot of them say like Porsche, but Porsche. It's more like that. Okay.

[00:02:30]>> In America we usually say Porsche or Porsche. In China we see >> in Japan we say >> in Spain we say Porsche or >> port sounds like excuse me like what did you say? I actually probably is most common porch than Porsche because I think Porsche is only people that heard the name like in English in the advers or something. But with the Spanish pronunciation will be Porche.

[00:03:04]>> So the most surprising one was Spain Port. But actually everything except me everything is kind of similar like America was similar and was similar.

[00:03:14]But I'm like what happened to the R?

[00:03:16]because it became like R porch or poor >> and what happened to the e like the e port >> but everything got so short >> and like the the German was just gone it's just gone but p is like I was like okay I can't I can't accept that >> no in Spanish has another meaning that is like this little terrace in front of your househ >> so >> oh porch porch >> yeah we got in America too we call porch.

[00:03:46]>> Yeah, it's >> Yeah.

[00:03:48]>> Okay. This one is a Volkswagen I feel like or Volkswagen maybe in German cuz the W is like a V. Volkswagen or Volkswagen.

[00:03:59]>> So in Germany we say wagon.

[00:04:02]>> What is their reaction like? I'm wrong.

[00:04:04]I'm right. But their reaction is right.

[00:04:06][laughter] >> What is Okay.

[00:04:08]>> Volkswagen.

[00:04:09]>> But in America we would say Volkswagen or VW.

[00:04:13]>> Yeah. I wonder. Yeah. That street actually. Yeah. I wonder like cuz I hear some people call it VW in Britain as well. I wonder if it gets shortened in Germany as well.

[00:04:26]>> Okay.

[00:04:27]>> In China we will say >> any meaning of >> no just >> okay no meaning >> in Japan we say >> okay one more time. One more time.

[00:04:45]Sounds like folks garden.

[00:04:48]>> Excuse me.

[00:04:49]>> I think >> I actually always like the Japanese way of uh saying English brands or English words and I think I just I find it very enjoyable to hear.

[00:04:58]>> That's when we say >> but it's okay. Okay.

[00:05:07]>> Everything else is so soft every other pronunciation. But like Spain at least it's like because it's fagen. M >> at least it sounds the most like strong >> but I think it's for the adverbs because I think this brand when the adverb finishes there is like a very manly voice that says >> so maybe that's why I'm used to that I don't know that name >> that again I never thought about that is like when you your exposure to a word from another country like if it's through adverts or TV actually also depends on the person or the sound of the voice actually saying it that you'll try and replicate that. So it could be the accent or something like that. So if it was like a brand from a certain region and it was someone of that region speaking with their accent then the people learning it would like replicate that one. So I never really thought about that before but that's quite a interesting point. The first one in Germany is like because first one is like the car of the people like kind of this kind of mean the citizen's car >> kind of this kind of meaning. So Oh, I just thought about that. If you split it up, it's like folks is like folks like in English fsk and then wagon meaning car. So people's car.

[00:06:27]>> Ah, it's it's people's car.

[00:06:29]>> That's pretty Yeah, that is I feel like I might have heard that before, but just hearing it again it's actually quite surprising. But so does that mean is like every German owned a Volkswagen before? Is it the most commonly sold car?

[00:06:44]>> So China. Wow.

[00:06:46]>> If I want to buy a Volkswagen in Japan, I need help [laughter] for the pronunciation cuz I don't know. I just saw the picture and I want this car.

[00:06:54][laughter] >> Fox.

[00:06:56]>> American like it was Volkswagen. What was it?

[00:07:00]>> Volkswagen.

[00:07:00]>> Volkswagen.

[00:07:01]>> Volkswagen.

[00:07:01]>> I mean it's it's just it's just a little bit American. Yeah, it's just I mean like the the feeling is American.

[00:07:07]>> Yeah, Volkswagen. But I know I know some people that try extra hard and they're like Volkswagen and I'm like stop [laughter] >> too much.

[00:07:16]>> China I wouldn't even recognize what she's saying.

[00:07:19]>> Chinese. [laughter] >> This one as well I would say Adidas.

[00:07:25]Some people say like Adidas, but for me in Scotland I guess we just say Adidas. In Germany, we say Adida.

[00:07:33]>> I guess that's the correct one as well.

[00:07:35]Actually, more like in Scotland, we pronounce things, I guess, pretty wrong.

[00:07:39]I think in England, I think a lot of English people were more likely to say Adidas.

[00:07:43]>> America, we typically say Adidas.

[00:07:47]>> Why is it Adidas?

[00:07:49]>> What?

[00:07:49]>> Why is everyone mad at me? [laughter] >> I'm not bothering you. I was wondering.

[00:07:54]>> I'm just curious. Like, I' I've heard it as Adidas, but nobody really says like that. Like in common conversation it's like oh those are Adidas. Yeah.

[00:08:02]>> But because of that people think it's an American brand.

[00:08:05]>> Yeah. People think so everyone thinks Adidas is American.

[00:08:09]>> In China we see Adidas.

[00:08:11]>> It's still it's still closer to yours than mine because it has the emphasis on the different place in the word.

[00:08:17]>> So does it have another also word or meaning like with the portag like does adidas have another word as well?

[00:08:24]>> No just.

[00:08:26]>> So cute. Sounds cute. Japan we say Adidas.

[00:08:30]>> Adidas.

[00:08:31]>> Okay.

[00:08:32]>> Thank you.

[00:08:32]>> I think in Austral we say Adidas. So the strongest is does not adidas. It's >> Adidas. Adidas.

[00:08:41]>> Adidas.

[00:08:42]>> I don't know if that's right. Yeah. But everything was okay.

[00:08:46]>> Okay.

[00:08:48]>> This one we say just BMW. I think in Germany. Germany. Is it like BMV?

[00:08:54]Something like that. So in Germany we say BMV. Why is it called V? That is W.

[00:09:01]>> Because in German we say V.

[00:09:03]>> No, but it's a W. [laughter] We say we say vagen. It's a V.

[00:09:08]>> You say vagen.

[00:09:09]>> It's vag.

[00:09:11]>> That's like such an American mentality as well. Like why are you saying V? Like why are you pronouncing it in German rather than British or American English?

[00:09:25]So underneath it actually means >> wow.

[00:09:38]>> You're good.

[00:09:40]>> Thank you.

[00:09:41]>> This is so interesting cuz we're talking about the letter W and in English it's double U. So it would be like U.

[00:09:46]>> But in in French if I'm not mistaken it's D. So double V and then she calls it V. So it's V. You see what I'm saying? So >> it's interesting as well. Yeah. Like when you say that double V because uh when you write it or when I write it it's like yeah double it's like two U's.

[00:10:02]It's round but when you see like the W sometimes can be like a it is like a V when you do a capital or uppercase W is like double V rather than W. It's interesting. I never never knew that as well. Actually >> there's like a correlation there but I don't know what happened to America. We call it W. In America we would say BMW.

[00:10:19]>> In China we see Balma.

[00:10:21]>> Balma. We come from so sorry BMV has this kind of meaning but Porkswagen is just a car brand name.

[00:10:38]>> What was it?

[00:10:39]>> Balma Palma.

[00:10:40]>> It sounds like in German Palm is like a a store where you can buy like a hammer and stuff.

[00:10:49]>> Japan we say Wow. Okay.

[00:10:53]>> In Spain, we say, >> but it's not because it's that would be double V, but I think no one says, >> "Wow, >> we just I guess we listen the German pronunciation and that's why we say >> Okay. Okay. And you think that's similar to the [laughter] >> It sounds like you're crying like a >> I do find it interesting that Japan models their >> pronunciation after the English BMW B.

[00:11:35]>> Yeah. Instead of BMV where >> that is interesting as well. Yeah. I guess like it shows like maybe Japan's exposure more to like American English rather than other countries. But yeah, that I wonder when that was like first used or first created and they just took it from American or British English rather than the German pronunciation.

[00:11:58]>> Spain models theirs after Germany and then China has their own thing.

[00:12:02]>> Wow.

[00:12:02]>> China just has their own name because we say the and >> yeah we will say or but it's too long.

[00:12:14]>> This one you say MercedesBenz.

[00:12:17]So in Germany we say Mercedes-Benz. In America we would say Mercedes-Benz.

[00:12:22]>> In China we see what completely lost.

[00:12:36]Oh I got it. Okay.

[00:12:38]German we [music] say we say the Mercedes just >> just in Spain we say Mercedes Benz >> so hard >> but we we used to say more Mercedes than Ben >> Wow really in America we typically just say either Mercedes or Benz but we don't usually say Mercedes Benzar we usually just say one or the other >> we say Mercedes Benz we don't say you have a Ben >> it's very hard to say it >> like oh look at that Benz like we know what you're talking about or say like oh they got a Mercedes >> Benz Benz.

[00:13:12]>> Yeah, that's true. Actually in Britain we don't really use the full MercedesBenz. I feel like Ben if someone says there's a Benz it's more like slang. I think all the time it would just mean Mercedes >> cuz we always I think most of the people say the long version in Germany we always say Mercen say Nivea.

[00:13:31]In >> Germany we say Nivea.

[00:13:33]>> In America we would say Nivea. In China we say >> okay >> in Japan we say >> in Spain we say >> okay I like Spain and Japan >> I know it's very similar to German. Why is American doing?

[00:13:52]>> I think we we try to do it the same, but we just put the inflection on a different letter typically cuz it's not that far off. Like I would know what you're saying, >> but we just say Nivea >> and like we kind of get lazy at the end, but the inflection is more on the eye.

[00:14:05]>> Yeah. I think >> you would say Nivea, we would say Nivea.

[00:14:08]>> Yeah. So like like America is never that far away, but it's like very very similar, but they you just pronounce it in a very American way. That's it.

[00:14:15]>> It also depends on the accent. I'm from the south, so I say like Nivea. But somebody in California might be like Nivea. Like, so you know what I'm saying? Like it just kind of depends also where you're from in the States.

[00:14:27]>> My favorite I don't know. I mean, I don't know if it's correct in how I pronounce it, but my favorite candy for sure. Haribo.

[00:14:34]>> In Germany, we say haribo.

[00:14:36]>> There's like a little So, in America, depending on the region, I've heard Haribo, Haribo, and Haribo.

[00:14:45]>> Wow. But yeah, kind of depends on where you're from.

[00:14:47]>> In China, we see hari.

[00:14:52]>> In Japan, we say haribo.

[00:14:54]>> In Spain, I heard or >> the unique one. Like this time, China was like 75% was like, "Yeah, it's coming." Then she was like, "A [laughter] like I was like, okay, there's the Chinese part." [laughter] >> No, I mean America again. the same thing as like just pronouncing it a little bit more American like the RA. Is there a meaning with the har uh very surprising [music] very interesting I mean I was not that surprised about America because I know that they just pronounce >> stuff more American like how it's comfortable for them. I mean German do the same way with American brands so it's nothing surprising. China. Well, different world >> but very nice. I want to I want to know more. Like it's kind of very interesting and some sometimes it's very cute, sometimes it's very um like how did they come up with this?

[00:15:52]>> Then Japan is uh >> I think kind of like it's it's very similar. So I'm I'm surprised by that cuz like you know Europe and then >> way far away is like Japan and Asia.

[00:16:04]>> Yeah. And then I mean Spain is right next to Germany, but still they have like their own way of pronouncing it because of their like or not pronouncing the H or something.

[00:16:15]>> It was fun.

[00:16:16]>> Yeah, it's always really fun. I like I like it.

[00:16:18]>> Yeah. Tell me what you think of it. And it's like Yeah, very different. I feel like Yeah, the Chinese one is kind of the most interesting like seeing like coming up with like full different meanings for the names.

[00:16:30]Personally, I like the J Japanese way pronouncing words. Pronouncing English words is always like quite enjoyable, but it's very very different. Obviously, that makes sense. Yeah. What was your favorite pronunciation of the words there? Thanks.