Here are Ten Language Tips from The Book of Useless Information, by Noel Botham

1. There are about five thousand different languages spoken on Earth.
2. Chevrolet tried marketing the Chevy Nova in Spanish-speaking countries. It didn’t sell well because “no va” means “doesn’t go” in Spanish
3. In Italy, a campaign for Schweppes Tonic Water translated the name into Schweppes Toilet Water
4. In Russian, the phrase “Out of sight, out of mind” was translated as “The invisible idiot.”
5. Rio de Janeiro translates to River of January
6. The Kentucky Fried Chicken slogan, “Finger-lickin’ good” came out as “Eat your fingers off” in Chinese
7. The Eskimo language has more than twenty words to describe different kinds of snow
8. More than 26 dialects of Quichua are spoken in Ecuador
9. The stress in Hungarian words always falls on the first syllable
10. In Papua New Guinea, there are villages within five miles of each other that speak different languages