Reset Button?

Hillary Clinton, in an effort to "reset" the relationship between the USA and Russia presented Russain Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva a small box with a gift ribbon. The box contained a red button with the word "peregruska" printed on top.

She said, "I would like to present you with a little gift that represents what President Obama and Vice President Biden and I have been saying and that is: 'We want to reset our relationship and so we will do it together.'"

Clinton, added, "We worked hard to get the right Russian word. Do you think we got it?" she asked the Foreign Minister.

"You got it wrong," Lavrov said." Both diplomats laughed. "It should say "perezagruzka" (the Russian word for reset,). This says 'peregruzka,' which means 'overcharged.'"

Oops!

Watch Out Amateurs

Language translation gaffs are amusing for most of us because we assume that translating a phrase or text into another language can be done by using a bilingual dictionary, a little knowledge and a bowl of hope.

This is not an assumption which should be done when trying to communicate correctly in another language. One Miami company printed several thousand T-shirts which were supposedly translated into Spanish "I saw the Pope". Whoever translated it used the above mentioned recipe. A class of Spanish or two, a dictionary and a brave pen. The result was "Vi la Papa" which really translates as "I saw the potato".