Grave mistranslation as Clinton tries to make friends with Russia

[DetlefK]

Source: RIA novosti

<...>

As a symbolic start to the process, Clinton brought to the meeting a yellow box with a large red "reset" button, which she asked Lavrov to push with her. On either side of the button was a label in English "reset," and what was supposed to be a Russian translation.

However, Lavrov pointed out to Clinton that there was a mistake in the Russian equivalent and instead of "reset," the word had been translated as "overload."

<...>

Read more: http://en.rian.ru/world/20090306/120465370.html

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Luckily, Foreign Minister Sergej Lavrov showed some humor.

[polichick]

1. Gosh, doesn't our State Dept. have anyone who speaks Russian??

[ChairmanAgnostic]

3. condiscending rice pretended to speak russkie, but she didn't

actually, I think this booboo was done on purpose to break the ice.

[Avalux]

2. I am curious why you chose the word 'grave' for your title.

It wasn't a big deal and both Clinton and Lavrov got a good laugh out of it. There were a few letters missing from the word. Your title is not that of the article.

[bemildred]

4. Please use the original headline.

Put editorial comments in their proper place.

[stlsaxman]

5. yeah- what's up with that shit?!?!? read post #2 again.

Editorial much?

[goforit]

6. Who was the subordinate that pick the wrong word. Ouch! Don't mess with Hillary

[Zuiderelle]

7. Aren't LBN threads supposed to use the actual TITLE OF THE ARTICLE?

Changing "Lavrov, Clinton meet in Geneva to 'reboot' relations" to "Grave mistranslation as Clinton tries to make friends with Russia" certainly makes it seem like you have some sort of issue with Clinton.

[AwakeAtLast]

9. Yes. The title is not to be changed.

[frazzled]

8. This happened to us once

My husband was entertaining a pair of Russian filmmakers, and we planned to take them to a restaurant for local color, at which you could call ahead and have matchbooks printed with any message. We thought that would be a cute touch. Our Russian speaking neighbor was out of town, and so we got the name of a Russian translator who could write down a translation of our intended message to give to the restaurant in advance. We wanted the matches to say "Minneapolis welcomes Hitruk and Norstein."

We arrived at the restaurant, and at first the pair didn't notice the matchbooks. They spoke only about five words of English between them, four of which seemed to be "Vodka." We ordered vodka. Suddenly they spied the matches, picked them up, stared, and started to laugh hysterically. What does it say? we asked. "Hitruk and Norstein welcome you to Minneapolis!" they bellowed, and stuffed their pockets with the matches. Then they yelled "more vodka!" again, and we all got pleasantly drunk.

[sandyj999]

10. Where did all the translators go? Were they downsized? n/t

[maddezmom]

11. locking

When posting articles, always use the published title of the article as the title of the discussion thread. Additional information may be included in a thread title (in parentheses) if it helps to make the title more clear.