I couldn’t pass up this bit from Reuters via Eugene at Volokh Conspiracy, showing yet again how the true American spirit shines in our understanding and sensitivity in world affairs.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met Russia’s foreign minister on Friday, symbolically presenting him with a red “reset” button to improve ties that sank to a post-Cold War low during the Bush administration….
“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,[‘]” said Clinton, presenting Lavrov with a palm-sized yellow box with a red reset button.
Clinton and Lavrov had dinner on the 18th floor of the Intercontinental Hotel in Geneva.
They joked about the Russian misspelling of “reset” on the button before sitting down at an oval table with aides. “We worked hard to get the right Russian word. Do you think we got it?” Clinton asked. “You got it wrong,” said Lavrov, telling her “Peregruzka” meant “overcharge.”
Considering the fact that our nation dedicated nearly half a century to knowing everything, and I mean, everything, there is to know about Russia, is it possible to come off more ignorant and incompetent than this? Within about 8 minutes, Eugene’s commenters had the correct information posted.
«перезагрузкa» – reload
«перегрузка» – overcharge
Perhaps we could do away with a couple hundred analysts at the CIA and just post stuff at VC whenever we need some info on the Ruskies? Even after they kick a little back to Eugene, we’d still be ahead of the game by a few billion. On the other hand, if Hillary was a little quicker on her feet, she could have told Lavrov that “overcharge” was the new American motto. They could have laughed over that one for hours.
The inability of Americans to accept the premise that we’re not the center of the universe is a running joke throughout the rest of the world. Here, it never dawns on us that it’s an issue. Hey, everyone speaks English, right? As a friend of mine once quipped while we were watching children play in Paris, “It’s amazing how all of them speak a second language.”
This reminds me of a story I first wrote about here after Dan Harris at China Law Blog got me all juiced up one day on cultural divides.
A long time ago, I represented a Chinese defendant in a narcotics conspiracy in the Southern District of New York. After he was arrested, one of the agents who spoke some Cantonese gave the defendant his Miranda warnings. The problem was that the defendant didn’t speak Cantonese. He was from the Fuchan province, and aside from his native dialect, spoke fairly good Mandarin. But the agent didn’t speak Mandarin, only Cantonese.
We ultimately had an evidentiary hearing before a district court judge. I put an acknowledged expert interpreter on the witness stand to explain the differences in the Miranda warning between Cantonese and Mandarin, and why the defendant would not have understood what he was being told. The federal judge’s initial reaction, in light of testimony that not all the words were different, was whether a defendant needed to understand ALL the words in the Miranda warning, or whether some of them were enough.
After argument as to why all the words mattered, the judge, in frustration, asked the interpreter-witness to say the warnings, first in Cantonese and then in Mandarin. The witness did as he was told. After listening intently, the judge smiled, sat back and announced, “They sound the same to me. Motion denied!”
If we can do it to the Chinese, why not the Russians? Don’t they all realize that America is the center of the universe?
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A number of us near the Canadian borders use “United States” rather than “America” because there is an opinion among “Canadians” that “America” is provincial, as though the U.S. is the center of the hemisphere. In their opinion that’s not so. There is no good substitute for “American,” is there?
Hey, everyone speaks English, right?
Yep. And if they don’t get it the first time, you just have to speak a lot louder the second time.
It always bothers me too to use the word “America” to refer to the United States, but the US sounds so formal and official that it kills the flow. On the other hand, who cares if it bothers Canadians, since they’re only . . . Canadians.
With that thought in mind:
That is SO true. Same with blind people.
That’s what I figured you’d say almost exactly, knowing you as well as I guess I do.
You have to wonder how these faux pas happened. Clinton and Obama giving botchted gifts in one day? Ouch.
[Ed. Note: Sorry TH, but self-promotional links in comments aren’t kosher here. I’ve decided, however, to give you a pass on this one (only) based upon your claim of being employed by the State Department as Foreign Service Officer and blogging anonymously, which (if true) would make your thoughts of some greater consequence than others.]
I think I first read that notion in an early Hornblower novel, except the bosun who advocated it explained that you should always add an O at the end, as in “givo meo a drinko.” It was for the Italians, you see . . .
Speaking as a Canadian, it’s the sort of thing we expect from the USAians.
Although it’s really all the same. A Canadian is just an unarmed American with health insurance.
You are such a jingo.
Hillary probably imported some clique from among her fans when she switched from the Senate to the State Department, surrounded herself with them, and takes direction from them and and only them, if from anyone. Notwithstanding that they may have no experience or even interest in diplomacy, but whom the taxpayers compensate very well.
Given the current Russian leadership, I think I’d rather Russia overcharge than reload.
As Stephen Colbert refers to it: The part of the United States that calls itself “Canada.”
Methinks this blawg post perilously borders on comedy.
Methinks this blawg post perilously borders on comedy.
Well, there’s a first time for everything.
Just ignore the Turk guy below. He’s jealous.
You know that you can’t make this stuff up. Unless you’re John Yoo.
The Associated Press would like Americans to believe that our representatives have no clue what they are doing. Judging from comments on the various message forums Americans are gullibly buying the simplistic explanation that our State department supposedly doesn’t know how to translate the word “reset” into Russian. Nonsense! The Russian word peregruzka appears at the top of the button, spelled in latin letters. If this was meant to be a literal translation, why would the letters be in Latin? The english translation for this word is “overload” and anyone that knows how to type a few letters into an online translation website can easily figrue that much out. An english word appears below the button and that word is “reset”. These words do very much make sense together: when something is overloaded (like a circuit), you reset it.
[Ed. note: Link to commenters post deleted and URL deleted]
It’s okay; it’s almost certainly incompetence, not malice, and it’s a good thing that State is incompe —
Uhoh.