Crikey!
When Aussie diplomatic speak goes awry
http://news.yahoo.com/s/n...rAzETE1LoMfOI7V1A2mntiBIF CANBERRA (Reuters) - In the world of international diplomacy, the best chosen words or phrases can leave an audience laughing, bewildered or simply lost in translation, if the experience of Australia's former top diplomat is any guide.
A new book by Richard Woolcott, who ran Australia's foreign service for four years, points to the pitfalls of translating thoughts into different languages.
Take the Australian diplomat in France who tried to tell his French audience that as he looked back on his career, it was divided in two parts, with dull postings before life in Paris.
"When I look at my backside, I find it is divided into two parts," Woolcott quotes the diplomat as telling his highly amused audience.
Woolcott said former Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke left his Japanese audience bewildered when he used the Australian colloquial phrase "I am not here to play funny buggers" to dismiss a trivial and pesky question from Japanese lawmakers.
"For Japanese interpreters, however, this was a real problem. They went into a huddle to consult on the best way to render 'funny buggers' into Japanese," Woolcott wrote.
The interpreters told him they had then told the audience: "I am not here to play laughing homo****uals with you".
Woolcott said the best interpretations sometimes involved no translation at all, such as the unnamed Asian minister who told a long joke at a banquet in Seoul.
"The Korean interpreter was lost, but did not show it. He uttered a few sentences and the audience laughed and applauded," Woolcott wrote.
After later being complimented on his translating skills, the interpreter confessed to the real reason for the laughter.
"Frankly, minister, I did not understand your joke so I said in Korean that the minister has told his obligatory joke, would you all please laugh heartily and applaud."
