I am going to do something I swore I would never do: quote Thomas Friedman favorably. Feel free to heap abuse on my head.
All of us have watched the unedifying spectacle of Karzai delivering an anti-American rant, and then, when called on it by Hillary Clinton, saying that he was misinterpreted and only criticizing Western media. This is the man to whom Obama has mortgaged his presidency. I have already, long since, said what I think about that decision.
Anyway, a propos something else, Friedman said [I paraphrase], With regard to leaders in the Middle East, pay no attention to what they say to you in English. All that matters is what they will say to their own people in their own language.
Give the twerp his due. When he is right, he is right. Karzai said those things to Afghans in their language. What he says to Clinton or Obama in English is irrelevant. I do hope, for once, that the White House is listening to Friedman.
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5 comments:
Oh well, here we go again. It probably says, "Success will follow you all the days of your life."
Just copied and pasted his/her post into my browser. Phew! They`re going on for being The most prolific serial spammer in the short lived history of the net.
If you have a well read blog, this guy, lady are on it!
It just shows your worldwide popularity Professor; bet they leave nonentities alone
Price of fame you have to pay
;-)
Have you tried Google translate? I just did but the response was Not Available,Try Later.
I have in fact used Google Translate for the earlier Chinese posts. I just decided it wasn't worth the effort. Wouldn't it be great if someone, anyone, in China qwere actually reading the blog?
There are many instances of Chinese mistranslation in signs rendered in English in mainland China. Some are actually funny and some are quite bawdy. Here's a wikipedia link to some odd ones, I can't find the ones that use the F word and similar "bad" words and the like which James Fallows had a link to some time back on his blog at the Atlantic.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinglish#Examples_of_Chinglish_on_signs
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