russ ([info]goulo) wrote,
@ 2007-06-07 07:28:00
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George Bush: "Everybody speaks English, right?"
George Bush is surprised to learn that not everyone speaks English. Why anyone ever thought this ignorant fool was competent enough to vote for him is a mystery to me.
US President George W Bush on Wednesday expressed surprise at the need for a German translation of his comments to the press at a G8 summit being held at the Baltic coastal resort of Heiligendamm.

"Everybody speaks English, right?" Bush asked, after a German-language interpreter began to translate his brief statement to the press following talks with G8 summit host German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

A laughing Merkel asked the US leader to "be patient" and gestured for him to wait by her side while the interpreter did his job.

"Is that what I said?" Bush asked Merkel with a grin after his words were translated.

http://jurnalo.com/jurnalo/storyPage.do?story_id=40102

George Bush surpriziĝas pro ekscio ke ne ĉiuj parolas la anglan. Mirigas min ke iu ajn pensis ke tiu senscia stultulo sufiĉe kompetentas por esti voĉdoninda.
Usona prezidento George W Bush surpriziĝis merkrede pro bezono traduki al la germana siajn komentojn al la gazetaro dum G8-kunveno en Heiligendam.

"Ĉiuj parolas la anglan, ĉu ne?" Bush demandis, post kiam germanlingva tradukisto ektradukis lian mallongan diraĵon al la gazetaro post parolado kun germana kanceliero Angela Merkel.

Ridanta Merkel petis la usonan gvidanton "esti pacienta" kaj gestis ke li atendu apud ŝi dum la tradukisto faris sian laboron.

"Ĉu tio estas kion mi diris?" Bush demandis ridetante al Merkel post la tradukado de siaj vortoj.

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[info]orangepaisley
2007-06-07 03:22 pm UTC (link)
Why anyone ever thought this ignorant fool was competent enough to vote for him is a mystery to me.
I'm surprised that his supporters were competent enough to know how to vote. :-/

What do the Poles think of the U.S. these days? I heard a brief news item on NPR about the proposed installation of a U.S. missile shield base over there.

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[info]goulo
2007-06-07 04:48 pm UTC (link)
I don't know what polls say, but most of the people I talk to seem to think of the US as a mix of good and bad stuff, with some of the high-profile bad stuff like catastrophic lie-based wars coming from our Dear Leader. It is a source of bewilderment and amusement that half the US population doesn't believe in evolution. The US is respected for being such an old democracy. Many Poles are quite cynical about their own government and so seem used to separating their feelings about a government from their feelings about the country and its people. Culturally, I sometimes have the impression that the worst aspects of US culture get copied in other countries, e.g. McDonald's, really lame pop music, SUV's (and car dependency in general), etc.

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Half the US population doesn't believe in evolution
[info]orangepaisley
2007-06-07 06:47 pm UTC (link)
I guess that's the half that will be going to this new "musuem" in Kentucky:
http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/05/24/arts/24crea.html

"Two prehistoric children play near a burbling waterfall, thoroughly at home in the natural world. Dinosaurs cavort nearby, their animatronic mechanisms turning them into alluring companions, their gaping mouths seeming not threatening, but almost welcoming, as an Apatosaurus munches on leaves a few yards away."

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[info]greyaenigma
2007-06-07 09:50 pm UTC (link)
The man's no smarter than a jelly donut.

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[info]zooplah
2007-06-08 08:59 pm UTC (link)
Not everyone speaks English, that's for sure. Not even everybody in America does. However, I've read that in Germany, the ability to speak English is considered a sign of being educated.

You want to know how Bush got elected? He was pitted against Kerry (whom nobody really liked). Now, I voted for Kerry as did about 49% of the country, but that other 51% got W in the White House for his first legitimate term (Al Gore really won the 2000 election). I think the progressives will win in 2008 (whether that'll be a good or bad thing is for us to find out).

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[info]elgrande
2007-06-08 11:27 pm UTC (link)
I suppose he really just wasn't patient. But it does read as if he was kinda arrogant and kinda expected people to understand English (Tiel ke li ne atendis, ke ĉiu aŭskultanto parolas la Anglan, sed ke ĉiu aŭskultanto parolu la Anglan.)
Ah well, at least everybody in the Netherlands speaks German. ;) (Or at least that is an expectation/prejudice that Germans typically have when in the Netherlands).

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Devil's Advocate
[info]annes3
2007-07-03 01:38 am UTC (link)
Have you ever been translated non-simultaneously? It IS weird. I've had this happen to me a couple times. You go on & on about something for about 5 minutes (you never know quite when to stop--how much can the interpreter take in?) and then the interpreter speaks a few phrases and you wonder, "hunh? Was he just summing up or did he leave something out, or ???"

OTOH working with simultaneous interpreters is confusing, but once you get past the initial disorientation it's not so bad.

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Re: Devil's Advocate
[info]goulo
2007-07-03 05:10 am UTC (link)
I have been translated non-simultaneously. (Most recently, just 10 days ago!) I guess I just don't get why it would be that confusing or disorienting. Surely everyone has seen it happen on TV or in films and knows what to expect. I would hope that the president of the US he was not actually confused or disoriented from being interpreted to another language, and I can't imagine that in all his years in the role of president he's never been interpreted before. But I'll grant that possibly he was just making a lame cliched joke about translation.

I was more surprised and concerned about his first comment: "Everybody speaks English, right?" That one does not sound like a joke, but like ignorance (shared by many English speakers). Even if it was a joke (which I doubt), it was an unwise joke, given that it's a sensitive subject and English speakers are perceived as arrogantly assuming everyone speaks English. (In the EU, all the official languages are supposed to be equal, but in reality, English is exceedingly privileged and many official jobs in the EU itself require English, which is against the EU's rules.) Off the top of my head, I thought of a (rather loose) analogy: if a speaker wanted to open some event with a Christian prayer, and someone reminded them that there were Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, atheists, etc present, and so the speaker speaker replied in surprise "But we all believe in Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, right?" :)

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