I heard a funny story about the misinterpretation of the
words of an innocent English hack. This innocent hack was writing about a high
up person in a global jewellery brand attending a fancy-schmancy Dubai event
sponsored by his company.
She used that classic British language device of
understatement by stating that said high up chap "knows a thing or two about
jewels, gems and bling" or something similar.
Unfortunately, this was misinterpreted. The reason this
was misinterpreted is that many of the PRs that we indirectly deal with are
Lebanese who speak Arabic, French and then English as their third language. The
reason many of them are Lebanese is that they are often working with Swiss and
French companies so being in the Middle East and speaking French and Arabic is
extremely handy for this purpose.
Malheureusement, the PR people, reading as they were in
their third language, took this to mean that what was being implied was
that high up person knew just one or two things, that he knew little, and took
great offence and demanded a retraction, etc.
No amount of persuading on innocent hack's part convinced
them otherwise, so, presumably, in the next issue of the magazine, a
clarification along the following lines will be published:
XXXX magazine previously stated that Mr X knows a thing
or two about gems, jewels and bling. We wish to clarify that Mr X knows a great
deal about jewels, gems and bling and any implication that Mr X knows just one
or two things about this matter was unintentional and we wish to apologise for
any offence caused.
Innocent hack told me a similarly entertaining story
about a time she covered a horse beauty competition in Saudi Arabia and she used
the phrase "fairest of them all" for a headline. Unfortunately, the King of
Saudi Arabia, who sponsored the competition, took umbridge at this saying the
magazine was accusing participants of cheating and threatened to pull the plug
on cooperation. Several 10 page missives later explaining the story of Snow
White, the dwarves, the wicked queen and the magic mirror, he was
placated.
Ah, the perils of international publishing.
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