Not Seashells, It’s Seychelles! Pronunciation Gaffe Leads To Confusion For UN Interpreter

(Seychelles News Agency) – It’s a diplomatic slur, like a good childhood poem: She sells Seychelles shells on the Seychellois coast? Interpreters working at the United Nations are expected to simultaneously translate speeches by world leaders and diplomats into one of the six official languages of the United Nations. When working under such pressure, sometimes some unusual words or phrases get lost in the translation. It’s no surprise that UN interpreters have some interesting stories to tell about their work. Translating into French at an international conference in Geneva, Switzerland. , the French word for a seashell that a person can pick up at the beach. “I’ve been talking for 20 minutes,” said Boudot. “Suddenly my colleagues looked at me and said, ‘I think they’re talking about Seychelles. ” Shells on the beach. English-French interpreter Anne-Catherine Boudot recounts the story of how she once translated Seychelles as coquillages, the French word for seashells. (Karunakar Rayker/Flickr) Photo license: (CC BY 2.0) It’s not uncommon for people to be unsure of the correct pronunciation of cities and countries they’ve never visited. Mispronounced during their visits, even mispronounced names when giving media interviews and at official functions.Read more: 7 dying days how to upgrade frames | Top Q&A Usually it is mispronounced as ‘sea-shell’, but other more interesting variations have been noted, such as ‘say-sheels’ or ‘say-shell-es’. Things become even more confusing when the speaker tries and fails to name the people of Seychelles. They are said to be called Seychellois (pronounced ‘say-shell-waa’) but sometimes this can be interpreted as ‘say-shell-oyze’ or ‘say-shell-eeze’, or even The ‘sea-shell-eeze’ Seychelles, an archipelago of 115 islands in the western Indian Ocean, is one of the smallest sovereign states with a population of just under 100,000. Many people around the world may not be aware of the existence of the country, much less sure about how to pronounce it. However, the Seychellois are generally very tolerant of misunderstandings. Some will keep quiet and assume that the visitor will catch up on the correct pronunciation in the appropriate time, while others will correct the pronunciation with a friendly smile and a joke to help the visitor. say feel comfortable. they must have been surprised and delighted to hear a lengthy speech about decisions made by several shell casings on a beach, but as the head of the UN interpreting agency, Hossam Fahr, said in the CBS News article “all interpreters are human — and the error is human. “Read more: How to Get Chroma 2021 | Top Q&A