French prez makes 'friendly' mistake in note to Obama
PARIS (AP) — French President Francois Hollande's attempt to sign a note congratulating Barack Obama for getting re-elected wound up lost in translation — and all over Twitter.
In the great Gallic tradition of murdering the English language, Hollande ended the letter to the U.S. president in his own hand, writing: "Friendly, Francois Hollande."
The mistake was a literal translation of the French "amicalement," instead of what probably should have been "kind regards."
It went viral on Twitter, overshadowing the rest of the note, which fleetingly touched on topics such as the Middle East and the economy.
According to local media, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was also weak in English. To excuse bad weather in January 2010, Sarkozy told U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, "Sorry for the time."
In the great Gallic tradition of murdering the English language, Hollande ended the letter to the U.S. president in his own hand, writing: "Friendly, Francois Hollande."
The mistake was a literal translation of the French "amicalement," instead of what probably should have been "kind regards."
It went viral on Twitter, overshadowing the rest of the note, which fleetingly touched on topics such as the Middle East and the economy.
According to local media, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was also weak in English. To excuse bad weather in January 2010, Sarkozy told U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, "Sorry for the time."
"Amicably" would have been the same stem. Same meaning. Nothing wrong, I almost like it better than "Kind regards". Â I am glad Sarkorzy didn't translate "temps de chien" literally, that would have been newsworthy ;-)Â
He meant well. Not newsworthy.
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What is, is that Romney was wrong. It is much more than 47%.
How about respecting the man's gesture of respect, friendship and congratulations, rather than snide,petty mocking like a bunch of middle-schoolers?Â
So what if he signed it "Friendly?" I don't see anything wrong with that. At least he didn't sign it with an "Eff you."
And what's so wrong with friendly, other than it sounds a little odd?
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At least he is trying to use another language. Â Cannot say the same for most of the U.S.
What's wrong with it exactly? People end letters with 'Fondly,' or 'Lovingly' etc. what's wrong with being 'friendly'?
Well, people are the same the world over. Heaven help you if you're in the public eye and make an innocent mistake, you're skewered!Â
English is truly the hardest language to master because there are almost no rules and the few it has are regularly broken.
I'll probably get slammed for saying this, but what has happened to privacy, good manners and decorum? Why in the world would a letter from one leader to another get posted on twitter and then mocked? We used to call the French rude. I think we've probably bested them by now in that category.
 @achoo2 I was wondering why this is news.Â