“It is my invariable custom to say
something flattering to begin with, so that I will be forgiven if by any
chance I put my foot in it later on.”
The husband of the British Queen, Prince
Philip, at a speech in 1956
We all put our foot in it from time to
time. We might not know all the
important facts. We might attempt a
joke, when a joke will not be well received.
We might simply let the wrong word slip from our mouth, which is
accidentally insulting.
I remember putting my foot in it at a
Japanese restaurant in Scotland. One of
my Scottish friends took me out for a meal there, along with some of his
Chinese-Scottish friends.
“Will,” said my friend. “You have lived in Japan. What do you think of this Japanese food?”
“Well it’s not very authentic,” I
said. “It doesn’t taste much like the
Japanese food I ate in Japan. It’s more
like a Chinese meal that they have called Japanese so that they can charge twice
the price.”
“I haven’t introduced you to the man
sitting across from you. His family runs
this restaurant.”
“Ah.”
My mistake was not knowing all of the
facts. The British Foreign Minister,
Chris Hunt, got into trouble this week by letting the wrong word slip out. He was in China, giving a speech to important
Chinese politicians and business leaders.
He wanted to curry favour with the room by letting them know that
his wife was Chinese. But somehow – he
claims it was because he had been chatting in Japanese a few minutes earlier –
he accidentally told the room that he had a strong connection with China
because his wife was Japanese.
Oops! He probably managed to make
not only the room angry, but make his home life difficult too.
At least Chris Hunt is not the first
politician or world leader to put his foot in it. He might take comfort from remembering some
other famous diplomatic gaffes.
At the G8 summit in 2006, George Bush suddenly
started to massage Angela Merkel’s shoulders.
The shocked German leader flinched and pulled quickly away in a
very awkward moment.
In 2008, Italian Prime Minister Silvio
Berlusconi described US president Obama as “young, handsome, and tanned.” Nobody was quite sure if this was intended as
a compliment or a racial insult.
During a visit to Japan in 2015, then
London Mayor Boris Johnson took part in a children’s game of rugby and roughly
knocked a ten year old boy to the ground as he tackled him with force. Well at least the child didn’t die.
During an official visit to Papua New
Guinea in 1998, Prince Philip addressed a British student who had been trekking
in the country. “You managed not to get
eaten then?” Let’s hope the cannibals
weren’t listening.
“If it has four legs and it is not a chair;
if it has two wings and is not an aeroplane; if it swims and is not a
submarine: then the Cantonese will eat it,” said Prince Philip at a speech on
animal protection in 1986.
Thinking about these examples of famous
gaffes, it seems to be better either to avoid them altogether, or to make lots
of them. Certainly George Bush, Silvio
Berlusconi, Boris Johnson, and Prince Philip have had long and successful
careers despite regularly putting their foot in it. Perhaps if you do it often enough, people stop
being offended and just find it funny. I
wonder if Chris Hunt will follow this example and have a long and happy career insulting
people?
Vocabulary:
invariable – unchanging
flattering – of a comment, tending to make
the listener sound good
to put one’s foot in it – to put one’s foot
in one’s mouth; to accidentally say something inappropriate
insulting - offensive
authentic – real; genuine
to curry favour – to try to get a good
relationship with someone in too obvious or undignified a way
a gaffe – a blunder; a remark which
accidentally insults or causes embarrassment
to flinch – to instinctively jump slightly
tanned – having skin temporarily darkened
by strong sunlight
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