Here’s a great idea for patching up tense diplomatic relations: give an official gift marked “overload” or “overcharge.”

Excuse me, could you translate that please? Um, well, what the gift-giver had meant to offer was a button marked “reset.” And the gift-giver was none other than Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was hoping to signal a new beginning for Russian-American relations with the symbolic present to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

The error can actually be considered part spelling, part translation. The Russian word for “reset” is not that complicated: perezagruzka. But the brightly-colored button, which you can see here, was marked peregruzka, which means “overload” or “overcharge,” depending on the context.

Lavrov laughed and took the mistake in good fun, promising he would keep the button on his desk anyway. At least we can all hope he took the error lightly…

The example shows that even a one-word translation can be problematic if work is done carelessly. Accurate translation counts. Spelling counts. And proofreading counts!

At Nova Translation Inc., all of our translated documents are edited and proofread to assure a perfect result.  Let us show you how good translation should be!