Spanish quote gets prince into trouble
06-11-2009
A Spanish quote in an English speech led crown prince Willem-Alexander to use undiplomatic language during the royal family's visit to Mexico this week.
The prince used the Spanish expression at the end of a speech calling for greater energy efficiency at a meeting in Mexico city.
'Let me conclude by giving you a Mexican proverb: Cámaron que se duerme se lo lleva la chingada, or in English: a shrimp that sleeps gets carried by the tide,' the prince said.
However, the translator used the word chingada rather than corriente - so the prince actually said the shrimp got screwed.
To make things worse, while chingada is considered everyday language in most of South America, in Mexico it is considered extremely vulgar, a fact the Argentine translator was not apparently aware of.
The economic affairs ministry has apologised to the prince for the mistake. His Argentine wife Máxima was not responsible for the slip up, news agency ANP stressed.
© DutchNews.nl