MOSCOW, December 22. /TASS/. Slips of the tongue like the one made by an interpreter during the press conference of US President Joe Biden and Ukraine’s President Vladimir Zelensky do not normally affect either the talks or the interpreters, Pavel Palazhchenko, the personal interpreter to late USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev, told TASS on Thursday.
On Wednesday, during the online stream of the joint press conference of US and Ukrainian Presidents, the interpreter confused the English words "crime" and "country." As a result, Zelensky hoped that the United States Congress would approve the financial aid for ‘crimes’ in the English translation.
"This is simply a slip of the tongue. Certainly, this occurs with everyone. I do not think it will somehow affect [the interpreter]. If interpretation was good, this would not influence negotiations at all," Palazhchenko said, noting that he could not exactly say how such issues are tackled in the US.
"Certainly, slipups occur but they are rare" at such events, the expert said. "They are rare with skilled interpreters. Such slips of the tongue occur with young interpreters, when they are uneasy. The press usually castigates them. Let’s see whether this is so in this case," Palazhchenko added, noting that it is better for an interpreter to promptly correct himself or herself in such cases.