Misunderstandings 1

 Misunderstandings 1 : A blog by Warren Bull Image by Ben White on unsplash

The world is filled with misunderstandings. We communicate as best we can, but, as writers know only too well, anything that can be misinterpreted will be. Sometimes funny, sometimes tragic, the best we can do is to expect to be misunderstood.

For greater details about the examples below consult

https://hastyreader.com/misunderstanding/

The Yucatan Peninsula on the southern end of Mexico is the ancestral home of the Maya people. When the first Spanish explorers arrived there, they wanted to learn the name of the area. There were no interpreters available, but the Spanish made a valiant effort. They reproduced the repeated answer they heard and came up with “Yucatan,” which in the native language translates into, “I don’t understand you.” Thus, the name.

Soon after becoming president, Jimmy Carter gave a speech at a Japanese college. He started by telling a joke to put everyone at ease. He later admitted it was not a funny joke, but at least it was short. He was surprised when the Japanese interpreter translated the joke in very few words. The entire audience burst out in hearty laughter.

President Carter was curious about how the Japanese interpreter translated his joke so quickly and why people laughed much harder than he expected. Finally, after continuing questions, the interpreter simply admitted he translated the joke as: “President Carter told a funny story. Everyone must laugh.”

During World War 2, President Roosevelt was on board the battleship USS Iowa on a long voyage to North Africa.

One of the escorts attached to the Iowa was the destroyer USS William D. Porter. The ship had a streak of very bad luck during the voyage. At one point, it accidentally detonated an antisubmarine depth charge. At another time, it lost power in one of its boilers and fell well behind the convoy. President Roosevelt requested an anti-aircraft drill by shooting at balloons. During the exercise, the William D. Porter accidentally fired a ready and armed torpedo right at the Iowa.

To make matters even worse, the captain of the William D. Porter didn’t even radio the Iowa about the torpedo and instead used light signals to tell them a torpedo was on its way since he wanted to stick to the rules given for the drill. However, the Iowa didn’t immediately understand their signaling. The William D. Porter broke radio silence and warned the battleship of the incoming torpedo. Fortunately, the Iowa managed to avoid the torpedo.

Just in case the firing was actually a part of an assassination attempt, the Iowa then pointed all of its guns at the William D. Porter until the situation was cleared up.

Afterwards, the William D. Porter was always greeted with “Don’t shoot, we’re Republicans!”