Jean-Marc Ayrault's "productively awful" German gaffe

It can happen to the best (and the worst) of us can't it?

A slip-of-the-tongue while speaking another language - or even our own come to that.

Usually it's both amusing and perhaps a little embarrassing; a quick smile and a laugh will make light of it though.

But sometimes there's maybe something more...er...significant about the mistake...as though subcosnciously we're really thinking what has inadvertently just come out of our mouths.

Take the case of the French prime minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, during his two-day trip to Germany this week.

He came out with a gaffe that could be...well revealing?

Jean-Marc Ayrault (screenshot TF1 clip)

Now as we all know relations between France and Germany are not the easiest at the moment.

The so-called two powers of the European Union - well at least the Euro - seem to have been dancing the unprettiest of jigs around one another, at least since François Hollande became president of this country.

To the rescue comes Ayrault, a former German teacher, ergo fluent in the language and well capable of reading out a prepared statement (yawn) in German in front of the invited entrepreneurs.

Not!

Because he clearly either couldn't read his own handwriting or actually wanted to say what he did when he substituted the word "fructbar" (literally "fruitful" or "productive") with  "furchtbar" ("terrible" or "awful") in describing how he wanted the discussion and exchange of ideas with the German chancellor Angela Merkel to proceed.

He didn't even bother correcting himself!

Er M. Ayrault, a word of advice perhaps.

Stick to French the next time and let the interpreters do their work.

Schönes Wochenende

En Allemagne, Ayrault parle de la France… en allemand (vidéo) Vidéo LCIWAT sélectionnée dans Actualité

2012 is a "bisexual" year for French weather forecaster

We've all had them haven't we? Those moments when our mouths become disengaged from our brains and what comes out is similar to, but significantly different from, what had intended that it sends us and those around us into fits of giggles.

It's worse of course when it occurs during a presentation or any form of public speaking.

And when it happens on live TV or radio, the chances are it's going to make its way on to the Net.

Jean-Marc Souami (screenshot France 3)

Such was the case with a slip of the tongue during the lunchtime news on France 3 on Saturday as weather forecaster Jean-Marc Souami, shared with viewers a rather...er...interesting meteorological outlook for the week ahead

Captions with unusually mild temperatures worthy of early Spring and plenty of sunshine especially in the south of the country were what he was about to introduce, but before he did that, he thought he would remind those watching that 2012 was a leap year or "année bissextile" in French.

You can find out the origins of the term (in French) here if you wish.

Anyway, you can probably see where this is going because of course Souami replaced "bissextile" with the word "bisexual" much to his embarrassment but also initial shriek of amusement from the news anchor Catherine Matausch.

Souami, who quickly corrected himself, continued, holding back his own laughter until the end when he offered up a somewhat sheepish apology for his blunder.

Ah the wonders of live telly.