[lbo-talk] Condomleeza Rice

[Wojtek Sokolowski]

Chris:
> I saw her on Russian TV when she was here a while ago.
> She speaks Russian abominably badly. "Uh, ya, uh,
> ochen rada, uh" (wait think, what's the verb "to be"
> in Russian, "b"-something, oh I remember!) "byt'
> zdes'!" You'd think someone supposedly an expert on
> Russia would be able to speak at higher than a
> first-grade level.

That is not even idiomatic Russian, but a word-for-word translation of the
English phrase.  Would you think that a person of average intelligence and
sensitivity would memorize a few stock phrases like that is she wanted to
impress her hosts?  Even is she does not speak Russian, somebody on her
staff most likely does, and even if it does not, it is not that difficult to
find someone who does.  That tells you something about the mind set of US
policy makers.

Wojtek