Deciding what to do with his remarks – and whether to censor them in news reports – was tough enough for the press in the US. It was, after all, a vulgar phrase not usually fit for a newspaper or television.
But imagine trying to make sense of it in a different language. Every culture has its profanities, to be sure, but they do not always translate well.
That dilemma played out in newsrooms around tIt was a debate that many journalists likely never expected to face: How to properly quote the president of the United States saying the words “s***hole countries”.
Deciding what to do with his remarks – and whether to censor them in news reports – was tough enough for the press in the US. It was, after all, a vulgar phrase not usually fit for a newspaper or television.
But imagine trying to make sense of it in a different language. Every culture has its profanities, to be sure, but they do not always translate well.
That dilemma played out in newsrooms around the world on Thursday after The Washington Post reported that Trump referred to Haiti, El Salvador and African nations as “s***hole countries” while discussing immigrant protections with lawmakers.
The main daily newspapers in El Salvador, one of the countries maligned by the president, went with the translation “agujeros de mierda,” which essentially means “holes of s***.”
“Why do we have all these people from countries (who are a) hole of s*** coming here?” read Trump’s translated remarks, from the Spanish news agency EFE.
“It’s a bit literal,” one Spanish-speaking reader tweeted.
Donald Trump refuses to answer press questions about ‘shithole’ comment
Alex Segura, Washington correspondent for EFE, tweeted about the debate with his editors over how to translate “the pearl of the day from Trump". Other options they considered for the phrase? “S***ty countries,” “unclean countries,” and “pigsties”, he said.
Another journalist, in Mexico, tweeted that he had debated at length with a least five editors over how to translate Trump’s comment into Spanish. “#LaEraTrump,” he said.
Indeed, the Trump era has created a headache for translators and interpreters again and again. On the one hand, the President’s simple vocabulary makes his words easy to follow. But when they’re combined into sentences and paragraphs, they are a jumble, jumping from topic to topic.
When a video was released capturing Donald Trump making lewd comments about women, news outlets across the world struggled with how to translate “Grab them by the p****.”
In China, where there’s no obvious word for p****, some news outlets published more sanitised versions using references to “private places” or “nether parts". Others opted for simply including the censored English word, “use p**** to grab them".
These cleaned-up versions fail to give foreign news consumers the full picture, which can prove problematic. Understanding the President’s remarks is, after all, essential to readers worldwide – his words could lead to life-altering policies and decisions for people all over.
Not realizing being president would be 'hard'
Just three months into his presidency, Donald Trump admitted that being president is harder than he thought it would be. Though Mr Trump insisted on the 2016 campaign trail that doing the job would be easy for him, he admitted in an interview that living in the White House is harder than running a business empire. REUTERS
Donald Trump accused former President Barack Obama of wire tapping him on twitter. The Justice Department later clarified: Mr Obama had not, in fact, done so. Reuters
The two words from which “s***hole” are formed are not that difficult to translate individually, according to linguist Juliane House, the former president of the International Association for Translation and Intercultural Studies.
Most languages have some equivalent for the first part of the combination – or at least some profane variation of a word for excrement. “It’s a bodily function,” said House, who is a professor at the University of Hamburg.
Hole, by itself, is also easy enough.
But what happens when you put those two words together? Is it an adjective or a noun? And how does one use it in a sentence to describe certain countries?
Even then, House said, “that doesn’t really mean that this gets through".
Editors from various news organisations need to approve the wording for he world on Thursday after The Washington Post reported that Trump referred to Haiti, El Salvador and African nations as “s***hole countries” while discussing immigrant protections with lawmakers.
The main daily newspapers in El Salvador, one of the countries maligned by the president, went with the translation “agujeros de mierda,” which essentially means “holes of s***.”
“Why do we have all these people from countries (who are a) hole of s*** coming here?” read Trump’s translated remarks, from the Spanish news agency EFE.
“It’s a bit literal,” one Spanish-speaking reader tweeted.
Donald Trump refuses to answer press questions about ‘shithole’ comment
Alex Segura, Washington correspondent for EFE, tweeted about the debate with his editors over how to translate “the pearl of the day from Trump". Other options they considered for the phrase? “S***ty countries,” “unclean countries,” and “pigsties”, he said.
Another journalist, in Mexico, tweeted that he had debated at length with a least five editors over how to translate Trump’s comment into Spanish. “#LaEraTrump,” he said.
Indeed, the Trump era has created a headache for translators and interpreters again and again. On the one hand, the President’s simple vocabulary makes his words easy to follow. But when they’re combined into sentences and paragraphs, they are a jumble, jumping from topic to topic.
When a video was released capturing Donald Trump making lewd comments about women, news outlets across the world struggled with how to translate “Grab them by the p****.”
In China, where there’s no obvious word for p****, some news outlets published more sanitised versions using references to “private places” or “nether parts". Others opted for simply including the censored English word, “use p**** to grab them".
These cleaned-up versions fail to give foreign news consumers the full picture, which can prove problematic. Understanding the President’s remarks is, after all, essential to readers worldwide – his words could lead to life-altering policies and decisions for people all over.

Not realizing being president would be 'hard'
Just three months into his presidency, Donald Trump admitted that being president is harder than he thought it would be. Though Mr Trump insisted on the 2016 campaign trail that doing the job would be easy for him, he admitted in an interview that living in the White House is harder than running a business empire.
Donald Trump accused former President Barack Obama of wire tapping him on twitter. The Justice Department later clarified: Mr Obama had not, in fact, done so. Reuters
The two words from which “s***hole” are formed are not that difficult to translate individually, according to linguist Juliane House, the former president of the International Association for Translation and Intercultural Studies.
Most languages have some equivalent for the first part of the combination – or at least some profane variation of a word for excrement. “It’s a bodily function,” said House, who is a professor at the University of Hamburg.
Hole, by itself, is also easy enough.
But what happens when you put those two words together? Is it an adjective or a noun? And how does one use it in a sentence to describe certain countries?
Even then, House said, “that doesn’t really mean that this gets through".
Editors from various news organisations need to approve the wording for