News A gaffe to call your wife Japanese

At least in Jeremy Hunt's opinion. Whose wife is in fact Chinese.

I didn't know that Mr Hunt worked in Japan and seems to speak Japanese well.

Jeremy Hunt makes 'terrible' gaffe about his wife in China
British foreign secretary refers to his Chinese wife as Japanese during debut visit to Beijing

Jeremy Hunt makes 'terrible' gaffe about his wife in China | UK news | The Guardian

Why Jeremy Hunt's 'Japanese' wife gaffe is a bad mistake

Mr Hunt was at a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, when he said, in English: "My wife is Japanese - my wife is Chinese. Sorry, that's a terrible mistake to make."

He explained that he and Mr Wang "spoke in Japanese at the state banquet", before going on to say: "My wife is Chinese and my children are half-Chinese and so we have Chinese grandparents who live in Xian and strong family connections in China."

It happens to me a lot too. Not that i have Chinese wife or something, but every other time i want to say something about Chinese cuisine, Chinese language or anything else with "Chinese" as an adjective, i spontaneously say "Japanese" instead. And just like Mr. Hunt have to apologize, realizing my gaffe the very next second or two.

But in my case there seems to be a plausible explanaition to that syndrome. My head remains preoccupied with Japan-related thoughts even when discussing other Asian cultures.

While certainly not that big an issue, it makes Mr Macron's faux-pas during a recent visit to Australia look quite innocent:

Macron thanks Australian leader's 'delicious wife'



'Delicious' vs 'delicieux'.