I struggled for years with Slavic languages (Czech in my case) and I can really feel for Tony Henry.

The British opera singer opened the Euro 2008 qualifier (England against Croatia) by singing the Croat national anthem ‘Lijepa Nasa Domovino’ (Our beautiful homeland).

However, instead of singing ‘Mila kuda si planina’ (You know my dear how we love your mountains), he sang ‘Mila kura si planina’ translated as ‘My dear, my penis is a mountain’.

The Croat footballers were grinning of course. And poor Tony Henry is now being blamed by British fans for helping the enemy to relax and win the game!

Slavic languages aren’t easy, Tony. Believe me. I know how you feel.

And so does Jimmy Carter.

On one of his visit to Poland, the former US president was assigned an interpreter who spoke fluent Russian but little Polish. He promptly turned Carter’s ‘I am happy to be back in Poland’ into something a bit too warm even for the Slavic soul: ‘I have great lust for the Polish people’.

On her visits to Prague in the 90s, former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright always made a point of correcting her Czech interpreters (she spoke Czech as a child).

I used to find this a bit extreme, but hey, who can blame her?

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