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For sushi and nachos, yes, it would seem silly ... but not for "to zoom" ... in French it's "bourdonner", in Spanish "enfocar" ... there is no prevailing international acceptance of this word, so it would be better to translate it to ........ I wouldn't know a good replacement, but I bet a field of expert photographers and linguists could come up with one.
They didn't spend 2 years finding good translations to "pizza" ... they translated "telecommute" to "distant-work". This was serious work, for serious people.
I'm not sure I follow your point about who coins it. Why do you think the country that advances or develops a concept should get to put two of it's own words together like "tele" (distance) and "commute" (travel, usually to work) and then not expect other countries from doing the same but with their own word parts? I kind of think that's what translation is all about.
And it had nothing to do with hating the West because Arabic words also get translated (again incorrectly reported). Believe it or not, they don't call God "Allah" in Iran ... it's "khoda" or "khodavand" (more formally).
The language academy has been at this for 50+ years, trying to offer good translations based in Persian.
This story, however, was a jab at the Irani "President". And that's fine by me, but he's said and done plenty of things crazy enough to poke at ... there was no need to trivialize the work of lots of serious linguists ... and worse, when the story wasn't enough on its merits, to emblish.
It wasn't bigotry, but it got spun that way. Just because a bad person likes some thing, it doesn't make that thing bad too.
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RE: Good idea ... Not sure why it got spun this way
If I led a campaign in America to do away with Mexican words (don't you go saying nacho, its corn or flour chips with cheese, meat and onions) or Asian words (don't call it sushi, its just raw fish) I'd be labeled a bigot. The reason we say sushi and nacho is because those foods originated in those countries and those are culturally accepted names. Its a bit of diversity that makes America what it is. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but firewalls, dubbing, panning, zooming and chat are all products of American society. If they weren't invented in the States, they were certainly made famous there. Ahmadinejad's hatred of the West is beyond obvious - diversity is not something that will be allowed in "his" culture.
The reason that it was spun in a negative light was not so much that they translated all these words, but that all governmental agencies, newspapers and publications will have to cease the use of foreign words. Its not the translating thats the issue here, its the loss of freedom of speech and isolationist xenophobia. Having an official language is one thing, not being able to use commonly accepted foreign words mixed into the language is an entirely different story.
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