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Language abilities of footballers

 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots Post Reply
67 messages over 9 pages: 1 24 5 6 7 ... 3 ... 8 9 Next >>
Alvinho
Triglot
Senior Member
Brazil
Joined 6233 days ago

828 posts - 832 votes 
Speaks: Portuguese*, English, Spanish

 
 Message 17 of 67
05 November 2008 at 6:23am | IP Logged 
most Brazilian footballers who spend a long time in Europe really don't speak very well.....I recall when Roberto Carlos played for Real Madrid, his Spanish....no comments.....I remind people that he lived in Spain for over ten years......there are other examples...

the successful exceptions have been Kaka in Milan, Rai in France and Leonardo who played for several clubs in Europe throughout his career and mastered at least 4 languages....

Pele's English pronounciation....horrible!......the Spaniards had to bear one Brazilian poser and snobbish coach called Vanderlei Luxemburgo who believed Spanish was as easy as doing the math with 2 + 2 and then during a press conference started tripping off the tongue by speaking a harsh "portuƱol"...obviously many people here as well as some journalists laughed at him at that time..arrgggghhh

Edited by Alvinho on 05 November 2008 at 6:33am

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Athlander
Newbie
United Kingdom
greynorth.net
Joined 5856 days ago

3 posts - 3 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish, Dutch, German

 
 Message 18 of 67
12 November 2008 at 2:49pm | IP Logged 
Leopejo wrote:
Football terminology is quite limited. The one on the field you learn in one (training, not language learning) session. The player interviews are the same everywhere, you just need to learn: "we played well against a strong team. We had more chances than them, but were unlucky. Our team's policy is not to comment on the referee, but it seemed a clear penalty to me. We are confident for the next game".



The English footballer Gary Lineker mentioned this when he was asked how he learned Spanish when he joined Barcelona. As well as the basics, he also began with stock phrases like the ones you mentioned above. He mentioned also that he had private tutors for Spanish (and later Japanese).
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Liface
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
youtube.com/user/Lif
Joined 5857 days ago

150 posts - 237 votes 
Speaks: English*, German, Spanish
Studies: Dutch, French

 
 Message 19 of 67
12 November 2008 at 7:53pm | IP Logged 
I love this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTUTSaSX3fE
http://www.eyep-tv.de/boulevard/11-fragen/gregg-berhalter-11 -fragen---11-antworten.html

Gregg Berhalter speaking German with no trace of a German accent. Oh well, he probably has other things to do than learn the language.

This is stunning, Moritz Voltz, a German playing for Fulham.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWHpJa9m29M

Speaks incredibleĀ English.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLZAQ2RC2q8
Gary Lineker speaking a bit of Spanish

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0khgJctr5s
Guus Hiddink speaking German

Edited by Liface on 12 November 2008 at 8:12pm

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Siberiano
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
one-giant-leap.Registered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 6492 days ago

465 posts - 696 votes 
Speaks: Russian*, English, ItalianC1, Spanish
Studies: Portuguese, Serbian

 
 Message 20 of 67
13 November 2008 at 3:25am | IP Logged 
Shevchenko speaking Italian - notable Slavic accent! :) Speaks decently, though the active vocabulary could be larger.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=h0gDhhRT9GA&feature=related

Tennis star Elena Dementieva speaks french - don't know how well.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ua1PW0ZnaBE
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Liface
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
youtube.com/user/Lif
Joined 5857 days ago

150 posts - 237 votes 
Speaks: English*, German, Spanish
Studies: Dutch, French

 
 Message 21 of 67
01 December 2008 at 3:53am | IP Logged 
Pau Gasol
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3kwV866Fs0

Almost native accent after 7 years in the USA.
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JonB
Diglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 6264 days ago

209 posts - 220 votes 
Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Italian, Dutch, Greek

 
 Message 22 of 67
16 December 2008 at 11:04am | IP Logged 
jimbo baby wrote:
David Beckham after 4 years in Spain.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=H4LJOVS6xxA


It's always easy to attack people like Beckham (who is, after all, a footballer and not a linguist!)

But still, after FOUR WHOLE YEARS in Spain (and, of course, being able to hire the most expensive private tutors that money can buy) I just can't help feeling that he should have been able to do a little better than this...
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Jimmymac
Senior Member
United Kingdom
strange-lands.com/le
Joined 6152 days ago

276 posts - 362 votes 
Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, French

 
 Message 23 of 67
17 December 2008 at 10:32am | IP Logged 
That was terrible. Four years and thats the best he can do. He even used English instead of Spanish when he said 'it has been'.
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Serpent
Octoglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
Joined 6596 days ago

9753 posts - 15779 votes 
4 sounds
Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese
Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish

 
 Message 24 of 67
18 December 2008 at 5:52pm | IP Logged 
Leopejo wrote:
Football terminology is quite limited. The one on the field you learn in one (training, not language learning) session. The player interviews are the same everywhere, you just need to learn: "we played well against a strong team. We had more chances than them, but were unlucky. Our team's policy is not to comment on the referee, but it seemed a clear penalty to me. We are confident for the next game".
:DDDDD

As for the field terminology though, I've read that Pavlyuchenko's (the Russian guy playing for Tottenham) interpreter has to go with him to the training sessions :-D or at least it was so a couple of months ago, I do hope his English has improved ever since - when I read about his struggling with basic English (after almost 4 months in the UK), it makes me embarrassed that he's my favourite player! :D


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