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German Minister refuses to speak English | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion | ( Topic Closed) |  |
| trance0 Pentaglot Groupie Slovenia Joined 5751 days ago 52 posts - 78 votes  Speaks: Slovenian*, English, German, Croatian, Serbian | Message 65 of 128 21 October 2009 at 7:40am | IP Logged | |||||
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I don`t find his English bad at all. He seems to have more problems with saying something useful, and if you don`t know what to say, you won`t say it coherently in any language. He was just confused about a fairly broad and vague question from a reporter. What can you learn about/from the history of... bla bla bla. Political and rhetorical mumbo jumbo, it was a fairly useless question anyway. :D
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| schoenewaelder Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5561 days ago 759 posts - 1197 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Spanish, Dutch | Message 66 of 128 21 October 2009 at 2:24pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I don't know if the streamings works outside Germany, but here is a mildly amusing clip from the "Heute Show" of ZDF reporter trying to ask Alex Salmond a question in German.
http://heuteshow.zdf.de/ On the right hand side there's a column of icons, click on "Launischer Westerwelle" (about half way down). It's about 3 mins long with the Alex Salmond bit about 1 min in. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| janababe Triglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 5515 days ago 102 posts - 115 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, German | Message 67 of 128 21 October 2009 at 3:04pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Schoenewaeleder OMG that was hilarious! Yep, it works outside Germany, but the link goes to a news report so you will have to click on the icon and close the original tab.
"Little Miss Sunshine" I love it ;) Who said the Germans don't have humor? Well, I think Westerwelle is a sour ol' *@* but I agree with you guys, BCPilotguy, Jar-ptitsa, Hubei China, datsunking1 - English is fab (I LOVE English) but you gotta respect the other people's languages and at a German meeting you gotta understand German. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Matteo Diglot Groupie Brazil Joined 5581 days ago 88 posts - 85 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English Studies: ItalianB1, German | Message 68 of 128 21 October 2009 at 8:05pm | IP Logged | |||||
I agree. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| janababe Triglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 5515 days ago 102 posts - 115 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, German | Message 69 of 128 21 October 2009 at 8:52pm | IP Logged | |||||
Cool ;) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Gusutafu Senior Member Sweden Joined 5522 days ago 655 posts - 1039 votes Speaks: Swedish* | Message 70 of 128 21 October 2009 at 10:37pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I think it was brilliant. I think that the fact that he offered to drink the British national drink together with the correspondent and then speak only in English shows that it wasn't rudeness. The very idea that it could be considered rude to insist on speaking German at a German pressconference is quite absurd.
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| Matteo Diglot Groupie Brazil Joined 5581 days ago 88 posts - 85 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English Studies: ItalianB1, German | Message 71 of 128 21 October 2009 at 11:03pm | IP Logged | |||||
I agree. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| janababe Triglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 5515 days ago 102 posts - 115 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, German | Message 72 of 128 22 October 2009 at 12:20am | IP Logged | |||||
Well yeah! That's the whole point: it was a German pressconference in Germany. Actually to ask a question in another language is just weird! Then for the English natives to say there's nothing wrong shows that they don't get it that it's not easy speaking a foreign language (or that it's damn arrogant to expect everyone to switch to English in their own country). English natives don't get pissed ....love you really ;) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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