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Language abilities of footballers | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots |  | |
| laiwai Diglot Groupie SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6841 days ago 66 posts - 71 votes  Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin | Message 1 of 67 30 May 2008 at 4:34am | IP Logged | ||
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I came to think of the language ablities of professional football player yesterday when whatching some Youtube videos.
Take, for example this on, of Boudewijn Zenden: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqj2Nx9SkWQ Though I don't claim to be an expert, but his pronunciation certainly seems above average. When the video was posted he had been in Marseille for a few months. It seems to me that these men are in a perfect position of acquiring languages. They move around between several countrys, playing a few years for evey club, giving them the opportunity to imerse themselfs in the environment. They have a solid group of peers to practise among, whom they meet with every day. An, example icelandic Hjálmar Jónsson playing for IFK Göteborg(Gothenburg): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0O69QadOjLw Speaks a very natural and relaxed language in a Gothenburg accent. Another name that springs to mind is the swedish former midfielder Stefan Schwarz. He was native in Swedish and German and also spoke English, Spanish, Portuguese and possibly some more. Could not finf any videos of him, though, unfortunatly. So, what do you guys think? Have you got the impression that the european football leuages fosters polyglots to some degree? Do you have some examples of someone who has moved around in a lot of countries acquiring the languages of their stay, to a high level (and with good pronuciation)? Edited by laiwai on 30 May 2008 at 4:44am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Makrasiroutioun Quadrilingual Heptaglot Senior Member Canada infowars.com Joined 6105 days ago 210 posts - 236 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Armenian*, Romanian*, Latin, German, Italian Studies: Dutch, Swedish, Turkish, Japanese, Russian, Arabic (Written) | Message 2 of 67 30 May 2008 at 4:52pm | IP Logged | ||
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Bof... Spanish-Portuguese, Icelandic-Swedish, German-English are rather close... I bet it's far rarer to see Latvian-Thai or Spanish-Korean!
But seriously, as a huge MotoGP and Formula One fan, I too have noticed that these athletes tend to be AT LEAST bilingual, with trilingualism being quite common. I suspect that for footballers, it should be the same if they play at a higher level. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| qklilx Moderator United States Joined 6185 days ago 459 posts - 477 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Korean Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 67 31 May 2008 at 1:34am | IP Logged | ||
It could be rare, but in fact I was sitting next to a couple of Korean girls at a Spanish restaurant last year in Seoul. They were speaking to each other in Spanish, with random Korean adjectives thrown in. I also met a bilingual guy last year who majored in Spanish. Perhaps it's a rare combination, Spanish-Korean, in many countries, but in Korea it doesn't seem all that improbable. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6908 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 4 of 67 31 May 2008 at 12:02pm | IP Logged | ||
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I watched the clip with Hjalmar Jonsson and found his accent quite convincing. It may not be that sports are particularly good for fostering polyglots, but at any rate it is a very good example of immersion, considering all this talk about enjoying oneself and socializing with natives. A long time ago (the summer of -94, in fact) I saw some soccer player on TV whose Spanish would fool me any day. His name and origin now escape me.
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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 5 of 67 08 June 2008 at 4:06am | IP Logged | ||
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According to wikipedia Guus Hiddink speaks Dutch, English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, basic Italian and is learning Russian. Any clue about how fluent he is in the Oriental ones? :)
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| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6271 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 6 of 67 08 June 2008 at 10:00am | IP Logged | ||
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I don't know about any of these people, but quite a few foreign players for clubs in Turkey speak Turkish, level ranging from getting by to very good indeed.
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| noybf Newbie United States Joined 6386 days ago 34 posts - 34 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 7 of 67 08 June 2008 at 6:25pm | IP Logged | ||
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Here's a nice clip of USA's Michael Bradley who plays for Heerenveen in the Dutch League:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-15Os5wkB4U 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| shapd Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6148 days ago 126 posts - 208 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Italian, Spanish, Latin, Modern Hebrew, French, Russian | Message 8 of 67 13 June 2008 at 7:25am | IP Logged | ||
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Leo Beenhaker, the current Poland football manager, is reported to be fluent in Dutch (native), English, German, French, Spanish and Italian. He is now learning Polish at an impressively rapid rate. These people move country every few years and have to pick up the new language to function.
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