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German Minister refuses to speak English | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion | ( Topic Closed) |  |
| guesto Groupie Australia Joined 5742 days ago 76 posts - 118 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 82 of 128 23 October 2009 at 11:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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Foreign ministers invariably speak through translators when dealing with foreign leaders so I don't think that should be a reason for him to speak English.
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| Marc Frisch Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6666 days ago 1001 posts - 1169 votes Speaks: German*, French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Persian, Tamil | Message 84 of 128 30 October 2009 at 9:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm a German, I live in Germany, I have voted in the election that made Mr. Westerwelle foreign minister, and I'm very strongly in favor of representatives of my country only speaking German in press conferences and the like.
Why? Simply because there's a real danger that you're misunderstood when you're speaking in a foreign language. Keep in mind that an ill-formulated comment can very well provoke a war or other hostilities. Most international news agencies employ translators or send bilingual reporters to press conferences in other countries; it really strikes me as odd that BBC failed to do so. Another very important reason, why I think that all German representatives should speak German at all offical events is that they have been elected by the German people, so their actions and speeches should be transparent for their electorate - which is mainly monolingual. By the way, the former chancellor Gerhard Schröder, whose English is excellent, avoided the problem by feigning not to understand questions in English at press conferences (also posed by BBC reporters!), much more elegant than Westerwelle. Anyhow, I'd expect a foreign minister to be fluent in English, so he/she could speak without interpreters in informal meetings, and it would certainly be helpful if he/she spoke other international languages like French, Spanish, Arabic, or Chinese as well. But in the end, language expertise isn't the key for good relations with other countries: Gerhard Schröder got along very well with Vladimir Putin without knowing Russian, yet German-Russian have cooled down quite a bit since Angela Merkel (who's fluent in Russian!) is chancellor. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Marc Frisch Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6666 days ago 1001 posts - 1169 votes Speaks: German*, French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Persian, Tamil | Message 85 of 128 30 October 2009 at 9:46pm | IP Logged | ||
Keeping in mind that Putin is a former KGB official who speaks close-to-perfect German... 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| cordelia0507 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5839 days ago 1473 posts - 2176 votes Speaks: Swedish* Studies: German, Russian | Message 86 of 128 31 October 2009 at 4:04pm | IP Logged | ||
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He's got every right to refuse to speak English in his own country!
German is actually the biggest native language in the EU and on the European continent, excluding Russia. Imagine if there had been a "neutral" EU language, such as ESPERANTO. Problem solved! Both for linguistically challenged Brits and patriotic Germans... 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Juan M. Senior Member Colombia Joined 5900 days ago 460 posts - 597 votes | Message 87 of 128 31 October 2009 at 4:22pm | IP Logged | ||
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Or Europe could do like India and choose a national language that is equally oppressive to all. I suggest Arabic. Much better than a make-believe language like Esperanto, and they will be set for the future.
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| cordelia0507 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5839 days ago 1473 posts - 2176 votes Speaks: Swedish* Studies: German, Russian | Message 88 of 128 31 October 2009 at 6:29pm | IP Logged | ||
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The situation of being compelled to learn the language of a foreign country (UK/US) in order to be able to have a professional career in your own native country is a source of great frustration for people across Europe and the world.
Seeing the foreign minister of the leading country in Europe take a stand against this was inspiring. Some forum members might have got a bit too excited about this - their posts have been removed. I think they should have been cut some slack - they were not native speakers. Catch 22! Alternatively the whole thread should have been deleted since it's arguably political. No posts supporting the pro-English domination camp seems to have been removed. 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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