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German Minister refuses to speak English | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion | ( Topic Closed) |  |
| ruskivyetr Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5482 days ago 769 posts - 962 votes  Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, Russian, Polish, Modern Hebrew | Message 90 of 128 12 March 2010 at 1:09am | IP Logged | |||||
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I know that this is from a while ago but I just saw this, and I saw a few different
arguments that I would like to respond to. The BBC was not wrong for sending a monolingual reporter. There is nothing wrong with being monolingual, however, the journalist did have an interpreter at hand, and did not need a response in English. Why didn't he just answer in English and save everyone a headache? I don't know, let's see how an American official deals with a monolingual speaker of another language. I guarantee they wouldn't even understand it. Let us create a situation to see how this would have gone in the United States or the United Kingdom with the language situation switched as well: Reporter-"Entschuldigung Frau Clinton, kann ich Ihen eine Frage auf Deutsch fragen?" Hillary Clinton- "What? Please say it in English." Reporter "Ich möchte Ihnen eine Frage fragen. Warum sprechen Sie kein Deutsch? Sie sind die Außenministerin der Vereinigten Staaten, nee?" The reporter would be proceeded to be harassed, and ridiculed for not speaking English, however the poor foreign minister candidate (?) was harassed for not answering in English. At least this man understood and explained that he did not wish to answer in English, much less hear the question in English. Edited by ruskivyetr on 12 March 2010 at 1:10am 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| s_allard Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5431 days ago 2704 posts - 5425 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Polish | Message 91 of 128 12 March 2010 at 11:11pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Frankly, I wonder why this thread even exists. For some reason that is unknown to me, some people are criticizing a German official for speaking his own language in his own country in an official capacity. There must be some other more worthy topics to discuss.
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| tritone Senior Member United States reflectionsinpo Joined 6121 days ago 246 posts - 385 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Portuguese, French | Message 92 of 128 12 March 2010 at 11:15pm | IP Logged | |||||
I fail to see the difference between English and esperanto. Esperanto would still be a foreign language, and would be equally as invasive as people are claiming English to be. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| cordelia0507 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5839 days ago 1473 posts - 2176 votes Speaks: Swedish* Studies: German, Russian | Message 93 of 128 13 March 2010 at 12:11am | IP Logged | |||||
The reason you don't understand it is because you probably don't want to, and because you have not had the experience of your future hanging off your ability to master a foreign language. Language and cross border communication is a very touchy issue in many parts of Europe. In my opinion a wholesale switch to English is NOT right solution. The difference here is that Esperanto belongs to everyone or no one. It is the least of two evils in my view and it has many interesting possibilities of actually becoming a very good thing. English on the other hand, belongs to the USA and the UK and everything they stand for. It puts native speakers of English at an advantage in any conversation and saves them YEARS in study since they have no need to learn a foreign language. Perhaps this minister doesn't sign up to all this... Or he simply thought: Why should I speak the language of this particular reporter in my own country? Why don't they speak MY language which incidentally is the biggest mother tongue in Europe...? Whatever his reasoning I think he was in the right. I am learning the two biggest European mother tongues and I support Esperanto... Started as a purely practically motivated objectives, but it opened my eyes to the world of language-politics... Perhaps this is something that the German foreign minister has also considered. More and more people are reaching the same conclusion. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| morganie Newbie United States Joined 5425 days ago 31 posts - 41 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 94 of 128 14 March 2010 at 10:27am | IP Logged | |||||
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Well, no German reporters in the USA expect Obama to speak German, do they?
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| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6012 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 95 of 128 14 March 2010 at 12:55pm | IP Logged | |||||
Erm... no... he was holding a German press conference for German press for a German election. I thought that was quite clear. If you start saying things like "The reason you don't understand it is because you probably don't want to" you may want to avoid following up by projecting your own views on language politics onto others, because now it's you who is seeing what you want to see and hearing what you want to hear. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Ashiro Groupie United Kingdom learnxlanguage.com/ Joined 5803 days ago 89 posts - 101 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 96 of 128 14 March 2010 at 2:58pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I'm only adding what I'm sure has already been said but here goes:
If he has just answered the same question previously from a German reporter then he's bound to feel a little irritated that an Englishman decides to ask the exact same question but demanding he reply in English. If you're having a conversation with someone and they just repeat a question they asked earlier then you'd think they were rude for not listening. Its a similar situation. The BBC reporter should have shown a bit more sensitivity. Perhaps asking the Minister in German for a quote in English for the benefit of the UK audience. That would at least show he wasn't completely ignorant of what was going on and had been listening. EDIT: I'm English. Edited by Ashiro on 14 March 2010 at 2:59pm 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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