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German Minister refuses to speak English | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion | ( Topic Closed) |  |
| CheeseInsider Bilingual Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5123 days ago 193 posts - 238 votes  Speaks: English*, Mandarin* Studies: French, German | Message 105 of 128 11 December 2010 at 1:40am | IP Logged | ||
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YES! Refuse to give in! Why should he ever have a need to speak English in Germany? It's certainly not an official language of Germany. Anybody who enters a country who does not speak, and never plans on learning to speak that country's official language is basically agreeing to be silent for the duration of their stay, whether it be 1 day or 3 decades. Edited by CheeseInsider on 11 December 2010 at 1:40am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6704 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 106 of 128 11 December 2010 at 6:27pm | IP Logged | ||
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Mr. Westerwelle must be very proud of being the object of such a prolonged discussion in a language forum. Let me summarize: 1) He can actually speak English. 2) he didn't want to do it during a press conference meant to be conducted in German - in Germany, 3) and that's his right.
4) But maybe he could have been slightly more diplomatic, and 5) maybe it should be indicated more clearly when questions in foreign languages are welcome. Edited by Iversen on 11 December 2010 at 6:27pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5335 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 107 of 128 11 December 2010 at 11:50pm | IP Logged | ||
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Obviously we have different expectations of our politicians in different countries. I would have been deeply ashamed if our minister of foreign affairs had not answered any question he was asked in English.In fact we are ashamed even when some of our politicians do answer in English, because we think their accent is not good enough.
I would not expect him to answer a question in Spanish or French, unless he happened to be fluent in those languages, but if you are not at ease answering in English as a foreign minister, you really took the wrong job. A while back one of our ministers (I do not recall which one, but it ws a lady) brought an interpreter with her to China, to interpret from Norwegian to English, and I remember that the minister in question was ridiculed for needing an interpreter. Obviously if it had between Mandarin and Norwegian it would have been a whole different ball game, but if you do not know English, it says volumes about your general level of education. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| mrwarper Diglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Spain forum_posts.asp?TID=Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5227 days ago 1493 posts - 2500 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2 Studies: German, Russian, Japanese | Message 108 of 128 12 December 2010 at 3:48am | IP Logged | ||
Now, isn't that a bit harsh ;) Unfortunately I've had to come to consider myself a more-than-average educated person -I say "unfortunately" because the world be so much more interesting if more people were at least 'average'- but I'd say any of my parents is at least as educated as I am, yet they don't speak English while I'm more or less fluent and I'm even teaching my mother some English lately. So I try not to assume anything about people's education or manners from their foreign language skills but from their actions and reactions. Now that other guys have been mentioned, a tell of two politicians: The first man had no known occupation before enrolling in his political party. The guy speaks no English whatsoever, and yet when he is asked anything in English he's likely to pretend he does and give clearly inappropriate answers like 'Yes' or 'Thank you', and then chicken out, instead of clearly stating from the beginning that he speaks no English. The second man was a civil engineer that received first-class honors at his alma mater, a Ph.D., etc. He held high rank positions in industrial companies for decades before engaging in politics, and spoke English, French, Italian, German and Portuguese. Even though he was known to have to correct them many times, he always kept a translator/interpreter at hand during official events. The first one has been prime minister for 6 years; the latter, Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo, occupied the same position just for the most part of 1981 and is now almost forgotten by everyone. Please don't hold it against me if I choose to respect more the kind of people he represents and if I'm a bit bitter about the way things have evilved over time. To me, that man should be a role model for every politician out there. That said, I couldn't agree more with or express it better than Iversen has: the German minister was well within his right anyway, if perhaps he chose a suboptimal way to express it. And 'language rules' signs could be a good idea as well :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Pleiades Diglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5097 days ago 10 posts - 15 votes Speaks: English*, Welsh | Message 109 of 128 12 December 2010 at 8:35pm | IP Logged | ||
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It would be totally unreasonable to expect him to answer in any language other than German. Though English is the most studied and most coveted language on the global stage it does not mean that speakers of other languages are obliged to speak it fluently at the demand of a native speaker.
2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5335 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 110 of 128 15 December 2010 at 12:24am | IP Logged | ||
I guess this is where I say touché :-) Though actually it is more about operating in two different realities - hence my comments about different expectations. I Spain you can be a brilliant brain surgeon, or a rocket scientist, yet speak little or no English. In that reality, lack of English skills says nothing about your general level of education. In Norway everyone is expected to know English, and if you have a university education or a high ranking job, you are expected to also have an acceptable accent. In this reality, lack of English skills speaks volumes. I'll give you a little example. Many years ago a Spanish friend of mine came to visit me in Norway. He was a bright college student, had studied English for several years with good grades, and felt quite confident. He lost more and more of that confidence when he realized that almost everyone spoke better English than he did. But the thing that destroyed the rest of his self confidence was when he met a father with a 10 year old daughter with Down's syndrome who spoke to him in Norwegian. When he did not understand, the father explained to his little daughter in English that this man was a foreigner, and that she had to speak English to him. And then she switched to English. No near native accent, but it was still better than my friend's English. From that he did not recover. I tried to explain to him, that we watch so much TV here and listen to so much American music, that everyone learns English well, but he still could not get over being bested by a 10 year old. And a 10 year old with Down's syndrom to boot. Different expectations, based on different realities. 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| PiedraFilosofal Diglot Newbie United States Joined 5663 days ago 3 posts - 6 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish | Message 111 of 128 16 December 2010 at 1:20am | IP Logged | ||
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This thread is hilarious
4 persons have voted this message useful |
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