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German Minister refuses to speak English | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion | ( Topic Closed) |  |
| aabram Pentaglot Senior Member Estonia Joined 5538 days ago 138 posts - 263 votes  Speaks: Estonian*, English, Spanish, Russian, Finnish Studies: Mandarin, French | Message 57 of 128 18 October 2009 at 7:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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Someone please correct me if I'm wrong but I've heard that at some high enough level politicians are encouraged to use their native tongue and have interpreters during interviews and such, rather than try to answer in language which is not native to them. The reason, of course, being that you don't want to risk stumbling or mis-saying anything due to your lack of language knowledge which may result you being understood differently from what you intended. You don't want to risk not having quite right words for an answer or not being able to understand difficult questions.
That being said, he clearly was acting like a jerk. There are better ways to decline, especially if you're about to represent your country. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Lindsay19 Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5826 days ago 183 posts - 214 votes Speaks: English*, GermanC1 Studies: Swedish, Faroese, Icelandic | Message 58 of 128 18 October 2009 at 8:15pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think he had every right to give the answer he did. And the BBC should be smarter about things next time and send someone who knows some German. What they did was a little disrespectful.
2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6708 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 59 of 128 19 October 2009 at 1:15am | IP Logged | ||
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To those who still discuss Westerwelle's remark to the English journalist: aren't you just getting a little bit tired of repeating the same statements again and again?
I have not closed it yet, but I feel more and more tempted... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| snig Groupie United Kingdom Joined 5895 days ago 71 posts - 79 votes Studies: Italian | Message 60 of 128 19 October 2009 at 3:42am | IP Logged | ||
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who said the BBC reporter could not speak German?
News reports from foreign reporters are if possible given in the language in which it is going to be aired,so I see nothing wrong in asking for the answer in English,that occurs all the time and usually they would be happy to respond in which ever language was requested if they spoke it well,they know that it will have a far more favourable chance of being aired,which is the entire point of holding a conference,you could look at this question from many different view points but it is clear by the way he answered that he was being a bit of a fool and you could see in his face, he realized that, so tried to make it right by offering to have tea with the reporter and speaking English,which to me just made him look even more foolish. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Matteo Diglot Groupie Brazil Joined 5585 days ago 88 posts - 85 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English Studies: ItalianB1, German | Message 61 of 128 19 October 2009 at 3:58am | IP Logged | ||
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLYGPWQ0VjY&NR=1
He speaking English!! haha 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| neonqwerty Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6168 days ago 229 posts - 239 votes Speaks: French*, English* Studies: Spanish | Message 62 of 128 20 October 2009 at 7:17am | IP Logged | ||
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For what it's worth, I think that it's fine that the BBC reporter asked the question and it's equally fine for the German official to not answer it in English. I don't see either party as being rude; refusing a request is the prerogative of the respondent. I certainly don't feel the need to accommodate every request that is made of me.
I think that the more interesting question, as someone mentioned, is just why he would insist in a very public setting that in Germany you speak German. Coming from Quebec, I would hear this type of thing all the time. "Au Quebec, on parle français". The reasoning behind this is that the French language is "endangered" in North America, and not insisting on its use in Quebec both dooms it to a slow death as well as reinforces certain (ostensibly) disrespectful historical narratives with respect to how French Quebeckers were treated in the past. Neither of these conditions seems to hold in Germany; it's a stretch to say that the German language is in danger of dying out, and the historical narrative thing doesn't seem to work in this case. In other words, I don't understand the point of this very public act of defiance coming from a public official. But that doesn't mean that I condemn him for making it. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6016 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 63 of 128 20 October 2009 at 11:15am | IP Logged | ||
You find his English funny? Judge not, lest ye be judged.... 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Matteo Diglot Groupie Brazil Joined 5585 days ago 88 posts - 85 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English Studies: ItalianB1, German | Message 64 of 128 21 October 2009 at 12:30am | IP Logged | ||
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I dont judged... you're judging.
:-) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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