sapedro Triglot Senior Member Portugal descredito.blogspot. Joined 7116 days ago 216 posts - 219 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English, French Studies: Croatian, Serbian, Greek
| Message 1 of 18 30 October 2007 at 5:51am | IP Logged |
The French President was interviewed by CBS, but he answered all the questions in French.
So in fact...does he speak English ? Which languages does he speak apart from French and (probably) Hungarian ?
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furyou_gaijin Senior Member Japan Joined 6384 days ago 540 posts - 631 votes Speaks: Latin*
| Message 2 of 18 30 October 2007 at 7:12am | IP Logged |
And why should he answer in English, pray tell?!
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Marc Frisch Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6663 days ago 1001 posts - 1169 votes Speaks: German*, French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Persian, Tamil
| Message 3 of 18 30 October 2007 at 9:22am | IP Logged |
There are some videos on youtube where he speaks English; he doesn't speak it very well.
I doubt that he speaks Hungarian even if his father was Hungarian (I think I once read that his father more or less completely rejected Hungarian after he came to France).
I haven't heard about him speaking other languages neither.
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Journeyer Triglot Senior Member United States tristan85.blogspot.c Joined 6866 days ago 946 posts - 1110 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, German Studies: Sign Language
| Message 4 of 18 30 October 2007 at 11:22am | IP Logged |
furyou_gaijin wrote:
And why should he answer in English, pray tell?! |
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He doesn't have to, but during an interview, it can make things go more smoothly if everything is in a single language, provided both parties can speak that particular language well enough.
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administrator Hexaglot Forum Admin Switzerland FXcuisine.com Joined 7374 days ago 3094 posts - 2987 votes 12 sounds Speaks: French*, EnglishC2, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian Personal Language Map
| Message 5 of 18 30 October 2007 at 5:05pm | IP Logged |
He speaks English OK but definitely not Hungarian. French people reach great heights in many things but rarely languages, a very unfortunate condition discussed for the last 200 years at least.
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ziedariana Tetraglot Newbie United States Joined 6195 days ago 19 posts - 28 votes Speaks: English, Arabic (Written)*, French, Italian Studies: Spanish
| Message 6 of 18 29 December 2007 at 2:32am | IP Logged |
Although I agree with Admin, that he doesn't speak Hungarian. I, personally, don't think he speaks English "OK". you can see for yourself Sarko parle Anglais. I don't speak German. But if you give me a written document, I will do a better job than Sarko.
Since a President represents an entire nation, he should always, in my opinion, speak in his native tongue, regardless of his competency level in the interviewer's language. Maybe a speech among politicians is acceptable, but when addressing a foreign nation in an impromptu interview, it is often a bad idea to try to impress them by speaking their language. Anything can be misconstrued in the attempt...When it's done flawlessly, however, it is indeed impressive; as in the case of the late Benazir Bhutto, thanks to her studies at Oxford and Harvard.
I've always hated those dubbed interviews anyway. Why can't they subtitle the event, and free us from under the mercy of the interpreters?
Edited by ziedariana on 29 December 2007 at 2:40am
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zorglub Pentaglot Senior Member France Joined 6998 days ago 441 posts - 504 votes 1 sounds Speaks: French*, English, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: German, Arabic (Written), Turkish, Mandarin
| Message 7 of 18 04 January 2008 at 7:12pm | IP Logged |
He speaks terrible English based on what I've heard.
Not even "speaks". I heard him utter a few words but not a sentence.
But what Presidents and Rulers of the world say should be very accurate so it's more prudent they speak in a language the subbtlet(ies of which they have a good command of.
By the way, does President GW Bush speak English when addressing the British ?
ziedariana wrote:
Although I agree with Admin, that he doesn't speak Hungarian. I, personally, don't think he speaks English "OK". you can see for yourself Sarko parle Anglais. I don't speak German. But if you give me a written document, I will do a better job than Sarko.
Since a President represents an entire nation, he should always, in my opinion, speak in his native tongue, regardless of his competency level in the interviewer's language. Maybe a speech among politicians is acceptable, but when addressing a foreign nation in an impromptu interview, it is often a bad idea to try to impress them by speaking their language. Anything can be misconstrued in the attempt...When it's done flawlessly, however, it is indeed impressive; as in the case of the late Benazir Bhutto, thanks to her studies at Oxford and Harvard.
I've always hated those dubbed interviews anyway. Why can't they subtitle the event, and free us from under the mercy of the interpreters? |
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kewms Senior Member United States Joined 6185 days ago 160 posts - 159 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese
| Message 8 of 18 04 January 2008 at 7:45pm | IP Logged |
zorglub wrote:
By the way, does President GW Bush speak English when addressing the British ?
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Why would he? He doesn't when addressing Americans.
(Not a fan.)
Katherine
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