Juаn Senior Member Colombia Joined 5344 days ago 727 posts - 1830 votes Speaks: Spanish*
| Message 17 of 25 04 May 2010 at 4:05pm | IP Logged |
Mafouz wrote:
Smart, probably as a polyglot you are aware that a liberal in Europe is a different kind of animal that a liberal in the United States. |
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Yes, but this particular "liberal" does closely match what Smart probably meant by that word, or at least the American usage of it.
It would be another thing entirely had he been talking about the FDP for instance, in which case your admonition would be warranted.
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Mafouz Diglot Groupie Spain Joined 5324 days ago 56 posts - 64 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: German, Japanese, French
| Message 18 of 25 04 May 2010 at 8:23pm | IP Logged |
Juаn wrote:
Yes, but this particular "liberal" does closely match what Smart probably meant by that word, or at least the American usage of it.
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I am not sure of this, Juan, but I recognize that I am not in Europe right now (but in the United States) and that I am following the campaing very superficially. Forum members in the United Kingdom can probably get this straight ;)
Clegg seems to me the product of a cosmopolitan world, and his polyglottery (and his europeism) is a result of this. Don't you think so?
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nimchimpsky Diglot Groupie Netherlands Joined 5610 days ago 73 posts - 108 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English
| Message 19 of 25 06 May 2010 at 10:08am | IP Logged |
His Dutch isn't bad but it's certainly a bit rusty.
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Sennin Senior Member Bulgaria Joined 6033 days ago 1457 posts - 1759 votes 5 sounds
| Message 20 of 25 07 May 2010 at 5:03am | IP Logged |
I'm just disappointed the guy won't win in the UK, he's the smartest out of the whole bunch. Language skills are an important asset for a politician, even those politicians who have English as their native language.
Edited by Sennin on 07 May 2010 at 5:06am
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JimC Senior Member United Kingdom tinyurl.com/aberdeen Joined 5546 days ago 199 posts - 317 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish
| Message 21 of 25 12 June 2010 at 10:44pm | IP Logged |
Link to article on Nick Clegg
Guardian:
Nick Clegg
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Torbyrne Super Polyglot Senior Member Macedonia SpeakingFluently.com Joined 6094 days ago 126 posts - 721 votes Speaks: French, English*, German, Spanish, Dutch, Macedonian, Portuguese, Italian, Swedish, Czech, Catalan, Welsh, Serbo-Croatian Studies: Sign Language, Toki Pona, Albanian, Polish, Bulgarian, TurkishA1, Esperanto, Romanian, Danish, Mandarin, Icelandic, Modern Hebrew, Greek, Latvian, Estonian
| Message 22 of 25 13 June 2010 at 5:05pm | IP Logged |
He is a great example for people in the UK. After a quick look on YouTube I found a clip of him speaking in Dutch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vZMMH1GEaU
I couldn't find anything so easily in any other language except English (of course). :)
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ReneeMona Diglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 5334 days ago 864 posts - 1274 votes Speaks: Dutch*, EnglishC2 Studies: French
| Message 23 of 25 13 June 2010 at 6:27pm | IP Logged |
In this clip his accent is perfect and I only caught a few little (English-influenced) grammar mistakes . He stammers a lot but I don't know whether to attribute this to a less than perfect command of the language or to him being prone to stammering in general (He doesn't seem to stammer in English). If I hadn't known anything about him I would have guessed that he had access to a native speaker but wasn't raised in a Dutch-speaking environment.
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nimchimpsky Diglot Groupie Netherlands Joined 5610 days ago 73 posts - 108 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English
| Message 24 of 25 13 June 2010 at 9:07pm | IP Logged |
His command of Dutch is less perfect. He is a very eloquent speaker in English. Your clip surely shows that he isn't so eloquent in Dutch. It is easy to notice.
Edited by nimchimpsky on 13 June 2010 at 9:11pm
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