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| User | Thread poster: Bin Tiede Off topic: Politician speaking the national language with a foreign accent |
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Bin Tiede 
Germany
Local time: 20:50
 Member (2008)
German to Chinese
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Is it accepted in your country?
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Paula Hernández
Spain
Local time: 20:50
Member (2008)
English to Spanish
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That time when Aznar spent some time in the USA with Bush and in the following press conference for Spain we talked in a weird Texan accent. Made him the laughing stock for a long time!
And answering your question, no, it is not accepted, it's just ridiculous!
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Vadim Kadyrov
Ukraine
Local time: 21:50
 Member
English to Russian
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of my country does not speak the only official language of it. Those rare occasions when he does are the funniest TV shows I have ever watched.
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Jean-Pierre Artigau
Canada
Local time: 14:50
English to French
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In Canada nobody would notice. We have several members of parliaments (federal and provincial) and ministers who were born and raised in other countries. Not to mention Queen Elizabeth II (technically our head of state and of 15 other countries), who definitely has a certain British accent. See how tolerant we are!
Jean-Pierre
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Heinrich Pesch
Finland
Local time: 21:50
Member (2003)
Finnish to German
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If the person in question has spent his/her youth abroad and speaks the language as well as s/he is able to, what can you do about it? More important what they say than how.
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Michele Fauble
United States
Local time: 12:50
Member (2006)
Norwegian to English
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This is currently an issue affecting Green Party presidential candidate Eva Joly in France. She is originally Norwegian, but has lived in France for decades.
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Ty Kendall
United Kingdom
Local time: 19:50
Member (2011)
Hebrew to English
| | England - is there a choice? | Jan 5 |
We have plenty of politicians who speak English with a non-standard or foreign accent.
On the whole, nobody cares....not that they could really. To not accept it would be committing the most heinous crime in modern Britain: Racism. (Or the label of "Racist", which is just as bad).
It also depends on how far up the political food chain they are, we rarely tolerate provinical or foreign accents in the Prime Minister, look at Gordon Brown, he was only Scottish (not exactly foreign and his accent wasn't exactly hardcore Glaswegian either) yet it was used as a negative whenever anyone wanted to lambast him.
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Dave Bindon
Greece
Local time: 21:50
Member (2010)
Greek to English
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Former PM of Greece, George Papandreou, who was born and raised in the USA, has often been criticized for his 'poor' Greek. Most people forgive his few errors, but I doubt they'd have accepted him if he had a foreign accent or a non-Greek surname.
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Daina Jauntirans
United States
Local time: 13:50
Member (2005)
German to English
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Not sure about really rural areas, but in Chicago hardly a day goes by when one of my public interactions with people doesn't include someone with a foreign accent - I don't even think about it, and I don't think it bothers the vast majority of people here when politicians speak with an accent.
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nordiste
France
Local time: 20:50
Member (2005)
English to French
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Michele Fauble wrote:
This is currently an issue affecting Green Party presidential candidate Eva Joly in France. She is originally Norwegian, but has lived in France for decades.
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Eva Joly speaks a very good French but with a strong accent, and her political opponents keep criticizing her quite rudely about it or making bad jokes.
Conservatives also accuse her of not knowing French culture and traditions, as she was not raised in France.
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Hugo
United States
Local time: 13:50
Member (2007)
English to French
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Famous example of former President Gonzalo ("Goni") Sanchez de Lozada, who had an extremely thick American accent when speaking Spanish
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Tomás Cano Binder, CT
Spain
Local time: 20:50
Member (2005)
English to Spanish
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...as long as he/she does not speak nonsense, it is accepted in my country.
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Hugo
United States
Local time: 13:50
Member (2007)
English to French
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Goni's accent did not exactly help his popularity in Bolivia. Let me stray a little bit away from politics. In Chile, a few years ago, one public figure who was very popular and considered by many to be as important as most politicians was Marcelo Bielsa, an Argentine citizen who was coaching the Chilean soccer team. He was revered despite his obvious Argentinian accent.
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Tina Vonhof
Canada
Local time: 12:50
Member (2006)
Dutch to English
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Jean-Pierre Artigau wrote:
In Canada nobody would notice. We have several members of parliaments (federal and provincial) and ministers who were born and raised in other countries. Not to mention Queen Elizabeth II (technically our head of state and of 15 other countries), who definitely has a certain British accent. See how tolerant we are!
Jean-Pierre |
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Not only that but federal cabinet ministers and civil service officials are required to be able to speak both English and French and are bound to have an accent in one or the other.
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Annamaria Amik
Romania
Local time: 21:50
Member (2008)
Romanian to English
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It is accepted, but sometimes ridiculed. Some of the representatives of ethnic minorities (e.g. Hungarians) have a strong Hungarian accent when they speak Romanian - whether or not deliberately, I don't know. Some even make typical mistakes, but that happens even with some of the native Romanian politicians. Regretfully, not all politicians are fine intellectuals...
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