Listen to world leaders speak English!

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  • čas přidán 6. 03. 2020
  • What do Putin, Merkel, Macron, and the popes sound like when they speak English? Can Xi speak English? What about Bolsonaro? What world leader speaks the best English of all? And did you know Boris can speak French? All will be revealed in this linguistic tour of presidents and prime ministers speaking second languages.
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Komentáře • 17K

  • @Rodrgo1997
    @Rodrgo1997 Před 4 lety +10477

    For anyone interested in how good the Spanish of those politicians is:
    - Marco Rubio is clearly the best one, I wouldn’t differentiate between him and other speaker with that accent (cuban?)
    - Buttigieg is good in terms of pronunciation but he struggles to find the words
    - Beto is the contrary his pronunciation is way worse but he speaks more fluently
    - Booker’s is terrible and you can barely understand.

    • @iMonsieurAnthony
      @iMonsieurAnthony Před 4 lety +645

      TBH, you don’t need to be Spanish, Latin American or a Spanish speaker to recognise everything you said. It was very clear to the ear. Beto and Booker must give up their claim to speaking the language.

    • @Rodrgo1997
      @Rodrgo1997 Před 4 lety +304

      Antonis Fair enough, I would say though that Beto can speak Spanish without pausing as much, I can remember Castro not being as good as I expected.

    • @franciscofelipeariagno4251
      @franciscofelipeariagno4251 Před 4 lety +40

      @@iMonsieurAnthony I was going to say exactly the same!

    • @JJMcCullough
      @JJMcCullough  Před 4 lety +1045

      @@iMonsieurAnthony I showed this video to my (non-Spanish speaking) friend while I was editing and he actually thought Pete was the worst and Booker was the best! Booker I think carries himself with a confidence that makes it seem like he's more competent than he is. He also pronounces that one word in a dramatic way that seems impressive to a non-speaker.

    • @iMonsieurAnthony
      @iMonsieurAnthony Před 4 lety +53

      J.J. McCullough Agreed, I can understand where they’d be coming from.

  • @TW-ew9lw
    @TW-ew9lw Před 4 lety +6463

    Putin speaking English is the weirdest thing I watched on CZcams. He became a whole different person when he opened his mouth.

    • @DanielGalimidi
      @DanielGalimidi Před 4 lety +377

      He seems to speak English with a French accent, somehow. Perhaps he learned it in France or with a French teacher?

    • @saveggg7141
      @saveggg7141 Před 4 lety +480

      @@DanielGalimidi no, Russian who try to emitate English sometime tend to speak this way

    • @thecoachmansfolly
      @thecoachmansfolly Před 4 lety +245

      Speaking English was a required skill for a KGB operative.....

    • @harrypadarri6349
      @harrypadarri6349 Před 4 lety +324

      Putin once held a speech in the German parliament, the Bundestag. He spoke German the whole time. That was quite impressive. Putin was stationed in Berlin in the 80s.
      Angela Merkel is also fluent in Russian. I wonder in which language they communicate face to face.

    • @Vic_the_owl92
      @Vic_the_owl92 Před 4 lety +78

      It sounds a little bit like a polite german person speaking English. Don´t judge me.

  • @8wings9
    @8wings9 Před 4 lety +1762

    fun fact: Schwarzenegger wasn't allowed to do the German dub for "Terminator" because his accent was considered too rural. It'd be like if a Hillbilly voiced Wall - E or something.

    • @JJMcCullough
      @JJMcCullough  Před 4 lety +440

      There's an in-joke about this in a deleted scene from Terminator 3. The Skynet people are watching a promo video of the Terminator android (played by Arnold) but he speaks with a thick American southern hick accent. And one of the executives turns to another and says "we can change the accent."

    • @kriegshammer2161
      @kriegshammer2161 Před 4 lety +98

      Not too rural.Too Austria dialect.

    • @DerJuvens
      @DerJuvens Před 4 lety +171

      @@kriegshammer2161 Rural Austria to be fair, but in all honesty that kinda covers 95% of Austria :D

    • @franticranter
      @franticranter Před 4 lety +7

      or hagrid

    • @darthplagueis13
      @darthplagueis13 Před 4 lety +74

      @@kriegshammer2161 Well... I mean, basically an austrain dialect outside of the vienna one could be considered somewhat rural. Though the idea of a Wiener Schmäh terminator is pretty hilarious, not gonna lie.

  • @salad608
    @salad608 Před 2 lety +155

    As someone who speaks both fluent English and Chinese, I say that it's pretty impressive that Kevin Rudd can speak Chinese so well.

  • @t3tsuyaguy1
    @t3tsuyaguy1 Před 2 lety +382

    I had a classmate once who thought in Japanese 100% of the time, and while speak English (her fourth language) she was translating from Japanese to Spanish and then from Spanish to English. This was because she learned English, from Spanish speaking teachers, who did not speak Japanese. Holding a conversation with someone who is thinking in Japanese, but speaking with a really thick Mexican accent, while being clearly ethnically Samoan is a good way to be reminded that the world is a wondrously varied place.
    She told that she thinks American English speakers have a weird linguistic superpower that we don't know we have. She observed that we are able to freely make up and understand slang, on the spot, and extremely fluidly. She said that it's part of the reason it can be difficult to learn English, in America. She gave me examples which made sense to me, but after she explained how terrible they translated into either Spanish _or_ Japanese, I started to see what she was saying. She actually thought it was really interesting. The way some of us freely use nouns as verbs or the way we can make sense of statements like, "The whole world markets together, because first the Mongols, then Napolean." suggests that our linguistic centers are always awake. She said couldn't decide if thought we should all have an easier time becoming bilingual than we realize, or if it's the reason we struggle to.

    • @evank3718
      @evank3718 Před rokem +18

      This is the coolest thing, amazing

    • @JC-wd7ct
      @JC-wd7ct Před rokem +10

      very keen observation by your friend/super interesting comment 👍

    • @tovarishcheleonora8542
      @tovarishcheleonora8542 Před 10 měsíci +5

      To be fair, any language can make slangs in any time when they want to. It's not an american speciality.
      Also english is difficult anywhere in the world, that's one of the worst options to learn as a foreign language, from how chaotic it is. And english natives has hard time with language learning because their native language lacks a lot of concepts that lot of other languages has. You guys even lost your case system and grammatical gender system that you had in the past.
      And not from bad, but she literally did one of those things what people should avoid when speacking in a different language, and that thing is the translating in your head, lot of people says that it's the best if you build up your sentences in that language from the start instead of translating from other languages. And to be fair, those people are right about this.

    • @kittencorp.3295
      @kittencorp.3295 Před 9 měsíci +3

      I’m a native english speaker and i have no idea what the hell you’re talking about when you say that part about “the whole world markets together”.

    • @t3tsuyaguy1
      @t3tsuyaguy1 Před 9 měsíci

      @@kittencorp.3295 We ended up with a global economy because Napolean enforced lasting economic reforms that exploited the trade routes established by the Mongolians.

  • @andrewaslakson5220
    @andrewaslakson5220 Před 4 lety +12477

    I can speak English, American, British, Australian, and Canadian

  • @ockertoustesizem1234
    @ockertoustesizem1234 Před 3 lety +2976

    Boris johnson sounds like he's trying to explain to his teacher why he's late to class

  • @Power-md7li
    @Power-md7li Před 2 lety +391

    this guy wasn't a politician but he could still speak English, French, German and I do believe he could also speak Russian, Swedish, Greek, Spanish and Italian. his name was Sir Christopher Lee and he was a native English speaker.

    • @kellymcbright5456
      @kellymcbright5456 Před 2 lety +10

      ah yeah, i remember having watched a video. It is really impressive at what level of skilfulness he masters so many tongues.

    • @rodolfo9876a
      @rodolfo9876a Před rokem +9

      That guy was pretty cool, he's casted some nice roles and played them well.

    • @qui-gonjinn3322
      @qui-gonjinn3322 Před rokem +11

      Count Duku is indeed a gentleman

    • @cardioandfriends
      @cardioandfriends Před rokem +5

      A moment of silence for Sir Lee, one of the most respected and accomplished men of the 20th and 21st centuries. Respects

    • @seanolaocha940
      @seanolaocha940 Před rokem +2

      @@qui-gonjinn3322 It's such a shame that most people seem to only know about Christopher Lee due to Star Wars.

  • @dennislindqvist8443
    @dennislindqvist8443 Před 2 lety +253

    When it comes to Scandinavia, for example, it is no wonder that they find it easy to learn English. The languages are closely related. Finland, on the other hand, has made a fantastic journey in terms of learning languages. Those who understand how different Finnish is from other languages understand.

    • @no-nx3ip
      @no-nx3ip Před 2 lety +2

      Im a turk and our language is kinda similar to finnish as they are both agglutinative languages

    • @TheMercury79
      @TheMercury79 Před 2 lety +17

      I'm from Sweden and I think subtitling is the biggest reason why scandinavian people is so good at English. If you talk to older people today, some speak English, but going back 30-40 years, almost no 60+ person could speak English despite the similarities. Sweden still had subtitles back then but fewer american/english shows aired.

    • @mohdfaraazyawarbari6486
      @mohdfaraazyawarbari6486 Před 2 lety +11

      Finnish isn't even Indo European, it is Uralic and related to Hungarian,so yeah it is entirely different from other European languages. And yes it does sound like having a little turkic influence

    • @AmokBR
      @AmokBR Před rokem +3

      There’s a theory that posits that English actually a Nordic language

    • @ingridlinbohm7682
      @ingridlinbohm7682 Před rokem +7

      Finnish is related to Sami (Lapp), Estonian, Hungarian and various linguist groups in what is now Russia.

  • @eXhaustedWisdom
    @eXhaustedWisdom Před 4 lety +18825

    Fun Fact:
    Putin speaks perfect german
    Merkel speaks perfect russian

    • @yuvalyeru
      @yuvalyeru Před 4 lety +3524

      Maybe because Putin was stationed in the KGB office in the GDR and Merkel was RAISED in said soviet puppet state...

    • @nextlevelgamer6936
      @nextlevelgamer6936 Před 4 lety +1901

      'Perfect' is kind of an overstatement here
      Putin is okay at German, but def not perfect
      Never heard Merkel speak Russian though

    • @Ninja-Alinja
      @Ninja-Alinja Před 4 lety +596

      NextLevelGamer Merkel’s Russian is rubbish. No judgement, so is mine, it’s super hard

    • @nextlevelgamer6936
      @nextlevelgamer6936 Před 4 lety +308

      @@Ninja-Alinja My Russian is awful too. Despite my mother being a native speaker

    • @Ninja-Alinja
      @Ninja-Alinja Před 4 lety +133

      NextLevelGamer my wife is a native speaker, and so became our son, but still hard to learn even in that environment

  • @holdentudix7505
    @holdentudix7505 Před 3 lety +3998

    Putin in Russian: *gargles asphalt while wrestling a bear*
    Putin in English: *High Welcome to Chilli’s*

    • @mrvwbug4423
      @mrvwbug4423 Před 2 lety +188

      He sounds the same in both languages, he just masks his high pitched voice better in Russian, he still has a rather mild accent like many from St Petersburg.

    • @maxheadrom3088
      @maxheadrom3088 Před 2 lety +12

      East Germany ... uniting and dividing to this day. I tzust aszk you: watt is perfect Russian?

    • @creativestudio101
      @creativestudio101 Před 2 lety +18

      HA HA HA!! no better way to say that! So right! I laughed so out loud with your comment!

    • @davidsilverfield835
      @davidsilverfield835 Před 2 lety

      YeH

    • @Amy_Dunn
      @Amy_Dunn Před 2 lety +12

      @@maxheadrom3088 Are you in the right comment thread?

  • @wongijen4269
    @wongijen4269 Před rokem +70

    Lee Hsien Loong, the Pm of Singapore, is actually a Native English speaker. You will be surprised to learn how many "Native" English speakers there are in Singapore. The problem is that we tend to mix different words, and sometimes even switch languages mid-way speaking. This is why most Singaporeans are bilingual, and basically have two native languages, depending on their ethnicity.

    • @ltagames01
      @ltagames01 Před rokem +4

      isnt singpaore english speaking officialy?

    • @spencermercer7622
      @spencermercer7622 Před rokem +2

      @@ltagames01 it’s one of the official languages as well as chinese, hindi and malay 😊

    • @gayatriunni549
      @gayatriunni549 Před 10 měsíci +6

      @@spencermercer7622tamil not hindi lol

    • @gayatriunni549
      @gayatriunni549 Před 10 měsíci

      as a foreigner (indian) living in singapore, i feel like a bit of a loser when the only language i understand on mrt announcements and signs is english 😭😭 however, when i’m speaking to someone in english and they have a few random words in other languages, even if i don’t know exactly what the words mean, i can usually fully understand them. but after three years here stuff like can, lah, sia and others have become part of my daily vocabulary too 💀 (except it sounds a bit strange because i still have an indian accent)

    • @RandomVidsforthought
      @RandomVidsforthought Před 7 měsíci

      That's called code switching

  • @rory4605
    @rory4605 Před 2 lety +58

    The Schwarzenegger and Kissinger thing is really interesting. I can't imagine, as an English speaker, forgetting how to speak English. It's so entrenched.

    • @user-we5cl3op4y
      @user-we5cl3op4y Před 2 lety +16

      As a native German speaker, I can say that Kissinger is indeed difficult to understand. He speaks a weird mix of German with a slight American accent and his regional Franconian accent. But Schwarzenegger still speaks German like a native. I love his Austrian accent. :D

    • @lebendigesgespenst7669
      @lebendigesgespenst7669 Před 2 lety +5

      I relate to them as I’m in a similar situation. Though as the above comment said, Schwarzenegger is still pretty understandable. He has a thick accent but most of it is from his region of origin rather than from English since german can be a very complicated language when it comes to regional dialects. Kissinger is just sadly not that good at German anymore though

    • @lenab5266
      @lenab5266 Před 2 lety +3

      @@lebendigesgespenst7669 Agree on Schwarzenegger. With Kissinger I'm not quite shure if some of his "bad" german comes from the fact that he is just pretty old. I looked into some recent english interviews of him and he doesn't sound that "fluent" there eighter. Even though it is a bit better there. He just speaks with many pauses in both languages.

    • @metroplexprime9901
      @metroplexprime9901 Před rokem +3

      @@lenab5266 I have also seen someone else in this comment section talk about how his German doesn't just have a Swiss accent, it's a Swiss accent as spoken decades ago, when he was younger. Imagine a person who grew up in the American South in the 1950's left the country when they were about 10 to live in France and they never moved back. Not only would his English have a Southern drawl, he would be using vocabulary that was around in that time period rather than vocabulary that has cropped up since.

    • @DUFFAL02
      @DUFFAL02 Před měsícem +2

      Native Russian speaker who moved to the US when I was very young. I spoke Russian at home, but throughout school and with my friends English became used far more.
      I’m 22 now and almost completely lost my ability to speak Russian. Long road ahead to relearn it lol, Russian is incredibly difficult to learn

  • @augustus8913
    @augustus8913 Před 4 lety +19499

    As a European , i think it is weird when someone can speak only one language.

    • @ineptpacific5717
      @ineptpacific5717 Před 4 lety +2177

      That’s fair but the large reason behind it in the United States is that we have such a large country so for vacations or business we have no need to learn any other languages. In contrast Europe has many “small” nations with separate languages so there is more pressure to learn other languages.

    • @datitingammez
      @datitingammez Před 4 lety +920

      You’d be creeped out if you came to south america cause most people speak one of these two languages: portuguese or spanish. Only a really small portion of us can actually speak 2 languages, and an even smaller can speak 3.

    • @suppenwerfboi4111
      @suppenwerfboi4111 Před 4 lety +486

      It's a much more common that people in the Eastern Bundesländer of Germany only speak German. They may understand you but they will probably not answer you in English. The younger the people the more likely they understand and answer you in English.

    • @Vic_the_owl92
      @Vic_the_owl92 Před 4 lety +201

      Yeah, most times you speak at least three languages

    • @sdprz7893
      @sdprz7893 Před 4 lety +251

      @RichardSpears1 Yeah that's because you guys just decided to conquer the world so now we all bend to your will or your rebellious son

  • @bonzibuddy607
    @bonzibuddy607 Před 3 lety +2249

    i love how boris stutters like he does in english

    • @mrvwbug4423
      @mrvwbug4423 Před 2 lety +178

      He also fakes his British accent, and probably has to put effort into speaking Queen's English rather than American English. Remember he is American by birth and grew up in the US. He only renounced his US citizenship when he was elected to Parliament.

    • @jdcooper000
      @jdcooper000 Před 2 lety +104

      @@mrvwbug4423 not sure about that. he didn't live in the US later than the age of 5, and both his parents are posh english people. though his accent is totally affected, by all accounts he adopted it consciously while studying at Eton as a teenager.

    • @RobTheGiraffe
      @RobTheGiraffe Před 2 lety +12

      @@mrvwbug4423 he was born in the US yeah but his parents took him back to the uk the same year he was born

    • @davidsilverfield835
      @davidsilverfield835 Před 2 lety +1

      Its kinda funny lol

    • @bubbley1234
      @bubbley1234 Před 2 lety +63

      @@mrvwbug4423 "grew up in the US" he spent 4 years in the US between the ages of 0 and 5, all of his schooling was done in Belgium and the UK, wtf do you mean? Every person that was born on US soil has a US citizenship from birth so I don't see how that's relevant. He also had British citizenship as his father was British.

  • @jonlidell9465
    @jonlidell9465 Před rokem +28

    Honestly I love hearing the different accents people have when speaking english and I find it interesting how depending on how and where you learn english you cant end up adopting that place or person's accent.

  • @hankdobson1784
    @hankdobson1784 Před 2 lety +44

    east germans were taught russian as their second language in place of west german english during germany’s occupation
    when i did a student exchange in germany one of my friends was placed with a family from east germany and it meant he could only really communicate with their children as they learned russian as children

  • @carsonianthegreat4672
    @carsonianthegreat4672 Před 3 lety +581

    The popes aren’t that great at English because international communication within the Church is done in Latin, so they are more proficient at that language.

    • @arminius2960
      @arminius2960 Před 2 lety +47

      Also, most of them have to learn ancient Greek, Hebrew, Italian. If they would have to learn Engish it is really a lot of work!

    • @listen1st267
      @listen1st267 Před 2 lety +19

      Yeah, even JP2 struggled a bit with his English. He was good enough at it but he didn't consider himself fluent. He wasn't even all that good at Italian when he was first elected.
      In the end, he was entirely fluent in Polish, German, Latin, Italian, Spanish, and maybe even French (?)

    • @dominicksebastien2254
      @dominicksebastien2254 Před 2 lety +11

      It's mostly Italian

    • @davidbraun6209
      @davidbraun6209 Před 2 lety +7

      Francis had noticed (as had his superiors in the Society of Jesus back before his becoming a bishop and then Pope) his weakness in English, and he had spent three months at an Irish theological college to learn English.

    • @davidsilverfield835
      @davidsilverfield835 Před 2 lety +1

      Interesting

  • @ewanherbert3402
    @ewanherbert3402 Před 2 lety +3433

    The funny thing about Arnold is that his accent is arguably more noticeable when he speaks German. In English, he just has "a German accent". In German, he has a truly overwhelmingly powerful South German/Austrian accent.

    • @VitorOliveira-sk8dz
      @VitorOliveira-sk8dz Před 2 lety +231

      It combines with a weird American accent and sounds pretty bizarre

    • @themfwestcoast
      @themfwestcoast Před 2 lety +95

      So its more of a situation of him being ashamed about his accent (heard that he has was declined from doing his own dubs), rather than forgotten german?

    • @Ace_-ep5vr
      @Ace_-ep5vr Před 2 lety +211

      @@themfwestcoast the whole decline doing his own dubs is that his austrian accent is very hick and southern which wouldn't make sense for the terminator, a perfect machine to speak hickish german

    • @VitorOliveira-sk8dz
      @VitorOliveira-sk8dz Před 2 lety +20

      @@themfwestcoast yeah kind of. At least in NRW we very much enjoy mocking the austrian accent

    • @Atillatzke
      @Atillatzke Před 2 lety +31

      @@Ace_-ep5vr tbh i would have loved a terminator with his original accent i would crack up laughing every second

  • @northbreeze0111
    @northbreeze0111 Před 2 lety +101

    As a Swede (one of the top three countries with the highest level of English fluency) I can tell you that I even dream in English many times. Daily I think about a word in English but where I can't come up with the corresponding word in Swedish. Damn it 😄

    • @teresarivasugaz2313
      @teresarivasugaz2313 Před rokem +4

      My friends and family are used to my codeswitching because my brain will immediately fill any gaps in my native Spanish with English. Native English speakers find surprising that my accent is more "British" because every Latin American they know speaks with an American accent.

    • @northbreeze0111
      @northbreeze0111 Před rokem +1

      @@teresarivasugaz2313 sound like we have the same issue but that you speak Spanish and I Swedish. What country are you from?

    • @teresarivasugaz2313
      @teresarivasugaz2313 Před rokem +2

      @@northbreeze0111 🇵🇪🇵🇪🇵🇪🇵🇪 😃

    • @northbreeze0111
      @northbreeze0111 Před rokem +1

      @@teresarivasugaz2313 Peru! Nice. Would love to go there one day. From Lima?

    • @Ch-xk5tv
      @Ch-xk5tv Před rokem +1

      Were you a british colony or something like that?

  • @hunterlehman3056
    @hunterlehman3056 Před rokem +32

    I'm eternally jealous of people who can speak multiple languages so well. I'm American and I took spanish classes for 12 years in school, but without any practical application of the language outside of the classroom (along with a generally poor aptitude for foreign languages on my part) I could never get beyond the most basic of sentences. And now that it's been 5-6 years since my last spanish class, I couldn't even begin to humor a conversation in the language.

  • @---ut6fk
    @---ut6fk Před 2 lety +4588

    For anyone learning English: please know that the vast majority of us native speakers don't care that you have an accent like the people in this video. I love hearing different accents, and i think most can agree with me!

    • @fuguthefish
      @fuguthefish Před 2 lety +62

      Indian accent is just too bad for me and also some sub-saharian accents are quite bad.

    • @sidecharacter2613
      @sidecharacter2613 Před 2 lety +288

      @@fuguthefish dam what's wrong with you lol

    • @fuguthefish
      @fuguthefish Před 2 lety +120

      @@sidecharacter2613 What is wrong in saying that some accents are really hard to understand, more exactly? :)))

    • @shramanadasdutta3006
      @shramanadasdutta3006 Před 2 lety +196

      @@fuguthefish ig bad was the wrong word to use. But as an Indian, it quit okay with us if you have trouble understanding our accent. We just speak more slowly than most others, and pronounce all the letter properly as the concept of silent letters isnt too prevalent in most of our native languages. I think that is basically where we differ.

    • @iberianslivestreams9597
      @iberianslivestreams9597 Před 2 lety +16

      @@fuguthefish Indian accent sounds really cool and at the same time funny

  • @SanFranFan30
    @SanFranFan30 Před 4 lety +2315

    That Putin clip was kinda freaky, his mouth moves really weird almost like a deep fake

    • @_Epsilon_
      @_Epsilon_ Před 4 lety +295

      He is quite uncomfortable with pronunciation which makes me believe that he isn't fluent at all. He looks way more comfortable speaking German.

    • @blubberbernd2347
      @blubberbernd2347 Před 4 lety +113

      @@_Epsilon_ can confirm, his german is immaculate

    • @arthurgeorge3902
      @arthurgeorge3902 Před 4 lety +21

      Spot on. Looked digitally "Russianed"

    • @samuelgoad7320
      @samuelgoad7320 Před 4 lety +78

      @@_Epsilon_ Its almost like he was a KGB agent in East German for a decade :P but yeah, really interesting stuff to hear

    • @SanFranFan30
      @SanFranFan30 Před 4 lety +26

      @Jan Sitkowski Yeah I can definitely imagine, it goes the same way when we english speakers try to speak slavic languages

  • @johnchessant3012
    @johnchessant3012 Před rokem +11

    pretty weird seeing that clip of Abe knowing he was shot dead just 5 years later (the clip is from February 2017)

  • @LaurenceRietdijk
    @LaurenceRietdijk Před 2 lety +13

    I love the fact that Arnold momentarily broke from German to say "I'll be back"!

  • @thatanoynomousdude8082
    @thatanoynomousdude8082 Před 3 lety +2142

    Putin's mouth movement when he talks in English looks like when Mr. Bean talks.

    • @starcorpvncj
      @starcorpvncj Před 3 lety +9

      How's your Russian and German that Putin also speaks?

    • @thatanoynomousdude8082
      @thatanoynomousdude8082 Před 3 lety +76

      @@starcorpvncj What?

    • @coby4480
      @coby4480 Před 3 lety +115

      I honestly don’t blame him. Russian and English are such insanely different languages that it’s probably the lingual version of making him run in high heels.

    • @lizardperson780
      @lizardperson780 Před 3 lety +51

      I thought it was a deepfake at first it looked so unnatural

    • @jeremygilbert6271
      @jeremygilbert6271 Před 3 lety +11

      @@coby4480 different, yes. Insanely different? They're both Indo-European languages. If you think Russian and English are still share a lot of similarities. Otherwise, if you think they are 'insanely different' what do you think when English is compared to non-Indo-European languages?

  • @Wordsmith00
    @Wordsmith00 Před 4 lety +969

    Putin looks like he's lip-syncing to his own voice over with a Chinese accent in a Hong Kong Kung Fu flick.

    • @The_Real_Slim_Shadow94
      @The_Real_Slim_Shadow94 Před 4 lety +12

      They’re allowed to have entertainment in China? Wow, learn something new every day.

    • @ThatDamnPandaKai
      @ThatDamnPandaKai Před 4 lety +8

      I thought he looked more like Mr. Bean trying to speak

    • @Wordsmith00
      @Wordsmith00 Před 4 lety +4

      @@The_Real_Slim_Shadow94 surprising isn't it ? (In all seriousness they do have some good cinema and animation).

    • @Wordsmith00
      @Wordsmith00 Před 4 lety +4

      @@ThatDamnPandaKai 😂😂 he does strike completely differently when he speaks English. He looks almost gentle

    • @Wordsmith00
      @Wordsmith00 Před 4 lety +1

      @@qwertybear.7120 😋😂

  • @kobaba...12
    @kobaba...12 Před rokem +10

    R.I.P. Shinzo Abe

  • @Microtonal_Cats
    @Microtonal_Cats Před 4 měsíci +6

    BootyJudge isn't so much struggling to speak Spanish, but you can see him translating in his head. Rubio is so fluent you can tell he grew up arguing in Spanish and English. It's a beautiful thing.

  • @constantinekaradenizlis8804
    @constantinekaradenizlis8804 Před 4 lety +871

    If someone doesn't have a good accent in any language, that doesn't mean that they aren't good or even almost fluent in that language. Accents and fluency in a language are two very different things.

    • @sebastianchicazapata4519
      @sebastianchicazapata4519 Před 4 lety +4

      👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

    • @okay800
      @okay800 Před 4 lety +38

      @@juliag.3584 Yeah exactly I really hate it when someone make fun of other people's accent and pronunciation while being ignorant and just speak his own language

    • @j.j.714
      @j.j.714 Před 4 lety +22

      It’s extremely sad when someone makes fun of people’s accent, especially when it’s associated to “being dumb”

    • @peterkeijsers489
      @peterkeijsers489 Před 4 lety +6

      Especially with English the dental fricatives are of importance when it comes to fluency. Most non-native speakers pronounce those as alveolar fricatives, which makes them less fluent in English. For the rest I agree with you.

    • @ganarygirl4557
      @ganarygirl4557 Před 4 lety +5

      You’re right, of course, having an accent does not mean you do not dominate the language. But it does affect how well people will understand you. Not because of your fault, not because of their. Its just like that. I often even struggle understanding germans from the south of germany because of their accent, bespike they speak the same language as I. Its just a bigger effort to follow people with an accent, and there isnt really a thing we can do about it.

  • @pedrov7969
    @pedrov7969 Před 3 lety +1037

    Fun fact: Every Pope has to speak Italian, even the ones from non-Italian backgrounds.

    • @Luboman411
      @Luboman411 Před 3 lety +101

      Well, yes. The Vatican government uses the Italian language to run everything. You don't want those wily cardinals and Vatican curia insiders to take advantage of you so you, as Pope, need to be able to read everything they write.

    • @fotoralf
      @fotoralf Před 3 lety +43

      @@Luboman411 Pope Benedict speaks excellent French with a gruesome Bavarian accent and Francis is fluent in German and a few other languages.

    • @mutestingray
      @mutestingray Před 3 lety +10

      Well, the English speaking countries tend to be Protestant, as well.

    • @starcorpvncj
      @starcorpvncj Před 3 lety +12

      A leader has to speak the language of his home country, in this case the Vatican City.

    • @drgnslayers
      @drgnslayers Před 3 lety +16

      @@Wonderingax indeed. In addition to his native Spanish, Francis is also conversant in Latin (the official language of the Holy See), he speaks fluent Italian (the official language of Vatican City and the "everyday language" of the Holy See), German, French, Portuguese, English, and he understands the Piedmontese language and some Genoese.

  • @jeffboi7595
    @jeffboi7595 Před 2 lety +9

    fun fact: stalin spoke english with an irish accent since he was taught by an irishman

  • @richardlusk8024
    @richardlusk8024 Před rokem +10

    As an English speaker who learned spanish later in life i can say that i have alot of empathy for people who speak with strong accents in their second language. For whatever reason some people physically have struggles no matter how fluent they get

  • @leepreston9637
    @leepreston9637 Před 3 lety +706

    I cannot imagine a more German name than Helmut Schmidt.

    • @loumorningstar7709
      @loumorningstar7709 Před 3 lety +6

      Adolf Hitler. Pretty sure that's more German than Helmut Schmidt. 😉

    • @leepreston9637
      @leepreston9637 Před 3 lety +144

      @@loumorningstar7709 Adolf Hitler was Austrian.

    • @RickBrode
      @RickBrode Před 3 lety +18

      @@loumorningstar7709 I don’t believe it is, Adolf isn’t a very harsh sounding name, so to me it doesn’t come off sounding very Germanic.

    • @guyincognito7979
      @guyincognito7979 Před 3 lety +14

      @@leepreston9637 Actualy Hitler was Austrian in name only.
      Hitlers village of Braunau-Inn was a part of the German confederate states. When Prussia brought together the German city states, many villages were left out of the Reich, and Hitler’s village was one of them. His village was on border between German Reich and Austria and he always considered himself German and so did his family and every family in the area he was born.

    • @entonduck
      @entonduck Před 3 lety +1

      @@loumorningstar7709 And his real name was Adolf Schenkelhofer or was it Schenkelhober, but it was something like that

  • @paddyseamair6336
    @paddyseamair6336 Před 3 lety +1811

    Arnold Schwarzenegger speaks a perfect German with a strong austrian accent.

    • @fitofight8540
      @fitofight8540 Před 3 lety +82

      He’s a native of Austria

    • @coby4480
      @coby4480 Před 3 lety +127

      @@fitofight8540 Not to mention I’m pretty sure he’s from rural Austria.

    • @tvtrauma7024
      @tvtrauma7024 Před 3 lety +10

      His father was in the ss

    • @moniho6907
      @moniho6907 Před 3 lety +14

      German is austrian's native language

    • @anlumo1
      @anlumo1 Před 3 lety +76

      @@moniho6907 Yes, but he's from an area with a very distinct accent that even other Austrians sometimes have trouble understanding.

  • @hansmelbye1804
    @hansmelbye1804 Před 10 měsíci +14

    He might not be a politician, but I find Roald Dahl's (a famous children's book writer) linguistic skills quite fascinating as a Norwegian. Dahl was born in the UK to immigrants from Norway, and Norwegian was his first language. He did an interview for the NRK in 1989, and I can tell that his Norwegian is very rusty; probably, he has spent so much of his life in Britain that his native language has weakened over time, much like with Kissinger and his German.

    • @kostyanatsoulis109
      @kostyanatsoulis109 Před 8 měsíci

      I am in a similar situation. My parents are belgian and I was born in the US. Since I haven't been living with my parents my french has gotten noticeably worse. Like, my accent hasn't gotten worse but I tend to forget words more

  • @EmmettMcFly55
    @EmmettMcFly55 Před rokem +11

    6:20 As someone from the Netherlands, it's interesting to hear you point to Rutte as an example for someone who's quite good at English, given that his strong Dutch accent when speaking English is regularly poked fun at in our own media.

  • @theodixon3298
    @theodixon3298 Před 3 lety +575

    13:37 People might think Boris' French isn't great, but he speaks like that in English as well.

    • @d.2935
      @d.2935 Před 3 lety +7

      Very true! 👏

    • @Mary1337
      @Mary1337 Před 3 lety +8

      Did someone say 1337

    • @szabados1980
      @szabados1980 Před 3 lety +8

      What do you call a complete nutcase who doesn't speak even one language? Non-lingual?

    • @Christian_Martel
      @Christian_Martel Před 3 lety +5

      It is fairly commun for fast talkers in their native language tripping in a second-language that they don't master fluently. One suggestion I could give Englisgh speakers learning French is to slow down your speech. French is more monotone than English, so accentuation and timing is less oimportant than in English.

    • @abrararifify
      @abrararifify Před 3 lety

      @@Christian_Martel Hundred percent this

  • @thxcaze1416
    @thxcaze1416 Před 3 lety +1659

    As a nativ German speaker I could say that Arnold is still very good in German there is no American accent there is only his Austrian accent

    • @Nikioko
      @Nikioko Před 3 lety +37

      Die Steirische Eiche.

    • @DeniatitadenCompostela
      @DeniatitadenCompostela Před 3 lety +47

      He has a very broad Austrian accent in English.

    • @mpforeverunlimited
      @mpforeverunlimited Před 3 lety +8

      Isnt that his native language though?

    • @narsplace
      @narsplace Před 3 lety +27

      @@mpforeverunlimited Germin is just Austrian has some difference like mum and mom in Australian and US English.

    • @oscarbelmare_22
      @oscarbelmare_22 Před 3 lety +7

      I speak some German since my dad is German but I speak it like a donkey

  • @inerdt
    @inerdt Před 2 lety +18

    Kissinger's German is so interesting. I think it kinda got stuck at the young age when he moved to America and while the German language as a whole developed from then, his German stayed the same. In particular, he is using a lot of "Präteritum" tense which isn't really a thing we often do anymore in spoken language. It also makes me think he might be from northern Germany since that's more prevalent there and he is speaking in a pretty standard accent, not a dialect.

    • @theobuniel9643
      @theobuniel9643 Před 7 měsíci +1

      Kissinger is actually from Bavaria, hahahaha.

  • @geektome4781
    @geektome4781 Před 2 lety +57

    My favorite law school professor once said: “If you speak three or more languages, you’re called a polyglot. If you speak two languages, you’re called bilingual. And if you speak one language, you’re called an American.”

  • @williamalfonso1373
    @williamalfonso1373 Před 4 lety +937

    On the defense of the Pope, he does speak a lot more languages than the average person. Argentine Spanish, Italian, German, French and Portuguese are among the languages he is comfortable speaking.

    • @fabcas6358
      @fabcas6358 Před 4 lety +121

      Also Latin

    • @karima_MK
      @karima_MK Před 4 lety +71

      William Alfonso also he might focus on the languages spoken in catholic countries

    • @mybigyear
      @mybigyear Před 3 lety +6

      The Pope is indefensible

    • @ppaaccoojrf
      @ppaaccoojrf Před 3 lety +55

      @@mybigyear Well he was clearly defended.

    • @LUISSANCHEZ-gb6fm
      @LUISSANCHEZ-gb6fm Před 3 lety +10

      Argentine isn’t a language... It’s a dialect of Spanish from Argentina

  • @davey2487
    @davey2487 Před 4 lety +959

    Putin's face when he's speaking English is just hilarious.

    • @kamilkrupinski1793
      @kamilkrupinski1793 Před 4 lety +51

      And he sounds like he is on dubbing.

    • @Trollportphosphat
      @Trollportphosphat Před 4 lety +18

      his german is way better than his english

    • @porsche911sbs
      @porsche911sbs Před 4 lety +20

      I actually think that's the real reason he doesn't speak English in public. It's not because he's nationalistic, it's because he's not very graceful at speaking English. Putin wants to appear uber-competent at everything he does, but it clearly appears unnatural for him to speak the English tongue.

    • @ambience9647
      @ambience9647 Před 4 lety +2

      I believe it's because he's self conscious.

    • @StratKruzer
      @StratKruzer Před 4 lety +4

      Davey I think English feels very unnatural for many Russians. So they have told me

  • @traceyrossmann2989
    @traceyrossmann2989 Před rokem +1

    I absolutely loved this video. Thanks for all of the knowledge ☺️

  • @randombanana640
    @randombanana640 Před 2 lety +8

    well...
    RIP Shinzo Abe now :(

  • @Themrpiggaming
    @Themrpiggaming Před 2 lety +1714

    Putin sounds so goofy speaking English, I expected him to have this deep menacing voice and we have that of a puberty ridden teenager with severe social anxiety.

    • @mrvwbug4423
      @mrvwbug4423 Před 2 lety +164

      St Petersburg accent, he clearly doesn't speak English much and is not well practiced. He can mask the high voice a bit more in Russian, but even listening to him in Russian he has the mild accent typical of St Petersburg.

    • @thossbach635
      @thossbach635 Před 2 lety +34

      He is a fluent German speaker though...

    • @slashslash501
      @slashslash501 Před 2 lety +16

      Remember that he sounds exactly the same in russian. There is a reason ukrainians call him a dickhead

    • @nelsonricardo3729
      @nelsonricardo3729 Před 2 lety +31

      @@slashslash501 Oh, Crimea river! I think there may be other reasons...

    • @supersejkaj3093
      @supersejkaj3093 Před 2 lety +17

      @@thossbach635 Yes, wasn't he a KGB agent in East Germany?

  • @tanmaypriyaagrawal
    @tanmaypriyaagrawal Před 4 lety +731

    Singapore's official language is English. So there's nothing surprising about the prime minister being so good at it.

    • @tanyasellars7492
      @tanyasellars7492 Před 4 lety +44

      It's one of the official languages

    • @kagenlim5271
      @kagenlim5271 Před 4 lety +21

      @@tanyasellars7492 Yeah, but english is the main langauge though

    • @PrincessAshley12
      @PrincessAshley12 Před 4 lety +26

      MoonRabbit Dylan Yes but English is the main language used for schools, businesses and government. Other official languages are just mother tongue languages.

    • @khosyianthem
      @khosyianthem Před 4 lety +5

      Lee can speak in English, Melayu (but the accent is like Indonesian), and Chineese .

    • @sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesh3349
      @sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesh3349 Před 4 lety +5

      It's confusing how the Philippines has the most understandable accent in south east Asia

  • @dragonlance6027
    @dragonlance6027 Před rokem +4

    RIP Mr. Shinzo Abe.

  • @flyeaglesfly7617
    @flyeaglesfly7617 Před 2 lety +40

    Came straight here after I heard Shinzō Abe had passed away. Rest In Peace Mr. Prime Minister

    • @randombanana640
      @randombanana640 Před 2 lety +4

      yeah, me too. It's sad

    • @DaGum...
      @DaGum... Před 2 lety +4

      Yup. RIP, He was a good leader…😔

    • @wasserruebenvergilbungsvirus
      @wasserruebenvergilbungsvirus Před rokem +1

      Nah. He was a nationalist who denied Japanese war crimes during WW2. Look up what the Japanese did in China and Korea, like the Rape of Nanking, Unit 731 and comfort women. (Not so "fun" fact, the acts of the Japanese were considered abhorrent even by the literal Nazis...)
      Imagine Angela Merkel or Olaf Scholz denying the Holocaust. Shinzo Abe was nobody to feel sorry for. Good riddance tbh.

    • @officialnyiyanmoehtet
      @officialnyiyanmoehtet Před rokem

      ​@@DaGum... Now I am very depressed in life! Please help!

  • @wingedhussar1117
    @wingedhussar1117 Před 2 lety +1921

    As a German native speaker I can tell you: Even though Schwarzenegger speaks in a dialect, his German is much more convincing than Kissinger's German is.

    • @londoncrow500
      @londoncrow500 Před 2 lety +13

      What do you mean by convincing? Easy to understand?

    • @wingedhussar1117
      @wingedhussar1117 Před 2 lety +74

      @@londoncrow500 better

    • @londoncrow500
      @londoncrow500 Před 2 lety +10

      @@wingedhussar1117 I think I'm dumb, I didn't understand what you mean by better

    • @wingedhussar1117
      @wingedhussar1117 Před 2 lety +139

      @@londoncrow500 Look, in my native language, we say "überzeugend" (which means "convincing" or "compelling") - not only when we talk about arguments or evidence, but also when we want to say that something leaves a good impression.
      So when I say "Someone's German is convincing", I don't mean that he or she is trying to convince us of something specific, but that he or she does a better job at convincing us of his ability to speak German.
      Maybe "convincing" cannot be used in that way in English and this is simply a language mistake :)

    • @londoncrow500
      @londoncrow500 Před 2 lety +6

      @@wingedhussar1117 Oh I see. By the way is do German schools teach English?

  • @dri-oliveira
    @dri-oliveira Před 3 lety +1549

    also, accent has nothing to do with fluency, you can have a very strong accent and have strong academic level knowledge of the language

    • @RadiantRealms
      @RadiantRealms Před 3 lety +105

      And vice versa! I can speak 4 languages with native or near-native accents, but I'm only completely fluent in English (the others being French, Mandarin, Japanese). It's actually kind of weird because the moment you say one or two sentences with a natural accent, people assume you're totally fluent.

    • @dri-oliveira
      @dri-oliveira Před 3 lety +10

      @@RadiantRealms awesome example! :D

    • @mg7094
      @mg7094 Před 3 lety +45

      That's what I thought when I heard the Indian Prime Minister. He was fluent in Indian English. Just because he speaks with the Indian inflection doesn't mean he isn't fluent.

    • @likira111
      @likira111 Před 3 lety +12

      Sorta feel like this might be my situation, I'm natively danish but have been involved in online communities since like age 11 so I can write English perfectly well but I rarely ever speak it out loud so even though I know exactly how words are supposed to be pronounced from youtubers and such I just can't say them. Like I learned from the virus that I can't get the Q in quarantine down.

    • @perp1exed
      @perp1exed Před 3 lety +3

      @@RadiantRealms Despite being a fellow polyglot; I have to say... I'm a little jealous!

  • @fabulouschild2005
    @fabulouschild2005 Před 2 lety +6

    I loved Merkel ngl she seems so sweet like "I'm so sorry I cannot speak English so well so I'll speak German. Pls forgive me 🥺"

  • @lizzsmith7126
    @lizzsmith7126 Před rokem +1

    this is such a good one!

  • @xhogun8578
    @xhogun8578 Před 3 lety +692

    I was working in Munich Germany about 20 years ago. An American couple asked me for directions. After helping them out they walked on and I heard one of them tell the other "wow her English is really good".
    Being English, I would hope my mother tongue was up to par lol

    • @sh3lieMa3
      @sh3lieMa3 Před 3 lety +43

      Omg lol I just got secondhand embarrassment from those couple

    • @thekillers1stfan
      @thekillers1stfan Před 3 lety +57

      Well, I guess you could also take that as "Wow she looks super German!"

    • @Tr4sh_can34
      @Tr4sh_can34 Před 3 lety +2

      I was in Hamburg and asked a question in a store. people looked at me as if I just swallowed a dog. only one burly man understood and answered in broken English

    • @gu3sswh075
      @gu3sswh075 Před 3 lety +1

      British English or American English?

    • @habib6499
      @habib6499 Před 3 lety +5

      @@thekillers1stfan I seriously can’t tell brits or Germans apart

  • @jxynikaaa
    @jxynikaaa Před 3 lety +405

    When this guy said "about" I could instantly tell he is probably Canadian

  • @TheJudoJoker
    @TheJudoJoker Před 10 měsíci +2

    I went to Croatia on vacation and I never had a single instance where a native there couldn't speak English

    • @JJMcCullough
      @JJMcCullough  Před 7 měsíci

      Same when I was in Sweden. My Swedish friend told me that asking someone if they can speak English was akin to asking them if they can read.

  • @Sandra-lu3ri
    @Sandra-lu3ri Před 2 lety +1

    Omg I love this Chanel so much. Thank you!!!

  • @spruceguitar
    @spruceguitar Před 3 lety +577

    Poor Vladimir has shape-shifted when he started talking in English. I thought something horrible had happened to him

    • @jesusisgodislove9912
      @jesusisgodislove9912 Před 3 lety +4

      😂😂😂😂

    • @channel_abc123_
      @channel_abc123_ Před 3 lety +3

      Threatening us with a good time

    • @natedetailscars
      @natedetailscars Před 3 lety +13

      He had a peanut butter sandwich before his speech.

    • @BadAssSykO
      @BadAssSykO Před 2 lety

      I think he's doing his best not to mess up, so he moves his mouth to emphasize the pronunciations.

    • @Cythil
      @Cythil Před 2 lety +6

      I am guessing that is partly why he does not speak English. He can not project power as much as he can do when he speaks Russian. And of course there are nationalistic reason to, I think. Image is really important for Putin. But who know what language an Ex-KGB agent knows.

  • @nemanerous5510
    @nemanerous5510 Před 2 lety +1753

    I know this video is old, but I think Abe Shinzo speaks fluent English. He even studied in the US for a year and a half. If you listen to his speeches in Japanese, he delivers them in the same weird, halting manner. That's just how he speaks. Like a weirdo.

    • @sophroniel
      @sophroniel Před 2 lety +191

      I did not expect this comment and now I am wheezing with laughter, thank you

    • @anrijupiter
      @anrijupiter Před 2 lety +112

      separate each words and say them clearly and slowly is how Japanese speaks in situations like that so that people can understand well. But he speaks too slow lol

    • @ranjanbiswas3233
      @ranjanbiswas3233 Před 2 lety +20

      His Abe family all are bunch of weirdos. They all read BL manga in secret but doesn't support LGBTQ+

    • @ranjanbiswas3233
      @ranjanbiswas3233 Před 2 lety +1

      @Zypher ?

    • @scoopydaniels8908
      @scoopydaniels8908 Před 2 lety +9

      Reading another language is 1 type of comprehension(I find it the easiest), while hearing comprehension is another type of understanding and speaking still another.. It's MUCH easier to give a speech that you prepare, proofread etc than it is to understand thoughts, concepts etc.. Especially if there's innuendo involved

  • @kimberlywilson7929
    @kimberlywilson7929 Před 2 lety +1

    This is one of your best videos

  • @geoffrush2744
    @geoffrush2744 Před rokem +1

    Loved this video JJ, great work, thank you :) x

  • @phoenixfeathers4128
    @phoenixfeathers4128 Před 2 lety +1498

    As a German, I was happy that Merkel was mentioned
    She’s always polite when she apologises for her “not good English”
    I actually think hers is perfectly fine because German pronunciation is so different

    • @morzhed-hoqh732
      @morzhed-hoqh732 Před 2 lety +8

      She's not polite, she's submissive.

    • @phoenixfeathers4128
      @phoenixfeathers4128 Před 2 lety +182

      @@morzhed-hoqh732 excuse you! Wtf?!

    • @morzhed-hoqh732
      @morzhed-hoqh732 Před 2 lety +12

      @@phoenixfeathers4128 C’est la pure réalité ! We Europeans and Germany in the lead have lost all pride. Merkel shouldn't speak English. She is the head of greater Germany. The Germans have a treasure: The German language!

    • @Pike737
      @Pike737 Před 2 lety +70

      @@morzhed-hoqh732 what exactly would be the territory of greater Germany in modern times?

    • @morzhed-hoqh732
      @morzhed-hoqh732 Před 2 lety +16

      @@Pike737 The greatness of Germany does not lie in the size of its territory! This is the great mistake of the German nation… Germany is great for the best she has produced; its architecture, its philosophy, its literature, its music, its science ... What a pity that so much beauty and grandeur is eclipsed by the memory of war.

  • @LjuboCupic1912
    @LjuboCupic1912 Před 3 lety +2137

    Macron’s English is perfectly fine, he just has a strong French accent.

    • @russetmantle1
      @russetmantle1 Před 3 lety +218

      Yeah, I was going to say this. I've heard him speak English a lot and he's actually really good at it. He just pronounces some words in a really French way.

    • @sapnasarfare5673
      @sapnasarfare5673 Před 3 lety +68

      In fact, I find his accent a bit like how French guys should speak English... It's like a bit caricature..

    • @therealbomb_com8774
      @therealbomb_com8774 Před 3 lety +62

      That sort of English would get someone laid in America really quickly, lmao 😂😂😂

    • @CarterKey6
      @CarterKey6 Před 3 lety +3

      Agree

    • @ChiaraBells
      @ChiaraBells Před 3 lety +42

      It's not even that strong. I've spent quite some time in French-speaking countries and I've heard some thick accents. Macron's is fine imho, totally intelligible.

  • @steverobbins5423
    @steverobbins5423 Před rokem +4

    Late to the game, but my example would be Ilhan Omar, representative for Minnesota in Congress. She’s a Somali refugee, speaks English really well, and is a great politician for my region.

  • @munirademuyiwa4320
    @munirademuyiwa4320 Před 2 lety +6

    Obama speaks a fair level of Swahili and Indonesian, a lot of leaders in African are pretty much bi lingual

  • @phiphi334
    @phiphi334 Před 4 lety +744

    Schwarzenegger isnt that bad at german, he just speaks austrian german, that sometimes sounds very different

    • @lnhart7157
      @lnhart7157 Před 4 lety +23

      Yeah his German sounds really good

    • @phiphi334
      @phiphi334 Před 4 lety +1

      @@Stefan-st jo genau

    • @jhuba6477
      @jhuba6477 Před 4 lety +16

      @@Stefan-st No it's the Styrian dialect. He was born in Thal which is near Graz.

    • @intothevoid5074
      @intothevoid5074 Před 4 lety +11

      Austrian Standard German, one of the three major German Standards of High German.
      The other two are German Standard German and Swiss Standard German.

    • @shahesfelazi8549
      @shahesfelazi8549 Před 4 lety +3

      Sounds like Hitler german

  • @mwlvyn5534
    @mwlvyn5534 Před 4 lety +381

    8:08 in East Germany, people didn't learn English, they have learned Russian.

    • @avodkabottle.1096
      @avodkabottle.1096 Před 4 lety +12

      Same with most occupied countries at the time, like Poland and Lithuania etc.

    • @MickeyKnox
      @MickeyKnox Před 4 lety +13

      that's not completely true - beginning in the late 70s, the east german school kids had the chance to learn English beginning from 7th grade, as long as they were good in Russian.

    • @doktorhans3349
      @doktorhans3349 Před 4 lety +6

      @@MickeyKnox but nobody wanted to be good in Russian because of hate to Russians.

    • @frglee
      @frglee Před 4 lety +1

      Same in the Czech republic, but nowadays many Czechs under 35 have good English skills.

    • @obamashand4911
      @obamashand4911 Před 4 lety

      That’s literally what he was saying. Did you not listen to the part where he said that her living in East Germany is most likely the reason why?

  • @Darkrocmon
    @Darkrocmon Před 2 lety +4

    My aunt grew up in East Germany as well and she does this a lot, they speak English in the house a lot but whenever they visit she always apologizes even though we understand her fine.

  • @genaromorales6946
    @genaromorales6946 Před 2 lety +7

    The most interesting accent with language was the Japanese embassador in Lebanon. Such a cool combination imo. He speaks Arabic, but you can hear the Japanese influence

  • @alexok2318
    @alexok2318 Před 4 lety +2055

    I literally shot milk out of my nose after hearing Putin speak English. The sort of laugh I wish I caught on camera.

    • @Sineri-rj6nw
      @Sineri-rj6nw Před 4 lety +219

      I laught too, but then I realised that I'm russian and my accent is not far away from his...

    • @ursusss
      @ursusss Před 4 lety +44

      @@Sineri-rj6nw hack, I'm Romanian and I have the same accent :D

    • @hey....
      @hey.... Před 3 lety +44

      but after you hear it, it just fits him somehow. is this just me?

    • @abrahamwilberforce9824
      @abrahamwilberforce9824 Před 3 lety +51

      Putin did once adress the German Parliament in German, when he was on a state visit.
      So look that up, if you want to blast milk again.

    • @flo2314
      @flo2314 Před 3 lety +91

      I imagined his voice to be way deeper and more intimidating but he instead sounds more like someone that talks in kids shows (no offense)

  • @PAXperMortem
    @PAXperMortem Před 4 lety +714

    Schwarzenegger's German is pretty good actually. He's got a strong Styrian accent so I can see why it would sound strange to folks from Germany, but he seems fluent enough in that one clip.
    Kissinger did pretty alright too; quite remarkable if you take into account the fact that he fled Germany more than 80 years ago, at age 15. His reluctance to speak the language may stem from the historical connotations he associates it with.

    • @simonkemfors
      @simonkemfors Před 4 lety +18

      gotta love that Austrian accent

    • @PAXperMortem
      @PAXperMortem Před 4 lety

      @@Ninja-Alinja Have you watched the video?

    • @Ninja-Alinja
      @Ninja-Alinja Před 4 lety +7

      PAXperMortem sorry, let me rephrase that. I basically agree but miss-understood your point when reading it first, never mind.
      About Kissinger, it’s remarkable how he doesn’t sound “Austrian” at all, which is quite a feat for an Austrian.

    • @Bobby-ud4xk
      @Bobby-ud4xk Před 4 lety +5

      @@Ninja-Alinja kissinger is franconian iirc

    • @michaelpattie9248
      @michaelpattie9248 Před 4 lety +24

      Reportedly Schwarzenegger wasn't allowed to voice the Terminator in the German dub because the regional accent was so specific as not to match the character.

  • @lilsprugga
    @lilsprugga Před 2 lety

    Interesting stuff. Good research.

  • @aidanwelch4763
    @aidanwelch4763 Před 10 měsíci +2

    Vaclav Havel when addressing congress did exactly what Merkel did, apologizing and switching to Czech.

  • @phosphoros60
    @phosphoros60 Před 4 lety +800

    Macron: "...ze twenty-first century *hath* brought..."
    Who knew, he speaks Shakespearean English!

    • @StephaneCalabrese
      @StephaneCalabrese Před 4 lety +101

      Macron is lisping in French, and it shows even more in English. Plus he has the ultra typical French accent. He is the first French president to have a fair grasp of English though, so we can give him this credit at least.

    • @adamanderson4811
      @adamanderson4811 Před 4 lety +11

      S. Calabrese afaik French doesn’t actually have a ‘th’ sound. So it wouldn’t be natural for him to pronounce those words

    • @HenryTheTodd
      @HenryTheTodd Před 4 lety +27

      @@adamanderson4811 Often though when French-natives learn english they learn the th sound, but end up overcorrecting, or adding the sound where it doesn't belong.

    • @_erik_2138
      @_erik_2138 Před 4 lety +13

      Funny how French and German people (can confirm as a German) both have the same problems when learning English. Its always the "th" sounds lol. Most Germans who have a stronger accent when they're speaking English pronounce it "ze" and some pronounce it "de"
      I used to pronounce it as "de" to completely avoid the struggle with "th" sounds

    • @phosphoros60
      @phosphoros60 Před 4 lety +7

      @@_erik_2138 Even some Native Speakers pronounce it 'd' like the Irish for exanple. It's just a very rare sound across different languages.
      Funnily enough though it doesn't appear in a lot of languages, but some of the few ones where it does exist are all extremely wide-spread: English, Spanish, Arabic...

  • @meikekroll324
    @meikekroll324 Před 4 lety +176

    In east germany, you could choose between learning russian or english in school, but if you chose english you would get...the loooks

    • @annneru
      @annneru Před 4 lety +1

      Oh, that poor oppressed Merkel girl had to make an unfair choice between being called second class human by the English language (man-woman paradigm) and making an early career in a female-sounding paradigm of muzhchina-zhenchina (man-woman in Russian, not the same as "man, male" in English) and another entity "chelovek" (Russian for human as "man" of both genders). What a poor girl was that Angela! C'mon, people! Russian language is not as sexist as English, in that sense. Even Polish has this "male" as "chelovek" sexist thing but Russian doesn't. Merkel owns a lot of her self-confidence to the fact she was exposed to a system of both male and female beings being equally oppressed by the owners for many hundreds of years. In-joke. No offense)

    • @meikekroll324
      @meikekroll324 Před 4 lety +35

      @@annneru I'm sorry but what the hell...? Choosing russian in the DDR was normal and not because of grammar and sexism? That shit was like living in north korea

    • @Damo2690
      @Damo2690 Před 4 lety +6

      @@annneru I have no idea what you mean. Maybe learn better English before saying English is stupid

    • @JustSitAndLaugh
      @JustSitAndLaugh Před 4 lety

      My mum was studying both Russian and English in school but okay... However English classes were only about once a week and often cancelled because the teacher was sick. So while they did put more focus on Russian, you could definitely do both.

    • @cata6424
      @cata6424 Před 4 lety +1

      @@annneru Mucho texto

  • @robinthepresidentofdanzig2250

    6:17 Dutch person here, we sometimes make fun of Mark Rutte for his Dutch accent here, but maybe the worldwide standards are lower than here

  • @aldogorostieta5917
    @aldogorostieta5917 Před 2 lety +2

    Never hear Marco Rubio speaking Spanish before! He really keeps an strong Cuban accent! Great video! Regards from Mexico

  • @yello-nate9796
    @yello-nate9796 Před 3 lety +361

    I was really expecting Putin to have a deep voice.

    • @ChiaraBells
      @ChiaraBells Před 3 lety +67

      People often speak in a higher pitch in a foreign language, especially one they are not comfortable with. That's probable what happened there.

    • @stan.pchannel6556
      @stan.pchannel6556 Před 3 lety +5

      @@ChiaraBells exactly i can say yes because I'm in the same boat

    • @FaisalAnsari-pk9by
      @FaisalAnsari-pk9by Před 3 lety +1

      Yes that was funny 🤣🤣🤣

    • @georgemack120
      @georgemack120 Před 3 lety +1

      I know, right? He almost sounded "delicate"...wierd!

    • @YuliyaHorobets
      @YuliyaHorobets Před 3 lety +7

      His voice is indeed soft even if he speaks Russian, so any parody where he has a deep baritone like voice does not work well for the people that are used to hearing him for the last 20 years

  • @iceismyname8748
    @iceismyname8748 Před 4 lety +631

    Putin looks like he’s talking without teeth when speaking English

    • @urodn1um
      @urodn1um Před 4 lety +33

      Trust me, you'd never learn russian without an accent because it's hard to speak both russian and english without accents

    • @walperaph205
      @walperaph205 Před 4 lety +25

      My native language is Russian and i can tell you that it's very hard to articulate and make a clear, coherent sound in English(Basically Putin trying to talk without accent and the only way is to do these weird mouth, tongue movements) . Probably that's because different muscles are involved while speaking Russian, idk ;)

    • @dmitrikaljuznoi1323
      @dmitrikaljuznoi1323 Před 4 lety

      @@walperaph205 Зависит от человека и от практики. У меня родной русский но на английском я тоже иногда думаю

    • @user-cs7tq2iz1g
      @user-cs7tq2iz1g Před 4 lety +2

      Well, when you start speak Russian, your prononciation will be probably chicken-like. Don't be so proud because of your so called "international" language. Times will changes.

    • @walperaph205
      @walperaph205 Před 4 lety

      @@dmitrikaljuznoi1323 У меня тоже самое, но я говорю именно про произношение на английском. Когда я пытаюсь произнести что-то на английском без акцента приходится производить такие странные движения ртом, дабы язык не заплелся, ну и чтоб была понятная речь "без акцента"))

  • @Sttm35
    @Sttm35 Před rokem +1

    Good work.

  • @RustyClimbs
    @RustyClimbs Před 2 lety +1

    Love the jersey my man

  • @evanpyne4729
    @evanpyne4729 Před 4 lety +4973

    On the German speaking politicians:
    - Arnold Schwarzenegger comes from a very rural area in Austria, and so his pronunciation is, by default, unique. However the only thing that is different is that his dialect is becoming less and less audible. other than that his grammar is perfectly good.
    - Kissinger seems to speak a little less fluently than a native, but his accent is much more standard.
    in conclusion, one is probably self-conscious about his accent, the other about his fluency, but hopefully this shows why they might be so reluctant to speak German (btw I speak German)

    • @blueptconvertible
      @blueptconvertible Před 4 lety +29

      Schwarzenegger, the pride of the University of Wisconsin - Superior!

    • @user-nf9xc7ww7m
      @user-nf9xc7ww7m Před 4 lety +105

      Not sure if true, but heard that he offered to use his own voice for The Terminator in German, but the translators turned him down. Seems it would be like a big evil cyborg talking like Larry the Cable Guy (git err dunn). 😗

    • @ozza4496
      @ozza4496 Před 4 lety +41

      Kissinger's accent sounded a bit Bavarian, right?

    • @Kilijumper
      @Kilijumper Před 4 lety +25

      @@ozza4496 Yes, hes from the city of Fürth, close to Nürnberg, originally.

    • @trevbarlow9719
      @trevbarlow9719 Před 4 lety +28

      I learnt German. When I heard Arnie speaking German, I thought to myself "Cool Arnie learnt some German. Good for him!". He just didn't sound like a native-speaker to me.

  • @randallalton6310
    @randallalton6310 Před rokem +3

    As other commenters have mentioned, the language you think/dream in is usually dominant, and I'd guess Kissenger and Arnold both think in English now.
    I very briefly got to a point where I was thinking in another language, it's an amazing experience.

  • @emmanuelmacron4
    @emmanuelmacron4 Před 2 lety +3

    Haha, Putin's English's voice killed me 😂😂😂

  • @sgtK0420
    @sgtK0420 Před 4 lety +365

    Here in South Korea every single president from 1948 until 2003 spoke 100% fluent Japanese because all of them where educated during the Japanese occupation period. President Park Jung Hee who ruled South Korea from 1960 to 1979 was even a graduate from imperial Japanese military academy.
    But what is interesting is that all of those presidents even including president Park refused speaking Japanese when having summit talks with Japanese prime ministers. They would always have their personal translators with them even though they understood Japanese 100%. It was obviously because they wanted to be shown as a nationalistic and patriotic figure. But when they retired they were often given interviews with Japanese medias and people were surprised at how well they kept their Japanese skills even after all those years.

    • @yuvalyeru
      @yuvalyeru Před 4 lety +21

      That is not surprising at all considering the history between your nations. In fact, I suspect that is the reason why Henry Kissinger preferred not to speak German as well.

    • @kattatonic1
      @kattatonic1 Před 4 lety +3

      Very interesting. Thanks.

    • @enduser8410
      @enduser8410 Před 4 lety +3

      Can you link some examples? I'm curious

    • @sgtK0420
      @sgtK0420 Před 4 lety +4

      @@enduser8410 czcams.com/video/cejoFCVzCs0/video.html This is former president Kim Young Sam having interview with Japanese media.

    • @sgtK0420
      @sgtK0420 Před 4 lety

      @bbonner422 who told you that? Must have been an avid supporter of president Moon, who is ruining this country right now

  • @Pratchettgaiman
    @Pratchettgaiman Před 4 lety +159

    Abe and Macron aren't bad at English, they just have very thick accents

    • @seneca983
      @seneca983 Před 4 lety +24

      I still think Merkel's pronunciation was somewhat better than Macron's in those clips even if she might otherwise be less good at English.

    • @Jean-Poule_II
      @Jean-Poule_II Před 4 lety +8

      Well in other interviews, Macron can be quite hard to understand and he frequently makes mistakes. I wouldn't say he's good.

    • @SandipanNath123
      @SandipanNath123 Před 4 lety +2

      @@Jean-Poule_II He is good for a frenchman

    • @Jean-Poule_II
      @Jean-Poule_II Před 4 lety +3

      @@SandipanNath123 I have some French friends that are much better than him... and some others that are much worse haha.

    • @SeverusVergiliusMaro
      @SeverusVergiliusMaro Před 4 lety

      Sure, but it if it is too difficult to understand I think it's fair to say that even if they don't pause so much (which I probably wouldn't give them) then they aren't all-that capable of communicating in English, are they?

  • @yalda3339
    @yalda3339 Před 2 lety

    the humor was trump pulling the prime minster like a teenager in love😂😂😂so funny

  • @tommasopalmieri116
    @tommasopalmieri116 Před 2 lety

    Gotta love that Canadian “abut”! Great video. Subscribing.

  • @kadz3597
    @kadz3597 Před 4 lety +656

    "I will Polish my English" - Donald Tusk, former President of the European Council and Prime Minister of Poland

    • @joshkusiak7613
      @joshkusiak7613 Před 4 lety +15

      Shit like this is why Poland hates him isn’t it?

    • @IkKorp
      @IkKorp Před 4 lety +6

      trump, tusk
      coincidence
      i think not

    • @kadz3597
      @kadz3597 Před 4 lety +18

      @@joshkusiak7613 not everybody hates him, mostly Law and Justice Party supportes

    • @herakon5110
      @herakon5110 Před 4 lety +4

      @kimi Im British and he is one of the reasons my country wanted to leave, he is a fear mongeror, and although I voted remain, I dont like him.

    • @nataliaborys1554
      @nataliaborys1554 Před 4 lety +7

      @@kadz3597 Luckily, many people hate Law And Justice.
      Unless we're talking about religious old ladies in the rural areas. I'm pretty sure that's where they're getting majority of their support from

  • @kathleenmiller4527
    @kathleenmiller4527 Před 3 lety +413

    Macron sounded pretty fluent to me, just with a STRONG accent. He didn't seem to have trouble

    • @anabar717
      @anabar717 Před 3 lety +17

      Difficult to take away the French accent

    • @orbracha25
      @orbracha25 Před 3 lety +6

      same with most of those leaders, they speak fluent english but they still have a strong accent

    • @starfthegreat
      @starfthegreat Před 3 lety +7

      Macron's English is solid, his predecessor François Hollande could barely form a sentence

    • @lindildeev5721
      @lindildeev5721 Před 3 lety +2

      @@starfthegreat Yeah and you should listen to the others French presidents : they're so funny. Especially Pompidou.

    • @ender3960
      @ender3960 Před 3 lety

      Him and the Japanese leader obviously knew what they were saying but struggled to say it so spoke slowly and very accented.

  • @ShrimpWaffles
    @ShrimpWaffles Před rokem +3

    Why does this guy has the strongest Canadian accent I’ve ever heard

  • @Stoneeeeemo
    @Stoneeeeemo Před 2 lety

    11:55 i love how you called him "jar" lol
    and yeah great ass president we have

  • @phoenixdemarino1714
    @phoenixdemarino1714 Před 4 lety +402

    Sweden has a higher percent of people fluent in English than Canada

    • @alluka1825
      @alluka1825 Před 3 lety +14

      I'm Canadian and I agree with this

    • @francoislegallio4238
      @francoislegallio4238 Před 3 lety +24

      Le Canada a un plus grand pourcentage de francophones que la Suède 🇫🇷

    • @francoislegallio4238
      @francoislegallio4238 Před 3 lety

      @@alluka1825 On aimerait bien savoir si en tant que Canadien, tu connais le français...

    • @alluka1825
      @alluka1825 Před 3 lety +1

      @@francoislegallio4238 I don't know French very well

    • @francoislegallio4238
      @francoislegallio4238 Před 3 lety +1

      @@alluka1825 Le parles-tu un peu ?

  • @frantisekmakovicka1660
    @frantisekmakovicka1660 Před 3 lety +670

    Arnold's German: A++
    Kissinger's German: B-/C
    Thats all I have to say.
    Kissinger has forgotten his German, where as Arnold, thanks to his accent, has retained it and is almost indistinguishable from a Steiermark native speaker, as if he never left.

    • @gregpetridis3762
      @gregpetridis3762 Před 3 lety +47

      Kissinger's English is as bad as his German.

    • @daquariussmith9772
      @daquariussmith9772 Před 3 lety +71

      Tbf to Kissinger he's also been in America for far longer and is obviously way older than Arnold, as well as immigrating to America at a younger age than Arnold. So I think those are probably the main reasons Arnold is better at German.

    • @quentonwbortmas
      @quentonwbortmas Před 2 lety +21

      "That's all I have to say"
      *proceeds to continue to say*

    • @plagued._
      @plagued._ Před 2 lety +14

      As a non German speaker, Arnold sounded smoother the way he talked continuously, as oppose to Kissinger who pause between phrases

    • @colinafobe2152
      @colinafobe2152 Před 2 lety +12

      I dont speak German but Arnold sounds way more natural when speaks German compared to his English

  • @svegeos04
    @svegeos04 Před 2 lety +4

    Former german vice chancellor Guido Westerwelle was so bad at english that he vehemently opposed to speaking the language when asked to do so. Of course he was relentlessly mocked about it by the german public. Also I don't think Merkels english is particularly bad, it's just very german, which is an accent that's very hard to get rid of.

  • @realdrysoda
    @realdrysoda Před rokem +5

    Rest in peace, Shinzo Abe. You will be missed.

  • @jorismiddelbos2998
    @jorismiddelbos2998 Před 4 lety +448

    Is it me or is this Guy bouncing on his chair the whole time

  • @Pratchettgaiman
    @Pratchettgaiman Před 4 lety +1342

    Vladimir Putin speaking English is WEIRD

  • @SpiritmanProductions
    @SpiritmanProductions Před 2 lety +2

    07:45 Are you sure that's not a deep fake? Something seems off. 🤔

  • @zeurkss
    @zeurkss Před 3 měsíci

    This is one of your best videos jj