As a non-European, I wasn’t aware of this anglophonic shame and I might have assumed an abundance of translators in Brussels (or in Prague as well in this case) to address such issues. That strikes me as quite normal solution. However, English fluency is presumptively preferable.
This is not directly related but I recently heard from an Austrian friend that some German citizens are a little embarrassed of Annalena Baerbock’s command of English due to her position as Bundesministerin des Auswärtigen (Foreign Minister). I’ve listened to one of her public statements given in English; while it sounded practiced it didn’t seem nearly as bad as some other examples (Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan, for all his other abilities, comes to mind).
This seems to be the Czech article referenced(paywalled pass just the snippet though):
I think part of the issue is that the Czech coalitions promised to have people with good foreign language skills as the ministers, with everyone in government needing at least one foreign language they can easily speak.
To be fair, nobody should be embarassed by not speaking a different country’s language. Even if it is expected.
Before the internet or the vast English series there was no need to know a different language. Even if it is considered well-educated. That’s why there are interpretors/translators…
If I knew Arabic, Chinese, Finnish, Swahili but no English, would I be considered less educated than somone maybe being born in an anglophile country?
And don’t let me go on about pronounciation. English people couldn’t say a Polish, Italian, Czech name correctly even if they tried for 20years…
So. No need to blame either side. People are people.
I think not knowing what our highest mountain is (current Minister of Regional Development) or how many zeroes there are in 500 billion (Minister of finance) is far more embarrassing.
Guys just learn polish and then during negotiations with czechs you will realize how hilarious their language is.
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As a non-European, I wasn’t aware of this anglophonic shame and I might have assumed an abundance of translators in Brussels (or in Prague as well in this case) to address such issues. That strikes me as quite normal solution. However, English fluency is presumptively preferable.
This is not directly related but I recently heard from an Austrian friend that some German citizens are a little embarrassed of Annalena Baerbock’s command of English due to her position as Bundesministerin des Auswärtigen (Foreign Minister). I’ve listened to one of her public statements given in English; while it sounded practiced it didn’t seem nearly as bad as some other examples (Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan, for all his other abilities, comes to mind).
This seems to be the Czech article referenced(paywalled pass just the snippet though):
https://archiv.hn.cz/c1-67015900-slabi-jako-schillerova-nejmene-pet-novych-ministru-nezvladne-konverzaci-v-anglictine
I think part of the issue is that the Czech coalitions promised to have people with good foreign language skills as the ministers, with everyone in government needing at least one foreign language they can easily speak.
To be fair, nobody should be embarassed by not speaking a different country’s language. Even if it is expected.
Before the internet or the vast English series there was no need to know a different language. Even if it is considered well-educated. That’s why there are interpretors/translators…
If I knew Arabic, Chinese, Finnish, Swahili but no English, would I be considered less educated than somone maybe being born in an anglophile country?
And don’t let me go on about pronounciation. English people couldn’t say a Polish, Italian, Czech name correctly even if they tried for 20years…
So. No need to blame either side. People are people.
I think not knowing what our highest mountain is (current Minister of Regional Development) or how many zeroes there are in 500 billion (Minister of finance) is far more embarrassing.
Guys just learn polish and then during negotiations with czechs you will realize how hilarious their language is.