tahiti
Professional
I wonder what it sounds like, I've never heard Mallorquin. I'm off to Seville soon and Andalucia....I should be brushing up my Spanish limited phrase bank instead of sitting here being online
Oh well I'll do it in the plane 
why is nadal's english so poor?
- Thread starter rod99
- Start date
I wonder what it sounds like, I've never heard Mallorquin. I'm off to Seville soon and Andalucia....I should be brushing up my Spanish limited phrase bank instead of sitting here being online
Oh well I'll do it in the plane 
LetFirstServe
Rookie
I remember when Federer was his age, his english was not much better. I noticed he got a little better every year.
theduh
Semi-Pro
We're not in school or taking up English 101, so to punish someone because he lacks proper English grammar is just not acceptable.
feetofclay
Semi-Pro
oh you mean grammar.lol well that is the same in every country trust me.Don't judge by foreign posters here,because most of us have studied english for years in schools with proper grammar and all.
I'm not judging posters here. I'm talking about people who live in England, whose mother tongue is English and who find it difficult to hold a conversation in their own language.
feetofclay
Semi-Pro
A person born in England whose mother tongue is English should be able to hold a conversation in the language of his own country and believe me, many find it difficult. Some rudimentary grasp of grammar is necessary if the language is to be spoken correctly. I am not talking about people on this board. I am commenting on some people that I meet in my day to day life.
Lefty78
Professional
My 2 cents:
Among my travels, I lived in Andalucia (region in S. Spain) for a year. My personal experience is that, for the most part, the people there don't want to learn other languages. It's very provincial, so to speak, and very different from many other parts of Europe where people speak multiple tongues. To be fair about the situation, however, one must consider that this mentality is very similar to that of the average American.
Among my travels, I lived in Andalucia (region in S. Spain) for a year. My personal experience is that, for the most part, the people there don't want to learn other languages. It's very provincial, so to speak, and very different from many other parts of Europe where people speak multiple tongues. To be fair about the situation, however, one must consider that this mentality is very similar to that of the average American.
AmericanTemplar
Professional
I lived in Spain when I was younger & I met very few, if any, Spaniards who spoke English well. Spanish is a phonetic language with a very limited number of sounds, so I think that their ears aren't as well trained as speakers of some other languages to pick up on the nuanced variety of sounds that makes up the English language.
AmericanTemplar
Professional
This is also true. Where in Andalucia did you live? I lived in Granada.
Winners or Errors
Legend
Why is my Spanish non-existent?
Why is my German (which I speak) so poor?
I know he's a world class athlete, but seriously, is it a requirement to master English? He plays tennis for a living. He's not a translator. The only thing it may hurt is his marketability, and it doesn't seem to have done so...
Antonio Puente
Hall of Fame
For someone who has presumably spoken English his entire life, I actually think Federer's English is terrible. He has severe problems with propriety. He's constantly saying things he did not intend to say and it's because his English skills are not finely tuned.
Hah you can't reply to anything I just said? Look at my other posts I troll for neither play. He doesn't need to improve. I'm sure he will. I just gave you reasons why his english isn't great, and reasons why your reasons were stupid.
Golden Retriever
Hall of Fame
Everybody speaks English nowadays, so speaking English is no big deal anymore. I hate it when my mom tells me "The microwave oven is broken, you know English, now go fix it."
Antonio Puente
Hall of Fame
Rafa's easier to understand than many provincial and low class Brits. In fact, many Spaniards speak English better than provincial Brits, Crocodile Dundee Australian types or hillbilly Americans.
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i would understand that if that was the case with many of the other spanish players. however everyone of them (that i've heard interviewed) speaks english better than rafa.
Cross Court
Banned
He knows like 3 other languages, give him a break. And besides, it's not that bad, he's just not made for it. It's getting better anyway.
Most of them are older than nadal, some of them are a lot older.
How many languages do you want on this thread?
And of course you would be an above avg American?
I bet Lendl worked his butt off to learn English.
tacotanium
Professional
because he doesn't speak english more than those others that know english better than he does. someone mention he just started speaking english back in 2005. he probably doesn't have much friends to speak with. im pretty sure coach tony doesn't speak english with him while they train. my point is, the more you speak it the better you get at it, and age does matter. the younger you are the easier it is for you to learn/speak it.
i came to america when i was 8 and now (24) most of my friends can't tell if i have an accent or not. when i tried to learn how to speak japanese at age 23, it was damn hard to pronounce those words. took me a long time to say it right and consistently.
I think i was refering to the different dialects we have in this country. For instance I find it difficult to understand both the people from Newcastle and also some Glaswegans at times so it must be hard for any foreigners to understand also. The average hotel waiter, say in Majorca for instance, must be very confused at times to say the least, so it is no wonder that they give up
Well done Rafa: "A still tongue makes a wise head" - he's no fool. Rafa can make himself understood very well when he has to!
gocard
Semi-Pro
I don't think Nadal's English is that bad, I mean I can understand pretty much everything he says. Maybe grammatically it isn't that great, but he gets his point across. It's not like he's being paid to speak perfect English.
Actually I think he expresses himself pretty well, in a very philosophical and mature manner, especially after the FO loss to Soderling. If only I could be so eloquent in Spanish!
Actually I think he expresses himself pretty well, in a very philosophical and mature manner, especially after the FO loss to Soderling. If only I could be so eloquent in Spanish!
Well I can understand your point but sometimes I think we don't make enough effort to embrace another language and I think we miss an awful lot
kOaMaster
Hall of Fame
D
Deleted member 3771
Guest
If you listen to the Americans in the interviews they only use another 5-10% of Vocabulary compared to Nadal,its just that their pronunciation is standard.You'd be surprised at how few extra words they use that Nadal couldn't also use. He expresses himself much better and more naturally than many native English speakers.
I think more important than getting English perfectly right is that he speaks in a natural way that allows his thoughts to flow naturally like they do in Spanish.I agree that his broken English is part of the charm and he speaks more naturally this way as it allows his thoughts to flow more freely. If he was concerned about getting everything perfectly right like many English learners, he'd have to speak slower and more carefully and as a result it would wreck the whole easy natural thought process and flow.
But you do miss out on some extra thoughts and insight and parts of his personality if you're unable to understand his Spanish interviews.
feetofclay
Semi-Pro
Well said. Journalist Abigail Lorge recentlt commented in an article that Nadal is impressive in his native tongue, thoughtful, serious , articulate.
no, b/c gulbis isn't #1 in the world.
theduh
Semi-Pro
Okay if you think that it is necessary for me to answer your previous post I will humor you.
And I gave you reasons why he needs to improve his English. Again I'm not saying that his English is so terrible that I would rather [/QUOTE]watch paint dry. He can hold his own during awarding ceremonies and the thing that he said to Roger during the AO finals is one of his best speech I've ever heard, but his interviews are a bit boring.
For once try reading educational materials http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_language#Twentieth_century
I'm pulling this crap? again read the same material http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_language#Twentieth_century tell me how a German company and a Japanese company do business? What they have a translator to translate everything? That would be silly if you'd ask me.
4 Years is a lot of time to practice and improve your language skills. I guess Nadal is not prioritizing that as I stated on my previous post because that's not his bread and butter.
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CanadianChic
Hall of Fame
Not even close. There is no rule that states he has to learn the language. It's obvious he tries hard to communicate and I have no problem understanding him (unlike more than a few English born English speakers on this forum).
what's not even close? are you denying that the list of spanish players i posted speaks better english than nadal? if you are then you are wrong.
CanadianChic
Hall of Fame
English is your first language correct? As for the debate, I can't be bothered. Work on yourself before you criticize others.
English is NOT the universal language (this is coming from an American)
I was going to leave this thread alone, but the assumptions behind it are wrong on so many counts that I had to de-lurk. I'm not even a Rafa fanatic- admire his tennis but not a big fan per se- yet I'm appalled at this nit-picking of his English skills, since they're totally irrelevant to his tennis. The WTF is international and tennis is an international sport, and requiring foreign players to speak fluent English is the height of arrogant imposition- it would disadvantage players like Nadal, the Russians and others by requiring them to sacrifice precious practice time on the court, to learn what is (for them) a foreign language instead. Thereby imparting an entirely unearned advantage on e.g. American players by giving them more relative practice time, compared to foreign players, since they would presumably be free of the need to learn a foreign language to that standard. Maybe this would have made sense back when Americans (or Australians) were so dominating the field, but it's arrogant now when it's European players at the top.
WRONG! I used to think this myself, and this myopia is costing American business billions of dollars! I was a monolingual English-speaker well into my 20s, and while I'd certainly love to make a living on the courts, given that I'd probably be somewhere around #300,000 in the world (if even that), I had to make a living in tech/engineering with an international focus, doing a lot of work with solar panels and other environmental-related fields.
Guess what our main international language is? It's German! My employer required rapid acquisition of the language when I was starting out, and anyone who failed to make sufficient progress in their abilities (especially written/technical German), was promptly fired- which happened even to several Ivy-League grads. (Now they just require German up-front.) Why? Because the Germans are far and away the main leaders and pioneers in this field. The best solar and wind-tech, the best efficient architecture, it all comes out of Germany and neighboring nations where German is the main tech language. Those without German skills are at a TREMENDOUS disadvantage, because they are able to access only a tiny fraction of the most valuable innovation, and in general at a costly delay- so the people who know German have early access to the best new tech, which translates into literally billions of dollars in advantage for such a high-profit field. I've been to conferences in many countries, and there's no single language for them, but German predominates above the rest. Several conferences in Russia and Eastern Europe, but even in South America, SE Asia- all in German. Even the Chinese companies are getting fluent in it, since the new Chinese homes in the growing cities need to be efficient, and German is the key language for them.
Speaking of Chinese, if any language is universal, THAT is what's becoming something like that lingua franca. By far the world's biggest market, not only the biggest language in terms of speakers alone, but an educated market to boot with a high level of innovation. While our companies don't require Chinese yet, they're increasingly encouraging Chinese skills (with pay boosts and other incentives), and although Chinese isn't at the level of German in international importance for this field, it's a value for all kinds of businesses.
Heck, even outside of int'l business- just within the good ol' USA- the companies ARE requiring Spanish. I had a contract in Arizona two years back, and conversational Spanish on the job was an absolute requirement. My colleagues in California, Florida- same thing. For historical reasons that even I'm not too well-versed in- and stretching all the way back to that USA-Mexico war- it's a treaty/statutory law requirement that public officials and coordinators in those and a couple other states be fluent in Spanish, as the original public medium used there. (Spanish was the first official language in the region, preceding English by centuries and in continuous since then, now fast increasing.) So as a result, those of us supervising the contractors and the foremen must be conversant in Spanish, for a project totally within the USA. People working in much of Louisiana or parts of northern New England need French (yes, French is official there).
As you can see, English is in no way a (let alone "the") universal language- it depends on what you do. Even within the United States other languages can be just as or more important. Overall, the "big triad" of those international languages is German, Chinese and Spanish, and for someone who wants career advancement and an international customer base, one or several of these is essential. If you don't speak any of them, you will NOT get hired. Increasingly so in this difficult economy-- remember, a lot of this economic mess we're in is a result of US national debt (whereas the Chinese and also the Germans put a bigger emphasis on high-solvency economies), and when our debt is this high, we don't get to dictate the cultural terms to the rest of the world.
You probably believe this since you've been only to the main tourist spots, and you may just not have been aware of transactions in the other languages. Once again German is critically important for international travel, and not just in Europe and Russia- hoteliers and tour operators in South America, SE Asia (esp much of Thailand and Vietnam), even regions of North America and Australia are strongly encouraged to learn the language, due to the high travel tendency of German tourists. (Some of my best conversational German practice came with an Australian hotel operator who was not a native speaker.) Japanese and (increasingly) Chinese are also in frequent use. Even French still has some importance here, far less than before but it's still a big language in North America, the Caribbean, India (southern India), SE Asia and the Indian Ocean. On occasions when I've been in Brazil or around the Japanese islands, I've even been to hotels where nobody speaks English- they have a big language of major economic importance in those places.
Again, it's all about that Big 3 Triad- German, Chinese and of course Spanish. The first two especially since they're high-tech and high-solvency, but Spanish is one of the most international languages too.
Obviously, it's good for tennis players to speak as many languages as they can, and it's nice for Nadal to know some English, but then, it'd be nice for American tennis players to speak some French and German themselves. There is Roland Garros after all, and with the proliferation of the German tournaments and the prominence of tennis players from Germany and the Swiss-German cantons (including Roger Federer himself, from Basel) that's a good language to know too.
This thing goes both ways, and we can't be making such impositions for something so international. Carolyn Bivens tried to do this for women's golf in the LPGA- apparently in a bid to disadvantage the Korean golfers who have been so dominant, since the English imposition would force the Korean women off the links and burden them with a requirement that American golfers wouldn't have in comparsion- but Bivens was practically run out of town, and the LPGA's proposal dropped. She's essentially ruined her career with that dumb move and others like it, and sorry to say, quite justifiably. There's no place for this kind of provincial attitude in international sports, flat-out. Nadal's English level is fine IMHO and I admire him for making the effort that he does, and I'd rather he devote himself to further mastering his already brilliant playing abilities than focusing so much on a language that he really doesn't need. That's why we have interpreters, and Nadal rightfully uses them.
I was going to leave this thread alone, but the assumptions behind it are wrong on so many counts that I had to de-lurk. I'm not even a Rafa fanatic- admire his tennis but not a big fan per se- yet I'm appalled at this nit-picking of his English skills, since they're totally irrelevant to his tennis. The WTF is international and tennis is an international sport, and requiring foreign players to speak fluent English is the height of arrogant imposition- it would disadvantage players like Nadal, the Russians and others by requiring them to sacrifice precious practice time on the court, to learn what is (for them) a foreign language instead. Thereby imparting an entirely unearned advantage on e.g. American players by giving them more relative practice time, compared to foreign players, since they would presumably be free of the need to learn a foreign language to that standard. Maybe this would have made sense back when Americans (or Australians) were so dominating the field, but it's arrogant now when it's European players at the top.
WRONG! I used to think this myself, and this myopia is costing American business billions of dollars! I was a monolingual English-speaker well into my 20s, and while I'd certainly love to make a living on the courts, given that I'd probably be somewhere around #300,000 in the world (if even that), I had to make a living in tech/engineering with an international focus, doing a lot of work with solar panels and other environmental-related fields.
Guess what our main international language is? It's German! My employer required rapid acquisition of the language when I was starting out, and anyone who failed to make sufficient progress in their abilities (especially written/technical German), was promptly fired- which happened even to several Ivy-League grads. (Now they just require German up-front.) Why? Because the Germans are far and away the main leaders and pioneers in this field. The best solar and wind-tech, the best efficient architecture, it all comes out of Germany and neighboring nations where German is the main tech language. Those without German skills are at a TREMENDOUS disadvantage, because they are able to access only a tiny fraction of the most valuable innovation, and in general at a costly delay- so the people who know German have early access to the best new tech, which translates into literally billions of dollars in advantage for such a high-profit field. I've been to conferences in many countries, and there's no single language for them, but German predominates above the rest. Several conferences in Russia and Eastern Europe, but even in South America, SE Asia- all in German. Even the Chinese companies are getting fluent in it, since the new Chinese homes in the growing cities need to be efficient, and German is the key language for them.
Speaking of Chinese, if any language is universal, THAT is what's becoming something like that lingua franca. By far the world's biggest market, not only the biggest language in terms of speakers alone, but an educated market to boot with a high level of innovation. While our companies don't require Chinese yet, they're increasingly encouraging Chinese skills (with pay boosts and other incentives), and although Chinese isn't at the level of German in international importance for this field, it's a value for all kinds of businesses.
Heck, even outside of int'l business- just within the good ol' USA- the companies ARE requiring Spanish. I had a contract in Arizona two years back, and conversational Spanish on the job was an absolute requirement. My colleagues in California, Florida- same thing. For historical reasons that even I'm not too well-versed in- and stretching all the way back to that USA-Mexico war- it's a treaty/statutory law requirement that public officials and coordinators in those and a couple other states be fluent in Spanish, as the original public medium used there. (Spanish was the first official language in the region, preceding English by centuries and in continuous since then, now fast increasing.) So as a result, those of us supervising the contractors and the foremen must be conversant in Spanish, for a project totally within the USA. People working in much of Louisiana or parts of northern New England need French (yes, French is official there).
As you can see, English is in no way a (let alone "the") universal language- it depends on what you do. Even within the United States other languages can be just as or more important. Overall, the "big triad" of those international languages is German, Chinese and Spanish, and for someone who wants career advancement and an international customer base, one or several of these is essential. If you don't speak any of them, you will NOT get hired. Increasingly so in this difficult economy-- remember, a lot of this economic mess we're in is a result of US national debt (whereas the Chinese and also the Germans put a bigger emphasis on high-solvency economies), and when our debt is this high, we don't get to dictate the cultural terms to the rest of the world.
You probably believe this since you've been only to the main tourist spots, and you may just not have been aware of transactions in the other languages. Once again German is critically important for international travel, and not just in Europe and Russia- hoteliers and tour operators in South America, SE Asia (esp much of Thailand and Vietnam), even regions of North America and Australia are strongly encouraged to learn the language, due to the high travel tendency of German tourists. (Some of my best conversational German practice came with an Australian hotel operator who was not a native speaker.) Japanese and (increasingly) Chinese are also in frequent use. Even French still has some importance here, far less than before but it's still a big language in North America, the Caribbean, India (southern India), SE Asia and the Indian Ocean. On occasions when I've been in Brazil or around the Japanese islands, I've even been to hotels where nobody speaks English- they have a big language of major economic importance in those places.
Again, it's all about that Big 3 Triad- German, Chinese and of course Spanish. The first two especially since they're high-tech and high-solvency, but Spanish is one of the most international languages too.
Obviously, it's good for tennis players to speak as many languages as they can, and it's nice for Nadal to know some English, but then, it'd be nice for American tennis players to speak some French and German themselves. There is Roland Garros after all, and with the proliferation of the German tournaments and the prominence of tennis players from Germany and the Swiss-German cantons (including Roger Federer himself, from Basel) that's a good language to know too.
This thing goes both ways, and we can't be making such impositions for something so international. Carolyn Bivens tried to do this for women's golf in the LPGA- apparently in a bid to disadvantage the Korean golfers who have been so dominant, since the English imposition would force the Korean women off the links and burden them with a requirement that American golfers wouldn't have in comparsion- but Bivens was practically run out of town, and the LPGA's proposal dropped. She's essentially ruined her career with that dumb move and others like it, and sorry to say, quite justifiably. There's no place for this kind of provincial attitude in international sports, flat-out. Nadal's English level is fine IMHO and I admire him for making the effort that he does, and I'd rather he devote himself to further mastering his already brilliant playing abilities than focusing so much on a language that he really doesn't need. That's why we have interpreters, and Nadal rightfully uses them.
Haha but seriously it's weird that of all players on tour Nadal has the worst english.
Dilettante
Hall of Fame
Here’s my point of view on the question:
Joseph Conrad, author or “Heart of darkness” (the novel that inspired “Apocalypse now”) is considered a milestone in English literature. He became English citizen, was in the English navy and he lived in England for many years. He was Polish. He could write in great literary English (with hard work, though) but his spoken English was “awful”, nearly unintelligible, even after all his years in England. He spoke a perfect French, though. How’s that? A guy who lived in England most of his life and was a well respected English language writer, spoke awful English but perfect French? That’s why he was educated to learn French -as a second language- in his early years. But he began learning English as a young adult and he could never speak it well. People like H.G. Wells and Virgina Woolf, who were his admirers, met him and told that his spoken English was “ugly” and “broken”. Conrad himself said that he used to think his writings in French first, and then, he translated mentally each phrase to English to write it.
In Spain, people is not acoustically educated to English. American and English movies and shows are dubbed (even when many Spaniards criticize that, but it’s a fairly old custom). Sure there are a lot of tourists, mainly English, German and French. But there’s little communication between them and Spaniards. Italian tourists are more communicative, but they learn some Spanish, which is VERY similar to Italian. They can even say stuff in Italian and many times you can understand them because there are so many similar words and sentences. But an Italian will NEVER use English to speak to a Spaniard.
So most people in Spain don’t speak good English; many don’t speak English at all. You do fairly well in Spain knowing only Spanish, so not many people here feel the need of learning English (or any other language) properly. The dubbed movies have a lot to do with it, too, as I said before. I try to watch as many subtitled movies and shows as I can; some Spaniards do it, many other don’t (or don’t care about that).
So you have Nadal: a very familiar guy (which is common in Spain), who has a close circle of relative and friends where he speaks Spanish and Majorcan. His girlfriend she’s a Majorcan too. As many Spaniards, he didn’t watch many subtitled English speaking movies or shows. He even didn’t go to a tennis academy to meet foreign players and begin with his English. Living in Spain, he didn’t need to move anywhere else to train and become good at tennis. He became a wealthy pro, but he was wealthy before, so he didn’t change his ways. He doesn’t go to Hollywood parties and he doesn’t hang around with Antonio Banderas or Penelope Cruz or Enrique freakin’ Iglesias or someone like that. He goes back to Majorca to hang out with his old friends and go fishing.
He only speaks English on tour, especially on press conferences. I guess that’s not practice enough to become a fluent English speaker. I guess he doesn’t like to study English in his own time, he prefers playing videogames with other Spanish and Argentine pros or whatever. He doesn’t go after Ivanovics like Verdasco (I would, but that’s me.. I guess Nadal is not that kind of guy). He’s not into a tennis academy business and PR stuff like Ferrero. He’s not a mundane guy like Moya or Corretja. He has not to learn English to speak to coach, trainers, etc as most pros from many countries have to. His coach is his uncle. And there’s not any kind of tennis first class trainer/doctor you won’t find in Spain in case Nadal wants to speak fluently to them.
Press conferences are the only reason in the world for Nadal to learn English and he don’t even like conferences that much. I think he wants to win and be great in tennis but doesn’t care about fame. More fame = more money, but he’s not wealth ambitious and he comes from a wealthy family already, he never felt the need of make social progress before. His other uncle was a big sports star in Spain too. He knows that stuff since being a kid. And his hobbies are not thaaaat expensive. Maybe not exactly cheap when talking about golf, but geez, living in Majorca anyone could go fishing if he really wants to and everyone you know has got a PlayStation, right?
Being the kind of guy he is and having the kind of family/friends and the mentality he has, I’m not surprised he’s bad at English. It’s not I’m trying to defend him, I’m just giving you my POV. I admit I understand him: I didn’t came from a wealthy family at all, but never had the need of speaking English and I try to learn it just because I like it. But I can do perfectly fine without English here in Spain. If a was a pro, I would suck as much as him in English press conferences. I practice my English just because I enjoy it. He doesn’t.
All of this should give you the picture I hope.
Joseph Conrad, author or “Heart of darkness” (the novel that inspired “Apocalypse now”) is considered a milestone in English literature. He became English citizen, was in the English navy and he lived in England for many years. He was Polish. He could write in great literary English (with hard work, though) but his spoken English was “awful”, nearly unintelligible, even after all his years in England. He spoke a perfect French, though. How’s that? A guy who lived in England most of his life and was a well respected English language writer, spoke awful English but perfect French? That’s why he was educated to learn French -as a second language- in his early years. But he began learning English as a young adult and he could never speak it well. People like H.G. Wells and Virgina Woolf, who were his admirers, met him and told that his spoken English was “ugly” and “broken”. Conrad himself said that he used to think his writings in French first, and then, he translated mentally each phrase to English to write it.
In Spain, people is not acoustically educated to English. American and English movies and shows are dubbed (even when many Spaniards criticize that, but it’s a fairly old custom). Sure there are a lot of tourists, mainly English, German and French. But there’s little communication between them and Spaniards. Italian tourists are more communicative, but they learn some Spanish, which is VERY similar to Italian. They can even say stuff in Italian and many times you can understand them because there are so many similar words and sentences. But an Italian will NEVER use English to speak to a Spaniard.
So most people in Spain don’t speak good English; many don’t speak English at all. You do fairly well in Spain knowing only Spanish, so not many people here feel the need of learning English (or any other language) properly. The dubbed movies have a lot to do with it, too, as I said before. I try to watch as many subtitled movies and shows as I can; some Spaniards do it, many other don’t (or don’t care about that).
So you have Nadal: a very familiar guy (which is common in Spain), who has a close circle of relative and friends where he speaks Spanish and Majorcan. His girlfriend she’s a Majorcan too. As many Spaniards, he didn’t watch many subtitled English speaking movies or shows. He even didn’t go to a tennis academy to meet foreign players and begin with his English. Living in Spain, he didn’t need to move anywhere else to train and become good at tennis. He became a wealthy pro, but he was wealthy before, so he didn’t change his ways. He doesn’t go to Hollywood parties and he doesn’t hang around with Antonio Banderas or Penelope Cruz or Enrique freakin’ Iglesias or someone like that. He goes back to Majorca to hang out with his old friends and go fishing.
He only speaks English on tour, especially on press conferences. I guess that’s not practice enough to become a fluent English speaker. I guess he doesn’t like to study English in his own time, he prefers playing videogames with other Spanish and Argentine pros or whatever. He doesn’t go after Ivanovics like Verdasco (I would, but that’s me.. I guess Nadal is not that kind of guy). He’s not into a tennis academy business and PR stuff like Ferrero. He’s not a mundane guy like Moya or Corretja. He has not to learn English to speak to coach, trainers, etc as most pros from many countries have to. His coach is his uncle. And there’s not any kind of tennis first class trainer/doctor you won’t find in Spain in case Nadal wants to speak fluently to them.
Press conferences are the only reason in the world for Nadal to learn English and he don’t even like conferences that much. I think he wants to win and be great in tennis but doesn’t care about fame. More fame = more money, but he’s not wealth ambitious and he comes from a wealthy family already, he never felt the need of make social progress before. His other uncle was a big sports star in Spain too. He knows that stuff since being a kid. And his hobbies are not thaaaat expensive. Maybe not exactly cheap when talking about golf, but geez, living in Majorca anyone could go fishing if he really wants to and everyone you know has got a PlayStation, right?
Being the kind of guy he is and having the kind of family/friends and the mentality he has, I’m not surprised he’s bad at English. It’s not I’m trying to defend him, I’m just giving you my POV. I admit I understand him: I didn’t came from a wealthy family at all, but never had the need of speaking English and I try to learn it just because I like it. But I can do perfectly fine without English here in Spain. If a was a pro, I would suck as much as him in English press conferences. I practice my English just because I enjoy it. He doesn’t.
All of this should give you the picture I hope.
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Cesc Fabregas
Legend
Brilliant post!!!
thetheorist
New User
some people in this thread are so defensive. i think the point is that it's weird that such a top player would have a relatively less good english even compared to his lower-ranked compatriots. so these "just focus on his tennis" "he doesn't need to master english" is just being preachy and dodging the point. anyway doesn't he have a publicist and image manager to help in this? don't get me wrong, i don't think it's necessary for him to improve his english, though it'll be good if he does.
meanwhile, others like theduh are too offensive, nitpicking here and there and taking such a small matter too seriously, hiding behind this english-speaking issue just to bash rafa.
meanwhile, others like theduh are too offensive, nitpicking here and there and taking such a small matter too seriously, hiding behind this english-speaking issue just to bash rafa.
thetheorist
New User
great post Dilettante
thread over guys. move along, move along.
thread over guys. move along, move along.
~ZoSo~
Semi-Pro
this subject of nadals poor english is often thrown up to emphasise fed's supposed superior intelligence given his proficiancy in ... 4 languages is it?
while fed may be highly intelligent, imo the fact that he speaks 4 languages does nothing to prove this.
it seems likely to me that most people who grew up in the same areas as fed would have just the same language skills.
not to be a troll - he may be hugely intelligent - i just dont buy the languages theory as an indicator
while fed may be highly intelligent, imo the fact that he speaks 4 languages does nothing to prove this.
it seems likely to me that most people who grew up in the same areas as fed would have just the same language skills.
not to be a troll - he may be hugely intelligent - i just dont buy the languages theory as an indicator
King_Grass
Banned
He still has millions of fans...guess why?? because he lets his tennis do the talking...
chess9
Hall of Fame
Why does it matter? He speaks volumes on the tennis court!
You do realize your question makes you sound like a provincial bonehead?
-Robert
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