why is nadal's english so poor?

[pmerk34]

Why does it matter? He speaks volumes on the tennis court!

You do realize your question makes you sound like a provincial bonehead?

-Robert

It's a legit question.

 

[ET Brit]

Why does it matter? He speaks volumes on the tennis court!

You do realize your question makes you sound like a provincial bonehead?

-Robert

Excellent observation Robert. And btw, do you happen to know if eggheads are all they are cracked up to be?

Latest studies report that staring at awesome muscles affects the viewers hearing, so I can't comment on the standard of spoken English in this instance.

ET Brit

 

[chess9]

Excellent observation Robert. And btw, do you happen to know if eggheads are all they are cracked up to be?

Latest studies report that staring at awesome muscles affects the viewers hearing, so I can't comment on the standard of spoken English in this instance.

ET Brit

Yolk, yolk, yolk!

Staring is not polite, ET, even at Rafa! You have to do it surreptitiously. A cautious glance, etc. And salivating while staring is a big no-no!

-Robert

 

[severus]

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.

Hmmm.... Your english is better than Nadals. How is that ? And other spanish players have better english than Nadal as well. Explain this ?

 

[latinking]

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.

Nice post.....

 

[MichaelNadal]

Whats wrong with his english besides his accent?

 

[latinking]

Whats wrong with his english besides his accent?

Nothing........

 

[drive]

Maybe Nadal read this post and that's the reason why he isn't playing tennis at the moment.

I'm also an spaniard and Dilettante's post described the situation perfectly. In spain the people aren't so much interested in learning English. Unfortunately the english language subject that we do in school is a joke and we pass the exams having a very low english level. For an spanish native speaker english is easy because of its grammar but damn hard to understand when speaking with a native english speaker because of the wide range of vocalic sounds. I learn english because i like it and i think it's a great way to communicate with people around the world. I'm going to london within three weeks to try to improve my language skills!

 

[chess9]

Nothing........

Exactly. This is a transparent attempt to either bash Rafa, bash the Spanish, or bash non-English speakers. He's a wonderful human being with some awesome skills. Why he doesn't sound like an Oxford don is irrelevant. Oh, and thankfully he doesn't!

-Robert

 

[MichaelNadal]

Nothing........

Lol thats what I was thinking... last time I checked if you can get through the accent he pretty much knows what he is talking about.

 

[ET Brit]

Whats wrong with his english besides his accent?

I doubt very much whether Nadal would wish to emulate the British accents of the drunken visitors to Majorca from the UK. :shock:

His manner is polite, he smiles and he is comprehensible. And ...... he plays beautiful tennis. Who can ask for anything more?

ET Brit

Rafa rules - OK

 

[severus]

Nothing........

Accent is the most important thing.:twisted:

 

[Dilettante]

Hmmm.... Your english is better than Nadals. How is that ? And other spanish players have better english than Nadal as well. Explain this ?

You are READING me. But I have a totally Nadalesque accent and a Nadalesque broken speech. Also, it's easier to write (I can think twice, take pauses, and even that way I make a lot of mistakes) than to talk.

Other Spanish players have better English than him because someone among them had to be the worst at English and he happened to be Nadal. He didin't start young enough to learn English, he doesn't seem to have much genuine interest in studying and maybe he just have less abilities to learn idioms than others. Son people can play piano, some others not.

Maybe I know a bit more English than Nadal, but maybe I put more effort on it. I try to watch subtitled shows and movies, I try to read lyrics from English spoken songs that I like, I come here and read this forum and try to express my opinions.

And even doing all this, some English speaking people that use to work with me say that my spoken English is "horrible". It's hard to master a foreign speech when you start old and you still live in your own country. Nadal travels a lot, but don't forget he's sorrounded by Spaniards all the time. Maybe Nadal and me just are not good at idioms.

 

[rod99]

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.

thank you. it wasn't necessarily a criticism, it was just a curious question. it's just interesting that the #1 player in the world speaks less english than the rest of the top 30. nothing more, nothing less. geez.....

 

[nikdom]

thank you. it wasn't necessarily a criticism, it was just a curious question. it's just interesting that the #1 player in the world speaks less english than the rest of the top 30. nothing more, nothing less. geez.....

Really? How did you come to this conclusion? Have you compared every single player that is a non-native English speaker and who did not receive their primary education in English? Where is the objective basis for this statement?


Seems to me more like a vague supposition that gets a conversation going (headed towards bickering) than a genuine curiosity.

 

[rod99]

Really? How did you come to this conclusion? Have you compared every single player that is a non-native English speaker and who did not receive their primary education in English? Where is the objective basis for this statement?


Seems to me more like a vague supposition that gets a conversation going (headed towards bickering) than a genuine curiosity.

it's not vague at all. i've heard all of the top 30-40 players speak at some point. and other than davydenko, nadal's english is the poorest. not a criticism, just an observation (before someone again jumps down my throat).

 

[Rippy]

Exactly. This is a transparent attempt to either bash Rafa, bash the Spanish, or bash non-English speakers. He's a wonderful human being with some awesome skills. Why he doesn't sound like an Oxford don is irrelevant. Oh, and thankfully he doesn't!

-Robert

Nobody's saying Nadal doesn't have good skills or that he's rubbish at tennis... they're just saying his English isn't great. It's a fair observation.

 

[nikdom]

it's not vague at all. i've heard all of the top 30-40 players speak at some point. and other than davydenko, nadal's english is the poorest. not a criticism, just an observation (before someone again jumps down my throat).

Have you heard Juan Martin Del Potro speak? He's top 5 and nowhere near a good English speaker.

More importantly, why is this curious at all to you? Someone who is born into an English-speaking family or receives their education in English or spends time with English speaking people is bound to be not so good at the language. Some more so than others. What's so curious about it?

 

[henryshli]

let's face it Nadal isn't the sharpest one on tour......in fact he isn't the sharpest one anywhere.

 

[hankash]

Most Spanish people cannot speak good English. Most English people cannot speak good Spanish. It's not his native language, and maybe he doesn't really care to learn it. If I lived in Spain and was enjoying my life, I could probably care less about learning English.

 

[rod99]

Have you heard Juan Martin Del Potro speak? He's top 5 and nowhere near a good English speaker.

More importantly, why is this curious at all to you? Someone who is born into an English-speaking family or receives their education in English or spends time with English speaking people is bound to be not so good at the language. Some more so than others. What's so curious about it?

yes i have heard del potro speak. his voice is very low but his english is better than nadal's.

 

[rod99]

Most Spanish people cannot speak good English. Most English people cannot speak good Spanish. It's not his native language, and maybe he doesn't really care to learn it. If I lived in Spain and was enjoying my life, I could probably care less about learning English.

true, but if i was a top tennis player in the world then i'd work my butt off to improve on it. but maybe that's just me. it seems to have worked for all the other spanish players.

 

[Seany]

 

[OddJack]

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.

Nice try, but sorry. Bloney.

Did Joseph Conrad traveled the world constantly whole year round? Did he have to give interviews almost every week? Did he have to improve his image for his business? Do they teach English in serbia or does serbia get more tourists than spain? And why Djoker speaks English so well? Did you know Tommy Robredo speaks French as well as English? Is he from the same coutnry that nobody cares about English?

All you gathered here are bunch of excuses. Movies? thanks for the laugh dude.

 

[pmerk34]

Nice try, but sorry. Bloney.

Did Joseph Conrad traveled the world constantly whole year round? Did he have to give interviews almost every week? Did he have to improve his image for his business? Do they teach English in serbia or does serbia get more tourists than spain? And why Djoker speaks English so well? Did you know Tommy Robredo speaks French as well as English? Is he from the same coutnry that nobody cares about English?

All you gathered here are bunch of excuses. Movies? thanks for the laugh dude.

It's be nice to get more out of him than " Roger....you are great champions...you will win French one day..."

 

[OddJack]

It's be nice to get more out of him than " Roger....you are great champions...you will win French one day..."

You got to be from spain... watch more movies buddy.

 

[pmerk34]

You got to be from spain... watch more movies buddy.

LOL "Sorry, Roger"

 

[Dilettante]

Did Joseph Conrad traveled the world constantly whole year round?

Well... in fact, yes. He was a sailor, dude.

Did he have to give interviews almost every week?

No, but he had to live in a ship with English people and he had to speak in English for years. In a ship. No mobile phone to call your family back on those days.

Did he have to improve his image for his business?

Yes, back then they didn't make captain of an English ship just anyone. And they made Conrad captain, and his English was awful. But other than that he was a respected, educated, disciplined man, who sailors could respect as a captain. Yes, he had to get an image to become captain without speaking well the ship's language

Do they teach English in serbia or does serbia get more tourists than spain? And why Djoker speaks English so well?

Spain gets more tourists I know that from some statistics, but other than that don't know about Serbia. Do all the Serbians speak English? It wouldn't surprise me. It happens in some countries, like Sweden I think. If that's the fact, good for Serbians.

Did you know Tommy Robredo speaks French as well as English? Is he from the same coutnry that nobody cares about English?

Yes he is.

Most people in Spain speaks English as bad as Nadal. And forget about French. Tommy Robredo proves nothing. I'm from Spain dude. Don't know about Serbia but I know about Spain.

Movies? thanks for the laugh dude.

You're welcome.

But believe me, HEARING a language is the way to be used to the way it sounds and the way it's pronounced. It helps a lot to start with it. Specially for people that didn't studied it or don't have any particular interest in it.

All you gathered here are bunch of excuses.

Excuses??? Excuses for what? Does Nadal have an obligation to speak English? Where do you think you live, in the freakin Roman Empire?

Nadal is from Spain and he speaks Spanish. Get over it.

 

[FedFan_2009]

I'm not offended that Nadal's English is poor. However, it will affect his earning potential. That is a fact. Do you honestly think that if Federer didn't speak such good English, that he'd be pulling in $30 million a year in contracts?

 

[FiveO]

Depends on one's perspective, I guess.

My grasp of Spanish is pretty much limited to:

1) ordering a cold beer

and/or

2) asking Isabelle where the library is.

5

 

[Dilettante]

Depends on one's perspective, I guess.

My grasp of Spanish is pretty much limited to:

1) ordering a cold beer

What more do you need? Seriously.

 

[FiveO]

What more do you need? Seriously.

Valid point.:wink:

5

 

[Mick]

probably because most his friends and acquaintances speak spanish so he doesn't communicate in english much until it's time to do the interviews for the english speaking press.

 

[pmerk34]

probably because most his friends and acquaintances speak spanish so he doesn't communicate in english much until it's time to do the interviews for the english speaking press.

The English speaking press is huge.

 

[jms007]

If we are all to truely speak the universal language, we should be speaking Chinese because it's the biggest in the universe. Which is why UK schools have already brought in basic Chinese to school.

"Chinese" is not universal because the majority of people who speak it live in one country. It might be the biggest going purely by amount of people, but I think even that is debatable. There are plenty of people who can communicate in basic english but don't necessarely qualify as fluent english speakers.

 

[OddJack]

Well... in fact, yes. He was a sailor, dude.



No, but he had to live in a ship with English people and he had to speak in English for years. In a ship. No mobile phone to call your family back on those days.



Yes, back then they didn't make captain of an English ship just anyone. And they made Conrad captain, and his English was awful. But other than that he was a respected, educated, disciplined man, who sailors could respect as a captain. Yes, he had to get an image to become captain without speaking well the ship's language



Spain gets more tourists I know that from some statistics, but other than that don't know about Serbia. Do all the Serbians speak English? It wouldn't surprise me. It happens in some countries, like Sweden I think. If that's the fact, good for Serbians.



Yes he is.

Most people in Spain speaks English as bad as Nadal. And forget about French. Tommy Robredo proves nothing. I'm from Spain dude. Don't know about Serbia but I know about Spain.



You're welcome.

But believe me, HEARING a language is the way to be used to the way it sounds and the way it's pronounced. It helps a lot to start with it. Specially for people that didn't studied it or don't have any particular interest in it.



Excuses??? Excuses for what? Does Nadal have an obligation to speak English? Where do you think you live, in the freakin Roman Empire?

Nadal is from Spain and he speaks Spanish. Get over it.

Exuses for not taking the time to learn English which is the language spoken on 3 of the four majors and many other tournaments.

From your response dogmatism and nationalism is obvious..." hey I am spanish so spanish only, get it?.." sorry dude, this is the laziest approach. A player as high profile as Nadal should know better.
At least you could come up with better excuses than movies,
You want to know why he doesnt speak good English? because he is more about brawn than brain. He spends more time body building and spends no time behind the computer or learning anything outside the gym.
Have you ever seen him post video messages during a tournament for his fans the way Federer does? No. Just go and compare their facebook pages.

Instead of defending your hero and ridiculous excuses like movies and tourists, just say he doesnt care, he is not the type to bother about those type of things. That would make more sense, and it's probably true.

 

[OddJack]

Well... in fact, yes. He was a sailor, dude.

Dude, sailors can speak English. Would he be a better sailor if he did speak English?

No, but he had to live in a ship with English people and he had to speak in English for years. In a ship. No mobile phone to call your family back on those days.

So what? You're saying because Joseph Conrad was successful at something and had poor English skills it's ok for others not to improve theirs?
funny logic

[Yes, back then they didn't make captain of an English ship just anyone. And they made Conrad captain, and his English was awful. But other than that he was a respected, educated, disciplined man, who sailors could respect as a captain. Yes, he had to get an image to become captain without speaking well the ship's language

Ok, so what if on those days Mr Conrad was to appear on TV screens around the world? Would it helped him if he spoke good English? Would it improve his image?

Spain gets more tourists I know that from some statistics, but other than that don't know about Serbia. Do all the Serbians speak English? It wouldn't surprise me. It happens in some countries, like Sweden I think. If that's the fact, good for Serbians.

No sir, all Serbians do not speak English. Djoker does because he learned how to.



.

Most people in Spain speaks English as bad as Nadal. And forget about French. Tommy Robredo proves nothing. I'm from Spain dude. Don't know about Serbia but I know about Spain.

Most people in spain are not top 100 tennis players and they dont give interviews.

 

[chess9]

Rafa has no obligation to the English speaking world, regardless of his ranking. To suggest otherwise is simply a form of provincialism. The dominant language is always changing, but, thankfully, we have a veritable popourrie of languages worldwide. Everyone isn't a polyglot, and few need to be.

Why would anyone care whether Rafa spoke 5 languages fluently or one? Only the French and the Americans have such provincial attitudes!

-Robert

 

[FedFan_2009]

Rafa has no obligation to the English speaking world, regardless of his ranking. To suggest otherwise is simply a form of provincialism. The dominant language is always changing, but, thankfully, we have a veritable popourrie of languages worldwide. Everyone isn't a polyglot, and few need to be.

Why would anyone care whether Rafa spoke 5 languages fluently or one? Only the French and the Americans have such provincial attitudes!

-Robert

So Federer speaking 4 languages isn't a positive trait? Nadal not even speaking 2 languages ok for a world-class player whose job is to help build tennis up?

 

[chess9]

So Federer speaking 4 languages isn't a positive trait? Nadal not even speaking 2 languages ok for a world-class player whose job is to help build tennis up?

I wouldn't say it's not a positive trait.

Rafa and Fed have entirely different agendas off the court, I'm sure. Rafa is happy sitting in a boat with his fishing pole for hours on end. I can't imagine Fed doing that. Viva la difference!

Why should I have expectations for what Rafa should be? That's a very time consuming and ill advised approach to life, eh? Everyone on this board is better off getting their own lives straight, and quit worrying about what Rafa is or isn't doing, or whether Serena ate two cheesburgers rather than three.

This board comes across as very harsh and unkind to many of the pro players, and I'll bet most posters wouldn't be happy getting the same scrutiny.

And you know what they say about those dogs who bark the loudest?

-Robert

 

[clayman2000]

So Federer speaking 4 languages isn't a positive trait? Nadal not even speaking 2 languages ok for a world-class player whose job is to help build tennis up?

Ignorant fool.... Fed speaks 4 languages because they learn at least 3 in school. If your an American who learns 1 language in school you have no right to bash Rafa.

And also Nadal speaks Spanish, and Catalan fluently, and speaks english, italian enough to hold a conversation.... I live in Canada, one of the worlds most multicultural nations and the only language ive learned outside Enlgish is latin, and that was for school credit.... im jelous of Rafa

 

[Boriz]

All you gathered here are bunch of excuses. Movies? thanks for the laugh dude.

Excuses for what? Dilettante is 100% correct in his post-- Rafael Nadal has no obligation whatsoever to learn, or to speak English. His job is to be the very best tennis player he can be, and to devote himself full-time to that. And he (along with Fed) is indeed the very best in the world, so he has nothing to apologize for. If he wants to learn some foreign languages on top of that, kudos to him, but by no means must he be forced to learn or use English. If he wants to focus on improving his Catalan (a foreign language he already does speak), great. If he prefers French (the language of Roland Garros, and a Romance language like Spanish), fine. If he prefers German (increasingly the main European language esp. for tech and business, as even many of us Americans in the tech biz quickly learn), then more power to him. Maybe Chinese is more up his alley-- China, after all, being the country with the most rapid growth in tennis interest!

It's a distinctly myopic American trait (among some Americans, fortunately not all) to think that a person is somehow less than accomplished if they don't speak English (and American English at that, given the amount of friction I've seen even between Americans and Britons about things like vocabulary and spelling). There isn't anything terrifically special about English compared to other languages. It may be the world's most important trade language at this particular point in history, but a century before it was French, or Italian, Latin, Greek, German in the universities-- there have been many lingua francas before. And given the way we're sinking into debt these days, English won't be the world's main language much longer, Chinese will almost certainly be taking up that mantle soon. (Already in countries like Korea or even in S. America, schools are dumping English as the main foreign language and focusing more on Chinese, or occasionally German.) As I said before-- we are basically in hock to countries like Japan and China to the tune of trillions of dollars, and in that situation, we are in no position to go dictating cultural terms to the rest of the world.

Obviously as a native English-speaker I love my own native language and what I can do with it, and just as obviously given the language's geographical importance and value in business, English will remain a global language indefinitely-- even if, as seems increasingly likely, it takes on a secondary role to other world languages.

At the same time, I recognize that others feel the same way about their native languages as well, and what they can do with them. And particularly when it comes to native-speakers of languages like Spanish, German, Chinese, French, Hindi, Korean and Japanese-- all with very high-culture literary traditions, importance as vehicles in philosophy and technology, and often a widespread geographical reach (i.e., the things that make languages economically important)-- there's even less of a rationale for them to obsess on the minutiae of English. They already speak a global language to begin with, and can express complex concepts and ideas within them and attract an international audience. People in general should speak several foreign languages, but it doesn't absolutely have to be (American) English. If they're more into Chinese, or German, Spanish or Hindi for example, that's fine-- there's a perfectly valid economic and cultural rationale for doing so.

Do they teach English in serbia or does serbia get more tourists than spain? And why Djoker speaks English so well?

And have you stopped to notice that this is a TENNIS blog? Of Djokovic and Nadal, who's the better tennis player? Djokovic may speak better English than Rafa does, but Nadal towers over Djokovic where it counts, because Nadal is a far, far better tennis player. Perhaps in part, because Nadal has focused far more on practicing (and improving) his tennis than mastering the fine points of English, which he really doesn't need. One could argue that maybe Djokovic has if anything hurt himself by worrying too much about his English and less about his tennis. I personally doubt this, but considering the way Tommy Haas demolished Djokovic at Wimbledon, clearly Djoko is off his game and he needs to make some tweaks.

Did you know Tommy Robredo speaks French as well as English? Is he from the same coutnry that nobody cares about English?

Once again, which Spaniard-- Robredo or Nadal-- is the better tennis player, with a whole shelf's worth of Grand Slam trophies? I have nothing against Robredo and admire him (both for his tennis and his foreign-language abilities), but clearly whatever Nadal is doing, it's working brilliantly for him, and he should keep it up. It would be the height of stupidity to disadvantage himself by spending countless hours at this point, learning English (which he doesn't need) when he's better off improving his already-brilliant on-court skills.

Again, just like the LPGA fiasco, it's the height of arrogance to arbitrarily demand that a tennis player speak English and English specifically, which would afford a totally unearned competitive advantage on American and Australian players. If we're going to draw up arbitrary language requirements for tennis players, then we'd have to do something equitable like requiring that all players speak 2 or 3 languages but without specifying which ones. Otherwise, it's just like Carolyn Bivens publicly humiliating herself with an arbitrary and ridiculous regulation that was transparently designed to hurt the South Korean golfers who, gosh darn it, were just overachieving so much in those tournaments as opposed to red-blooded Mericuns. She was rightfully denounced for trying to push something that would have selectively disadvantaged the Koreans in an international tournament. It's the same with tennis, and to the extent that Rafa needs to speak to non-Spanish audiences, that's what we have interpreters for.

 

[Boriz]

"Chinese" is not universal because the majority of people who speak it live in one country. It might be the biggest going purely by amount of people, but I think even that is debatable. There are plenty of people who can communicate in basic english but don't necessarely qualify as fluent english speakers.

And this differs how, exactly, from English? The vast majority of first-language English-speakers reside in the USA-- roughly 250 million (depending on the specific estimate) of our 300 million or so population. This dwarfs the populations of Britain, Australia and Canada combined. English is not widely spoken at all in India-- at most 5% of the pop. has even basic ability in it, and it's rarely used as a first language anywhere there. Hindi is the most widely-spoken language, though Tamil and Telugu predominate in the south. (Even there, in contrast to 30 years ago, a sort of basic "Mumbai Hindi" is popular as I found out there a few years ago.)

And Chinese is spoken not only by well in excess of 1 billion people in China, but also in Malaysia, Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines, and growing as a second language in the rest of Asia, S. America, even in Europe. So it's not only by far the world's most-spoken first language (sorry, but this is not in dispute in any reputable source), but (along with German) among the fastest-growing second languages and also among the most economically important. So yes, when it comes to "universal languages," Chinese is right up there.

 

[vive le beau jeu !]

wow, many of you are quite harsh with him.
don't be so demanding, the poor kid is doing his best.

 

[Boriz]

I wouldn't say it's not a positive trait.

Rafa and Fed have entirely different agendas off the court, I'm sure. Rafa is happy sitting in a boat with his fishing pole for hours on end. I can't imagine Fed doing that. Viva la difference!

Why should I have expectations for what Rafa should be? That's a very time consuming and ill advised approach to life, eh? Everyone on this board is better off getting their own lives straight, and quit worrying about what Rafa is or isn't doing, or whether Serena ate two cheesburgers rather than three.

This board comes across as very harsh and unkind to many of the pro players, and I'll bet most posters wouldn't be happy getting the same scrutiny.

And you know what they say about those dogs who bark the loudest?

-Robert

Amen to all that, different strokes for different folks. Rafa's priority is other things besides English-learning, and he has every right to be the way he is. Just live and let live, and stop idiotically disparaging Nadal for some arbitrary (and thoroughly ridiculous) assumption that he should speak English better. And I say this as a Fed fan.

 

[Boriz]

wow, many of you are quite harsh with him.
don't be so demanding, the poor kid is doing his best.

Don't worry about the Rafa-haters on here-- Rafael's deservedly laughing at their tirades about totally irrelevant matters (like Rafa's perceived English ability), since Nadal's already had the last laugh. He'll be enjoying his 6 Grand Slam titles, his Olympic Gold medal, and his historic greatness (probably in his native Spanish and rightfully so) while the English fanatics here continue to spout impotently about a character trait that has absolutely nothing to do with Rafa's tennis, and which 99.999% of the world's population (whatever our first language) couldn't care less about.

Again, I say this as a Fed fan who enjoys magnificent tennis, and is highly grateful for what both Federer and Nadal have brought to our sport, and how they've enriched it.

 

[Boriz]

Rafa has no obligation to the English speaking world, regardless of his ranking. To suggest otherwise is simply a form of provincialism. The dominant language is always changing, but, thankfully, we have a veritable popourrie of languages worldwide.
-Robert

Another excellent post, probably the three most important "sum-up" sentences in this entire forum.

 

[LoveFifteen]

Maybe because he isn't the most gifted when it comes to languages?

 

[pmerk34]

Excuses for what? Dilettante is 100% correct in his post-- Rafael Nadal has no obligation whatsoever to learn, or to speak English. His job is to be the very best tennis player he can be, and to devote himself full-time to that. And he (along with Fed) is indeed the very best in the world, so he has nothing to apologize for. If he wants to learn some foreign languages on top of that, kudos to him, but by no means must he be forced to learn or use English. If he wants to focus on improving his Catalan (a foreign language he already does speak), great. If he prefers French (the language of Roland Garros, and a Romance language like Spanish), fine. If he prefers German (increasingly the main European language esp. for tech and business, as even many of us Americans in the tech biz quickly learn), then more power to him. Maybe Chinese is more up his alley-- China, after all, being the country with the most rapid growth in tennis interest!

It's a distinctly myopic American trait (among some Americans, fortunately not all) to think that a person is somehow less than accomplished if they don't speak English (and American English at that, given the amount of friction I've seen even between Americans and Britons about things like vocabulary and spelling). There isn't anything terrifically special about English compared to other languages. It may be the world's most important trade language at this particular point in history, but a century before it was French, or Italian, Latin, Greek, German in the universities-- there have been many lingua francas before. And given the way we're sinking into debt these days, English won't be the world's main language much longer, Chinese will almost certainly be taking up that mantle soon. (Already in countries like Korea or even in S. America, schools are dumping English as the main foreign language and focusing more on Chinese, or occasionally German.) As I said before-- we are basically in hock to countries like Japan and China to the tune of trillions of dollars, and in that situation, we are in no position to go dictating cultural terms to the rest of the world.

Obviously as a native English-speaker I love my own native language and what I can do with it, and just as obviously given the language's geographical importance and value in business, English will remain a global language indefinitely-- even if, as seems increasingly likely, it takes on a secondary role to other world languages.

At the same time, I recognize that others feel the same way about their native languages as well, and what they can do with them. And particularly when it comes to native-speakers of languages like Spanish, German, Chinese, French, Hindi, Korean and Japanese-- all with very high-culture literary traditions, importance as vehicles in philosophy and technology, and often a widespread geographical reach (i.e., the things that make languages economically important)-- there's even less of a rationale for them to obsess on the minutiae of English. They already speak a global language to begin with, and can express complex concepts and ideas within them and attract an international audience. People in general should speak several foreign languages, but it doesn't absolutely have to be (American) English. If they're more into Chinese, or German, Spanish or Hindi for example, that's fine-- there's a perfectly valid economic and cultural rationale for doing so.



And have you stopped to notice that this is a TENNIS blog? Of Djokovic and Nadal, who's the better tennis player? Djokovic may speak better English than Rafa does, but Nadal towers over Djokovic where it counts, because Nadal is a far, far better tennis player. Perhaps in part, because Nadal has focused far more on practicing (and improving) his tennis than mastering the fine points of English, which he really doesn't need. One could argue that maybe Djokovic has if anything hurt himself by worrying too much about his English and less about his tennis. I personally doubt this, but considering the way Tommy Haas demolished Djokovic at Wimbledon, clearly Djoko is off his game and he needs to make some tweaks.




Once again, which Spaniard-- Robredo or Nadal-- is the better tennis player, with a whole shelf's worth of Grand Slam trophies? I have nothing against Robredo and admire him (both for his tennis and his foreign-language abilities), but clearly whatever Nadal is doing, it's working brilliantly for him, and he should keep it up. It would be the height of stupidity to disadvantage himself by spending countless hours at this point, learning English (which he doesn't need) when he's better off improving his already-brilliant on-court skills.

Again, just like the LPGA fiasco, it's the height of arrogance to arbitrarily demand that a tennis player speak English and English specifically, which would afford a totally unearned competitive advantage on American and Australian players. If we're going to draw up arbitrary language requirements for tennis players, then we'd have to do something equitable like requiring that all players speak 2 or 3 languages but without specifying which ones. Otherwise, it's just like Carolyn Bivens publicly humiliating herself with an arbitrary and ridiculous regulation that was transparently designed to hurt the South Korean golfers who, gosh darn it, were just overachieving so much in those tournaments as opposed to red-blooded Mericuns. She was rightfully denounced for trying to push something that would have selectively disadvantaged the Koreans in an international tournament. It's the same with tennis, and to the extent that Rafa needs to speak to non-Spanish audiences, that's what we have interpreters for.

As a new user your post is pure rubbish.

 

[pound cat]

Not everyone is a linguistics wizzard...
And him living in Mallorca wouldn't be much of a factor... do you know how many English (and German) people visit that island each year?

English and Gremans speak to each other, not to the Mallorcans. BTW, how many English people speak a foreign language?

About as many as do in the USA,

And why would Nadal want to speak German?

Considering 2nd language acquisition is extremely difficult for an adult, Nadal speaks pretty well.