When Does Speaking a Foreign Language Get a Candidate in Trouble?

[homasse]

When Does Speaking a Foreign Language Get a Candidate in Trouble?

Every four years, it seems, one of the major issues in the U.S. presidential campaign is how many languages the candidates speak, the implication being: the fewer, the better. This year, we’ve seen Newt Gingrich knock Mitt Romney for speaking French, as well as general mockery of

Comments

[joshlymanftw]

When the candidate is a Republican.

[screamingintune]

that's fascinating about Hoover and his wife speaking to each other in Chinese for privacy. I imagine it's hard to get much of that when you live in the White House.

[dearmisterecho]

lol my boyfriend and I do that when in public. I'm the first English-speaking girlfriend he's had, so sometimes he's gets all giddy about it. We can sit on the train and talk about the meaning of "santorum" and not have to worry about offending the old lady sitting across from us :D

[hinoema]

Interesting article, but ti doesn't excuse the fact that Republicans in general are leery of a foreign speaker because of sheer anti-intellectualism.

[emofordino]

mte! I have a study group with a Venezuelan classmate of mine, where I help her with her English and she helps me with my Spanish, and we were just discussing this last night! The fact that the GOP has no interest in having a president who is highly educated and/or knows multiple languages, etc etc should be a red flag, but instead those people are "elitist!!!111" ughhhh

[fickery]

Seriously. I can't believe that wasn't mentioned specifically, only alluded to.

[tmlforsyth]

back in the 40s (or maybe the 30s), my grandfather joined the GOP as it was more a place for a Bourbon Democrat than Huey Long's Louisiana. He knew Greek, Latin, and French. William F Buckley knew Spanish before he knew English, and I imagine he knew many languages. It is a dangerous sign when the standard of conservatism is no longer held by aristos who tell dirty jokes in Latin, but by populist demagogues who deride knowledge.

[roseofjuly]

George W. Bush, you mean - Bush derided Kerry for "looking French" and speaking the language. I read it the same way you did the first time; it's worded a little awkwardly.

I think that French is politically useful as well, especially since the French are our allies. I think Gingrich hasn't been derided simply because most liberals don't see someone knowing another language as bad - in fact, it would backfire on a Democratic candidate if they attacked someone else for knowing another language - and because the GOP has plenty of other things to target Gingrich on first before they resort to that. Plus, like you said, I don't think the GOP wants to alienate any Spanish-speaking Republicans.

[wrestlingdog]

Yeah, but this was in 2004, when Republicans were in their post-Iraq "fuck the French!" stage.

[tmlforsyth]

Growing up, I thought my fondness for the Latin language was a conservative trait, and next an appreciation for Vivaldi and Mozart will mark me a liberal.

[lyssna]

Learning another language on the level that would be truly useful for a President would require spending one’s life, or even a significant part of it, living in its confines.

I have spent a total of five days in an English-speaking country in my life, yet I know enough of the language to discuss politics in it. I know this is not an entirely comparable situation, but I still think that argument is rather weak.

[roseofjuly]

I think it is. It's entirely possible to learn a language without spending your life somewhere else. A lot of my friends became conversationally fluent in a language after spending few years studying it in late high school/early college and then studying abroad somewhere for a year. I have a 26-year-old friend who is fluent in both Arabic and Spanish and she only spent a year in places that spoke that as the native language. I have a 21-year-old RA who speaks French fluently after spending ~6 years studying it stateside and a year studying there. And there are a lot of American businessmen who speak more than one language; it's considered a plus

[squeeful]

Depends entirely on your city. Using NYC isn't fair as it has the most languages in one spot in the world with over 800.

[roseofjuly]

What do you mean it's not "fair"? I live there, as do 8 million other people, so that's going to be my lived experience.

Besides, I said

But in large urban cities in the States, it'd be relatively easy to at least find someone to converse with in Spanish, and most cities have their enclaves.

I am well aware that the experiences might be different in rural areas or smaller suburban areas, but since I've never lived in those places I can't speak to those experiences. I grew up in the suburbs but never more than an hour and a half away from a major city. And the qualities are different; it'd be far harder to find someone to speak Mandarin with in Atlanta (where I grew up) than it would be in New York. But I'm not sure what your point about "fairness" is? I think it's just as possible to learn a language in rural Kansas as it is in urban New York; the Kansan, however, may have to go to greater lengths to improve their speaking and listening (but with the advent of online tools and classes, it's not an insurmountable effort).