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Hulkenberg’s English (24 posts)

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zomtec said 6 months, 3 weeks ago:

Hulk´s hometown is only a few kilometres away from the dutch border, he might have also learned dutch in school.

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safeeuropeanhome said 6 months, 3 weeks ago:

Hulkenberg’s not the only driver with great English though is he? I mean Barrichello actually sounds American rather than Brazilian, Vettel is great, Schumacher too, Alonso and Rosberg can speak three or four languages as well. There really is just a culture of taking learning a new language seriously in Europe, from a very young age in school. This is something that just doesn’t happen and really ought to change from my experience in the UK. A consequence of being an island nation I guess, but also probably arrogance and laziness that everyone else learns English so we don’t need to bother. I don’t know about America but I imagine its even worse, that’s certainly the stereotype in any case.

It’s not just F1 drivers, you look at any of the Premiership footballers from Holland and Belgium, they all speak perfect English. Going off to a slight tangent I remember when Inglourious Basterds came out and Christoph Waltz spoke English, German and French fluently, and some Italian too the British and American press loved it, they thought it was unbelievable one guy could speak so many languages so well. But then I read an interview with Waltz where he reckoned it was not a big deal, coming from a small country (he is Austrian) with lots of borders he reckoned it was pretty commonplace for most people to be at least conversational, if not fluent in more than one language.

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necrodethmortem said 6 months, 3 weeks ago:

@brazil2007 Almost all Flemish people I know that went to school before the 70s (even Flemish nationalists) speak proper French, but since from the late 60s onward Flemish universities started teaching in Dutch instead of French (around the same time as the Révolution tranquille in Québec), the level of French of the average Joe has been declining rapidly. I would say that the majority of Flemish youth these days would have trouble having a decent conversation with a francophone.

In Wallonia, they never really bothered learning Dutch, but a couple of years ago they started teaching it in primary school and some young Walloons are capable of expressing themselves in Dutch. Dutch is also starting to become more and more required for higher level jobs in Wallonia and not just Brussels.

At the time of the independence of Belgium, Brussels was almost completely Dutch-speaking (Brabantian dialect to be more exact, because people only started speaking standard Dutch in daily life until after the popularization of TV), but now you can’t really live/work in Brussels without knowing French, like in Montréal. Most francophones in Brussels don’t speak Dutch, but they are sending their kids to Dutch-speaking schools more often nowadays, especially immigrants.

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necrodethmortem said 6 months, 3 weeks ago:

Damnit, can’t edit!

I don’t know much about the German-speaking community, other than that it’s really small, but I imagine they speak French really well since they’re part of the Walloon region. In Flanders, German is only optional in high school, whereas French is obligatory in primary school and English in secondary school.

Personally, I have a passive understanding of German, but I can’t speak it well. I took science and math in high school and never went to Germany, Austria or Switzerland on holidays.

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Nicholas Sunderland said 6 months, 3 weeks ago:

@necrodethmortem I’ve noticed when I’m in Québec that a surprising number of people have trouble speaking English, just as most Ontarians are having more and more trouble speaking French. And it has nothing to do with the way that we’re educated, since many schools in southern Ontario have French immersion programs and the like.

Thanks for that whole explanation there, by the way. I found it really informative and interesting :)

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Nicholas Sunderland said 6 months, 3 weeks ago:

@debaser91 Rosberg speaks 5 1/2 languages, by the way. German, French, English, Italian, Spanish, and some Finnish.

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necrodethmortem said 6 months, 3 weeks ago:

If you’re counting halves, I also know some Afrikaans :D

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Enigma said 6 months, 3 weeks ago:

Was just thinking about drivers and their English today during the press conference, seeing 4 guys who aren’t very good at it – Petrov, Pic, Kobayashi and Massa.

Hulkenberg, Vettel and Rosberg are all very good at English (all German?), and Kovalainen, Glock, Alonso, Senna, Schumacher and probably de la Rosa are quite good at it as well. It does seem to be a sport where it’s quite important, and already in 3.5 or GP3 the young guys are all more or less good at it.

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Gwannel Sandiego said 6 months, 3 weeks ago:

I’ve lived in France for over three years now, and I’m surprised by the number of people on the grid (not just drivers, but also some team principals etc.) who can speak decent French.

One of the things I find most impressive is the drivers who can joke around in English, because I think that’s one of the hardest things to master, even if you’re relatively fluent. I’ve seen some comments in the past from people who think Vettel has quite an immature sense of humour, but I actually think his ability to joke and especially use wordplay is pretty amazing, whether you find him funny or not!

I’m also impressed by drivers who can understand the sometimes complicated slang or idioms that anglophone reporters throw at them. I actually notice this more though when they don’t understand – sometimes the journos really need to think a bit harder before using (relatively) obscure British expressions with someone like Kobayashi who struggles a bit!

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