Thread: Putin speaks English

In Moscow's Olympics presentation, Putin spoke in English. It was the first time he has done that in public. I didn't hear much though.

He spoke English in the Mike Wallace interview as well. If anyone has video of it, I'd love to see it. But Mike Wallace didn't ask him to speak English, he told him. I thought it was extremely disrespectful and Wallace took almost a combative tone with Putin. Very unprofessional, to me, an aspiring journalist.

Anyhow, Putin can definitely speak English, though probably not fluently.

Putin can speak English, he and Bush had very secret conversations where even interpritors were not allowed. Bush speaking Russian sounds more fantastic to me. So they both could nicely interact on the same level of broken English.

Putin is very fluent in German, although, he was a KGB spy in Germany for quite a while.

I had a thread about this, El Casey:

http://masterrussian.net/mforum/viewtopic.php?t=5481

there is the link and in the link you can see the video...

i remember reagan tried to speak english once in front of gorbatchev, it was pathetic. gorbatchev didn't understand a word reagan was saying.

Originally Posted by possopo

i remember reagan tried to speak english once in front of gorbatchev, it was pathetic. gorbatchev didn't understand a word reagan was saying.

(sighs)

Originally Posted by possopo

i remember reagan tried to speak english once in front of gorbatchev, it was pathetic. gorbatchev didn't understand a word reagan was saying.

You mean Reagan tried to speak Russian in front of Gorcatchev??

I would think Reagan always speaks English...

I remember Reagan liked to learn Russian proverbs.
Especially "Доверяй, но проверяй".

Originally Posted by El Casey

But Mike Wallace didn't ask him to speak English, he told him. I thought it was extremely disrespectful and Wallace took almost a combative tone with Putin. Very unprofessional, to me, an aspiring journalist.

It's true, Wallace was gruff. Though that's kind of the show's shtick. I liked the interview, and I thought Putin handled himself very well. Wallace was an ass, but he always is, and Putin fired back a couple of times as I recall.

kalinka_vinnie wrote:

You mean Reagan tried to speak Russian in front of Gorcatchev??

I would think Reagan always speaks English...

sorry

Fl wrote:

I remember Reagan liked to learn Russian proverbs.
Especially "Доверяй, но проверяй".

that's it!
it sounded like "dover hi, no prover eye". gorbatchev made this funny face that was saying "hmmm, what should i do, what the fuck did he just say? is it russian? you think it's a joke? ok, i'll smile then".

I have heard Putin speaking German several times. His German is really excellent.
On "радио эхо Москвы" I did listen to an interview with Condolezza Rice a few mont ago (during her visit to Moscow). For the main part of the interview she used an interpreter (Only for translations from English to Russian). But at the end of the interview she also answered a question of a young girl in Russian.

Originally Posted by Старик

I have heard Putin speaking German several times. His German is really excellent.
On "радио эхо Москвы" I did listen to an interview with Condolezza Rice a few mont ago (during her visit to Moscow). For the main part of the interview she used an interpreter (Only for translations from English to Russian). But at the end of the interview she also answered a question of a young girl in Russian.

Yeh she made mistakes though cos she was rusty. Didn't she study it at univeristy or something?

Originally Posted by TATY

Yeh she made mistakes though cos she was rusty. Didn't she study it at univeristy or something?

Yeah, she majored in the Soviet Union or something like that... what a waste!

hey.. at least they try. Most Americans speak only English.

Originally Posted by rgkatyaisashaukr

hey.. at least they try. Most Americans speak only English.

Not in Utah. Everyone's a return missionary so they all speak something else.

Originally Posted by Biancca

Originally Posted by rgkatyaisashaukr

hey.. at least they try. Most Americans speak only English.

Not in Utah. Everyone's a return missionary so they all speak something else.

Biancca... actually you are right! I never thought about it, but all my mormon friends all know another language! Of course not ALL of Utah is mormon, but still... hah! Now that is scary.

Originally Posted by kalinka_vinnie

Biancca... actually you are right! I never thought about it, but all my mormon friends all know another language! Of course not ALL of Utah is mormon, but still... hah! Now that is scary.

Utah is something like 70% or 75% mormon, I cant remember the last figure I heard but its up there.

Isn't Utah the state that had the highest percentage vote for Bush in the election as well? Something over 70% if I remember correctly. Wonder if there's a connection

Originally Posted by Cyphyr

Isn't Utah the state that had the highest percentage vote for Bush in the election as well? Something over 70% if I remember correctly. Wonder if there's a connection

Im afraid so. Mormons vote conservative because they are aginst abortion etc. etc.

But I didn't vote for Bush. Actually there is no point voting if you live in Utah because conservative stuff always passes no matter what you vote for (thats another thing my gov't teacher told us, and my econ teacher too...they said you dont need to vote hahahahahahahahahahaha. )

Hmmm, I would say that's terrible advice to be giving, but when you're facing a majority like that, it does seem kinda hopeless alright.