Talk:Linguistic capabilities of modern world leaders

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[edit] Initial Creation Notes/Reason

I created this page because I wanted to see a table with some major world leaders & their linguistic capabilities.

Please feel free to add leaders & languages :)

Moogle10000 09:58, 11 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] GWB

I thought George Bush could speak Spanish. It says that he can in several interviews. Homagetocatalonia 01:16, 12 July 2006 (UTC)

You believe that? I don't think so, and if we're going to insert this we need ref. Aaрон Кинни (t) 03:33, 12 July 2006 (UTC)
I reread that reference to GWB and I don't think it can be classed as "Some" - I doubt he could have an actual basic conversation. To me "Some" means that you can stumble through a conversation and pronounce the words relatively well. ("Yes" is equivalent to fluency or near-fluency.) Moogle10000 02:11, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Unknown Entries

I've searched high and low for information on these leaders and for quite a few there is simply no information available... I can, however, make educated guesses (which isn't exactly encyclopedic...)

I'd say that Tony Blair doesn't speak Japanese, Russian, Spanish, etc... It was relatively easy to find that he spoke some French, but not on the other languages... I'll take this to mean that he doesn't.

Moogle10000 04:48, 14 July 2006 (UTC)

The unknown entries all link to some rapper's article! This seriously diminishes the presentational quality of this article. --164.107.92.120 17:00, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Removed Zapatero and replaced

I replaced Rodriguez Zapatero and replaced him with Juan Carlos. I think if they'll going to be included at this early stage they need to be able to speak more than 2 languages fluently (unless they're a big leader like Bush or Blair, or Chirac). Plus, he's Spanish. Aaрон Кинни (t) 06:59, 31 July 2006 (UTC)

True, but as the King of Spain is only the Head of State he really isn't a "Modern World Leader" -- That's the position of the Prime Minister of Spain, the Head of Government. Maybe we should break out the tables to two separate articles... One for Heads of State and Heads of Government (The POTUS would fall under both of these categories...) Moogle10000 03:06, 6 August 2006 (UTC)
I see what you mean now. But I still stand by my position, naturally. It's not really useful to add a leader in if he can only speak his native tongue and very little of another. Aaрон Кинни (t) 01:06, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Putting native tongue in parentheses

I think it would be reasonable to put people's native tongues in parentheses (or mark in another way) as it's not a big deal to speak one's native tongue. However, I can see that the "yes" and "no" answers are solved with templates and I don't know how we could add these extra signs. Maybe with a new template like {{yes-native}} which would be the same as {{yes}}, but with parentheses? Any better ideas? Adam78 12:23, 14 October 2006 (UTC)

Since the templates allow for more text placed after them (but not before them), we could just put an "(n)" after the native languages. Is it okay for you? Adam78 12:27, 14 October 2006 (UTC)

What's up with all the links to the rapper?! --164.107.92.120 01:48, 27 November 2006 (UTC)
I agree that we should note the native language. I also think, however, that we should make it a different color... For now, I like your suggestion about the (n)... I just worry about the ambiguity of having the (n) and then having to have a legend. Moogle10000 05:44, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Swedish

I cant understand why swedish should be in this list, after all its not a popular worldwide language.

Yes, Swedish is only officially spoken in Finland and Sweden. Michellecrisp (talk) 00:16, 9 April 2008 (UTC)
Actually, Swedish only officially spoken in Finland. It's only de facto spoken in Sweden. Sweden has no official language. (Apart from a few official minority languages.) 213.114.233.239 (talk) 16:09, 21 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Kevin Rudd

why is not the Australian Prime Minister included? he could be the first ever Chinese speaking Western world leader. Michellecrisp (talk) 00:16, 9 April 2008 (UTC)