How well does Gingrich speaks Spanish?
Monday April 9, 2007
Former lawmaker and possible U.S. presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has received plenty of political flak in recent days for a statement he made clumsily suggesting that the Spanish language is inherently inferior. In fairness, and in light of the fact that Gingrich has long reached out to American Latinos and even long made campaign materials available in Spanish on his Web site, that probably wasn't what he meant. So in an apology of sorts, Gingrich has released a new statement — in Spanish, on YouTube.
In his new statement, Gingrich calls Spanish both a beautiful and important language while standing by his belief that speaking English is essential for those who hope to advance far in American life.
Gingrich also reveals that he is studying Spanish, as is at least one key member of his staff. He admits, though, that he has plenty of learning left.
How well do you think Gingrich is doing at learning the language? After watching him, express your thoughts in our new poll, or click on the Comments link below.
Poll: On a 1 to 5 rating, with 1 being the worst and 5 being the best, how would you rate Newt Gingrich's ability to speak Spanish?
Notes: This poll is unscientific and reflects the views only of those who participate. The photo of Gingrinch is in the public domain.
Comments
Es correcto gramaticalmente el discurso pero entregado con muy fuerte acento. ¡Bravo! por hacer el esfuerzo.
Aunque soy gringo, espero que no tenga un acento tan fuerte como Newt!
Ayer, tuve una discusión con amigos de Argentina, y les dije que Los Latinos y español son mas importantes hoy que antes.. Ver Newt solamente me hace creer eso mas.
Probably wasn’t what he meant? Ha! “the language of a Ghetto.” Can we say “verbatim”?
Please. His reading from a prompter is not impressive. His pronunciation is cringe-worthy. And his hate for Latinos is barely-disguised. It matters not that he has Spanish on his site or whatnot. The method of these people is to first speak to the base, then apologize the next day for those who are offended. It’s an old M.O. It is not sincere. It’s sweet that you are so forgiving of him. I am not.
He needs a lot more practice on that speech someone wrote for him. Maybe he should take some lessons from El Presidente dobleve, who speaks Spanish no worse than he speaks English.
It’s sad to see people take the opurtinity to be critical because of their own political afiliations. The man is trying and I am proud of him for that.
Leer de un prompter no es hablar espaniol. El tratar de convencer a los latinos que sus declaraciones fueron tomadas fuera de contexto para lograr beneficios politicos es lamentable. El tomar ventaja de su posicion y hablar de lo que no conoce, en este caso solo enfatizando las ventajas de un idioma y no los beneficios del bilingualismo solo muestra su falta de conocimiento del tema y si posicion ideologica.
Que broma!! He’s a typical “I’d kill my abuelita to get elected” politico. anyone who would vote for this moron deserves him. I live in Gingo’s home state of Georgia, tied with Mississippi for most backward state in the country. 49th in education, and leading the nation in mortgage forclosures. Bonito trbajo, Newtie-boy!!
I agree with José … reading from a prompter is not speaking spanish. As for his level being on a par con el rey Jorge, have you ever heard the king’s embarrasing jokes in la lengua? ¡Que mala son!
I’m glad that you all are so good at interpreting all of the nuances and inner motivations of somebody you know nothing about. I am appalled that so many people would vote “You call that Spanish?” He has a terrible gringo accent, granted - although no worse than I hear on local TV commercials by car dealers and lawyers. But logic says that it is Spanish, and (if my impression can be trusted) not bad Spanish either.
As for reading from a teleprompter, it probably was - just like most politicians and reporters do - but I don’t think he read it like somebody who doesn’t know the language. He has a consistent, gringo-like accent, and he doesn’t stumble over words and expressions like somebody who doesn’t know the language would. Teleprompters only do so much, you know - they would be totally ineffective if the person using them did not know the language pretty well.
By the way, I’m sorry for injecting a bit of logic and common sense into an ignorant hate-fest that was getting along so well without it.
Yo no puedo abrir videos de YouTube a ver esta nota, pero los comentarios dejados lo dicen todo. Me dan lastima algunos criterios como por ejemplo el de Gerald en su artículo que acepta que meter campaña pegando proagandas en su sitio web en idioma Español es “alcanzar” hacia el pueblo Latino. Esto más bien se llama marketing. Desde los vendedores de autos usados más bajos hasta los políticos descreditados como el Newt todos ellos usan estas tecnicas para vender lo suyo. Es friamente calculado, no tiene nada que ver con sus valores, y no es nada más que una propaganda igual que una de detergentes, cerveza, o comida rapida que yo vea en la tele.
O bien el comentario de John que acepta que este video representa un intento sincero de parte del Newt a abrirse a la cultura Hispana. Si alguien de verdad se convence con ver este payaso hacerse el tonto leyendo (no hablando) su Español chueco el pantalla me da miedo por el futuro del país.
Me alegro ver que no soy el único aquí que ve este jugado de Newt por lo que es…un engaño y un intento a defraudar a los inocentes que creyeran que a este tipo le importa un %!$&* los intereses de los poblados marginados de EE.UU. como los Latinos. Basta verlo solo con revisar su historial de odio y omisión tanto hacia los Latinos como también hacia los pobres, los Afro Americanos, y las mujeres. Por favor no tratemos de tomar una lección donde no hay nada que aprender.
No me conozco toda la historia pero rectificar es de sabios. Lo que esta diciendo en el video es muy coherente: Las personas que están viviendo allí deberían aprender Inglés. Es el idioma que esta asentado y no se puede pretender que la persona que te está recibiendo sepa todos los idiomas , español,aleman, frances ,etc. Dicho esto,una persona debería tener el derecho de hablar en el idioma que crea conveniente, ella y su interlocutor. En lugares bilingues oigo mucha gente cambiando incluso de lenguage cuando les apetece creo que es enriquecedor. Algunos pensamientos,deseos y emociones se expresan mejor en un idioma que en otro. Ademas tener la habilidad de manejar distintos idiomas te abre la mente a otras culturas. En Estados Unidos es normal que el Castellano sea una elección por diversas razones: historicas,economicas,culturales,etc.
Conozco en mi propio pais muchas personas con diversas posibilidades economicas y utilizan el mismo idioma. El idioma no hace a los pobres. Sí te gusta o te cae bien una persona harás todo lo posible para comunicarte con ella en el idioma que encuentres mas facil,incluso al principio por signos.
Conclusion: Mutuo-entendimiento: tu como yo, yo como tu.
A este señor le he visto un gran esfuerzo por aprender Castellano que tampoco es fácil. Ole sus hue…
Y para acabar una frase que me encanta:
Si en este mundo no podemos vivir como hermanos , pereceremos todos como IMBECILES. MLK.
Creo que el discurso por Newt muestra buena pronunciacion para un gringo. Soy gringo y conozco que lleva mucho tiempo y practica para imitar la pronunciacion de la lengua espanola como un nativo. Es obvio que Newt leyo de un teleprompter pero el mensaje es claro y comprensible. Sin embargo, ojala que todos sepan que el discurso no es sincero. Siempre el politico tiene que ver con el logro de los votos.
May I ask: How well does x speaks… or how well does x speak?
I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and vote 2.5. Obviously read from a monitor. If he understands everything he said, his pronunciation should be much better at this point in his learning. I don’t like the vote 3 title “not bad for a gringo”. If I were to say “not bad for a latino” it would be considered derogatory.
The views expressed here seem to prove once again that most people hear and see what they want to hear and see and that their opinions are colored by their own likes and dislikes (or rather, their own loves and hates.)
In reference to Bob’s comment:
I neither ‘love’ nor ‘hate’ Ginrich nor know who/what he is other than a politician. I am German living in Spain.
However, although he gives great effort to read off the teleprompt (surely a speech written by a professional and with much practicing, practicing, practicing - as we all non-native Spanish speakers would) his accent is painfull to listen to. I could not listen to the whole video.
Perhaps it is his kind of accent. I find it more painful to listen to English speakers speak German OR Spanish.
Unless they really work on pronounciation with someone who can point out the weak areas, they tend to overpronounce the ‘r’s , as well as not roll the ‘r’s etc etc.
He tried and obviously practiced, but I couldn’t stand to finish listening to the video.
no puedo ver el video de newt gingrich expresando su opinion en youtube. Es posible que un hombre que esta estudiando en espanol si sabe que la lengua franca del mundo es inglais; esto si no podemos ignorar.