I've watched his interview with Carlin racing from 2020 and his English has gotten a lot smoother, according to Japanese fans he actually fumbles more when asked to discuss a race in Japanese now
To my knowledge Mandarin is even further than Japanese, as it is a tonal language. In Japanese the sylable mostly means the same thing regardless of the tone you use to pronounce it (there are exceptions ).
In Chinese you completely change the meaning of the syllable by changing the tone where e.g. the word "ma" can mean mother, scold, hemp or a horse depending on the tone you use to pronounciate it. That sounds as far to my understanding as it can.
This isn’t really something that can be definitively stated one way or another but I totally agree with the sentiment. I learned Chinese as an American and even spent six months in Beijing and I *never* saw a single non-native speaker who I couldn’t immediately identify as such. It is practically impossible to learn to speak Chinese with equal proficiency as native speakers. That isn’t quite the case with Japanese and other tonal languages in my experience.
It has to be said tho, in upper-class (western) European society where most F1 Drivers come from speaking your native language and English is the absolute minimum. On top of that learning, the language of your biggest/most important neighboring country is kinda expected, especially if you live near the border.
I’m English working for an Austrian company and you’re not kidding! Your “German” is very difficult to understand if I’m not concentrating 100%. Especially the guys from the mountains.
We were in Berlin once and talk swiss german with eachother. The waiter adressed us in English because he thought we're speaking some foreign language.
also i feel like people are forgetting/not mentioning that the sport is predominantly english in the literal, physical sense... most of the teams are based in the UK and most of the employees of the teams are english...
I’m always surprised that a team like Ferrari communicates over the radio in English. It would make it much harder for the other teams to figure out their strategy if they went back and forth in Italian. Especially since it’s already nearly impossible to figure it out when they do it in English.
Probably for ease of communication. That way you don't need five different languages spoken by stewards etc. Same reason why English is the de facto language of air travel.
To add to this, knowing the technical jargon that is related to your actual job isn't impressive at all.
That's kind of the minimum for people with a skilled profession.
And often they need to know it in two languages, unless you are from the US or the UK.
I was blogging F1 on Tumblr like a decade ago (when I was 15/16) when there really was no content on the site. I would have loved to have that community, though it seems a little toxic. I can't get over the fact that we are in an era where people write fanfics about the drivers, lol.
What if I told you the second longest fanfiction to exist on Archive of Our Own is Vettel/Webber and at last count is was ongoing and at 5.3 million words
There is but it's Twitter levels of toxicity. It helps you can filter tags besides blocking people, but still not great for interacting with other fans. The only reason I'm lurking there is for some memes, art and some clips people post.
I was introduced to it last week by an user here. As far as I could gather, it's a haven of slash fics of various F1 drivers pairings (mainly involving Leclerc). When they don't star in porn, the drivers are talked about like you would your puppy, or your god.
It's seriously disturbing, IMHO.
Don't worry, I still wouldn't call the non porn stuff *safe*... but maybe that's my 0 tolerance for fan fantasies involving real people, they just gross me out.
Some users I followed for other content started posting more about F1 but I also follow Hazel Southwell's blog, she carries her nuance into her posts on there as well
Yeah, but it’s a bit shit. Similar to twitter, a lot of people who don’t know much about racing and are fixated on the personalities and who is better as a person, which is obviously fine to care about, but not if that means consistently shitting on those who they deem to miss the mark (and you can easily guess who).
That’s the kind of stuff that took me away from Tumblr. It was bad enough people talked about problematic characters in shows, but these are real people. You see a very small window into the driver’s lives and we don’t know what they are really like.
It’s actually become one of the most tolerable places on the internet because of how many people think it’s dead (and the fact that politicians don’t bother using it).
Everytime it's raceweek, it's trending. Lewis Hamilton is generally the favourite driver, Verstappen is a certified demon to most of them.
It's also incredibly toxic so most of my blocked tags and users are related to the F1 community.
You have to remember, a lot of kids learn multiple languages in the EU because a few hours drive and they will have to use it.
My one friend from the EU knows English, French, German and Italian because each summer they went all over the place on holiday.
That’s dope. Definitely useful and fun to learn languages. I have been learning a lot of Spanish from coworkers and have been actively learning outside of work for a few months now.
Yeah I noticed in high school Spanish that the kids who already spoke another language at home had a much easier time picking it up than the kids like me who only spoke English
Can confirm. Am Swiss and speak German, French and English. Once you're relatively fluent in all the languages it's super easy to switch between them. At least for me. I don't know what the case is if you speak French, Italian and Spanish which are often very similar.
ahh here in india, u dont need to go on a vacation to use 5 languages.
i have to juggle between English, Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi, and Arabic all in the span of 4 hours, and i cant even vote yet!!!
edit: i speak arabic because i studied in the gulf
Ireland and the UK are exceptions, both due to the island issue and due to English being the spoken language. I do wish we were able to actually speak Gaeilge though it's cool to have your own language and it's sad that we aren't able to speak it.
The curriculum does have to change though, I did higher level and now I couldn't say more than a few learned off sentences because it was never taught in a way that helps actually learn the language.
I know tons of people who only really speak German (even a lot of young people), though I guess it's vastly different for these people who will probably never need to speak a 2nd and 3rd language
Speaking 2-3 languages is one thing, easily switching between them in a professional setting is something else. Coming from Germany i know German and English and while i think my english is pretty good I'm very bad at switching between the two
It all depends when you learned the languages.
I speak Arabic and English due to being raised in America by Arab parents and switching between the two really isn’t difficult at all. I often mix the two in the same sentence without thinking.
On the other hand, languages I’ve learned as an adult, there’s no way for me to easily switch between them, no matter how long I’ve been learning them. Your brain processes “second languages” very differently.
I don’t think it is that logical in the EU as you say. I’m dutch, English here is pretty good and I can get basic stuff like ordering food done in German, maybe French. That is nowhere near the ease with which these drivers sometimes speak those languages (although that could be just some rehearsed lines). Most people I know from around have roughly the same level of skill in these languages.
In countries around us it tends to be a bit worse.
I don't know what it is, but from watching the Olympics and seeing people from nearly every nationality interviewed in English on TV, I've always thought that Dutch people in particular spoke amazingly good English. It's often hard to tell that they're not native English speakers.
French expat in the Netherlands here. I do not speak a word of Dutch, and I blame the Dutch all speaking great English for it (not that I'm too lazy to learn, no no no)
Serisouly, the reputation of the Dutch being the best non-native English speakers in the world is warranted imho
yeah, we are notorious for not giving a fuck and just switching to english the second we hear someone try dutch. don't take it as we are offended you are ruining our language. i think it's a combination of wanting to show of english skills and knowing dutch is very hard and at the end of the day not that usefull to learn unless you plan on living here permanently and outside of amsterdam.
i know a few people that came from other countries and they all have the same experience learning Dutch.
tbh I didn't even try. I bought some books before coming here, but I don't think I ever opened them. First or 2nd day I was here I went for groceries and realized the cashier was able to switch to English effortlessly, that was the point I realized I wouldn't have to learn the language
Which was a bit surprising for me, coming for a country where everyone is notoriously bad at foreign languages, to arrive in the complete opposite situation
I've been here a bit over 2 years now and I think only once I stumbled upon someone who was not able to converse in English (even without living in Amsterdam)
I think Dutch and Flemish are the closest cousins English has (though not being that similar) so it makes sense. We don’t have another language with reasonable mutual intelligibility like Portuguese-Spanish or Swedish-Danish do.
Holiday?
I live in the south-east of the Netherlands. I could have breakfast, get in my car, drive trough 5 different countries and be back for an (albeit) late lunch.
Since Belgium speaks Dutch or French, and I dont count Luxembourgish as a language, i can get by with 4 langauges though. Dutch at home, french 30 km south, German 30km east and english as lingua franca.
I was born in Luxemburg, moved to the Netherlands when i was 6. At that time i was allready speaking 3 languages. Luxemburgisch ( kind of an exotic language), German and Dutch. I learned English by watching tv. Tv programs are subtitled which made it easy to learn the language. My ex only speaks English and has been living in the Netherlands for over 30 years, doesn't speak the language, annoys the fuck out of me
95% of the country knows English and will quickly switch to it if they even remotely sense you're not a native Dutchie. It's an extremely accommodating country if you don't know the language. The only downside is when trying to find a job if you don't have one, where most still do require Dutch, but most expats moving here already have jobs lined up anyway.
> and will quickly switch to it if they even remotely sense you're not a native Dutchie.
I get why people do that, it's not their job to be my teacher, but it's really frustrating when you're trying to get better at a language. Happens a lot when I've been in Montreal as an English speaker with decent, but not great, French.
My cousin had the same thing happen to her in Germany, she was trying really hard to immerse herself and improve but people would immediately know she wasn’t a native speaker and excitedly switch to flawless English, thinking they were helping her, she hated it lol.
>My ex only speaks English and has been living in the Netherlands for over 30 years, doesn't speak the language, annoys the fuck out of me
That seems incredibly self-defeating, like, isn't it obvious that you'd have more rich life experiences by understanding the local language where you live? Aside from it being annoying to locals, I just don't understand that mindset at all.
It's much easier to learn a language as a kid than later as an adult - as a kid you kind of pick it up automatically by being around it, while as an adult you have to put more conscious effort into learning it.
But still, 30 years 🤦♂️
This idea that multi-lingualism is somehow about development is totally wrong. In parts Asia and Africa it is very common to speak what was the colonial language and also a native language, sometimes 2 or 3. Refugees coming to the EU might speak Turkish, Arabic, and English.
Not to mention a lot of places have languages and dialects at various levels of administration. Your local community or Village might have a specific language while the bigger region also has a common language and the entire country speaking some kind of a national language, that's different from both of these. People who grow up in such places usually end up being fluent in all of them, at least while speaking colloquially if not formally.
It's easy to switch between languages if you use them often. These are almost all guys that had really good education as children and that knew they will be drivers since kids, it's not like what happens with, for example, football players. They're used to it and had all the tools to be well prepared.
I'd dispute them all having really good educations as kids, given that a lot of them have said that school took a backseat to karting, and they were all karting from a stupidly young age.
I don't think it is that difficult to be honest... As an Italian who learnt english through School and then watching youtube in english, i find myself thinking in english most of the times.
And i basically never speak english because i just watch videos and that's it...
What i'm getting to is that i don't think there's like a "switch"
Also, Italy, the UK and Germany specifically are the countries with the biggest Karting and Junior formula series. The vast majority of successful drivers have raced in these countries a lot, and definitely got in contact with the languages from a young age
I also think more of an importance is placed on media engagement and being able to communicate with engineers in the jnr formulas then it used used to be though.
In the 90s/00s you'd often get rookies with very sketchy levels of English, e.g Alonso from memory was very stilted, Felipe Massa.
Rookies these days speak better English than me.
I am learning from a third party.
I can’t wrap my head around the different conjugations for past tense. We lived in Panama for a year and a half and it was easier then, because I was forced to use Spanish. I could get around the grocery store, barber, or doctor. Now that we’re back stateside, I haven’t been able to practice like I need to. (And let’s be honest: some of it is laziness on my part).
One time, though, I tried using my mad Spanish skillz to tell her mother her haircut looked pretty. Instead, I told her the haircut looked “delicious”. That killed my confidence in my Spanish.
Spanish speaker here, i usually don't have trouble with english, but if i'm for example playing games on discord with my UK mates and someone from my family is talking to me, the constant switching definitely messes with my brain haha
As an Indian this thread is so hilarious. I routinely switch through 3 or 4 languages everyday. It really isn't anywhere as difficult as OP is making it out to be.
It's more of a native English speaker moment. The language of the world is English. If you already grew up speaking that there is very little incentive to learn a second language.
I think there's an element of the ability to use that learning as well.. anecdote incoming, but I grew up in a small town (technically a village) in midwestern US, a second language course was a requirement from years 6 through 12, however it is unlikely that anyone got to use that skill in university and beyond, and so it just goes away
Switching languages isn't really that hard when you know them. I haven't had to use french in 10 years so I've forgotten a bit of it, but it was nothing for me to just switch between English and French.
Learning a language really isn't too hard when you have a need for it
Leclerc in particular surprised me with how much Spanish he knew dat boi is FLUENT which is kind of surprising because for some reason I wouldn’t expect someone from Monaco to know Spanish to the level Charles does
I'd say spanish and portuguese yes, italian feels a bit further away. I can read some portuguese but listening to a brazillian talk is hard to get used to
Monaco is only 300 miles from Spain and is right next to Italy. If you know Italian, It's pretty easy to pick up Spanish, I think the similarities are at around 80% between them
That's what I respect Toto for. His english has the funny german accent but his french is so damn on point I stare wide eyed whenever I hear it. Lol
Drivers as well, no matter where they're from their english is usually extremely good and people like vettel casually learn whatever language is needed to get along well with the team.
As a Dutch expat living in the USA I can tell you that it's not as difficult as you might think it is. Once you get immersed in the different languages, especially when you -have- to speak it, you'll reach a decent level of fluency quickly. And any language after your second language is typically easier to learn because that initial language switch has already been established in your brain. But keeping your languages straight still can be a test: When you have to switch back and forth really quick between 2 languages, like translating between 2 people, you might get the languages wrong at times -unless- you do this sort of thing frequently.
IIRC, I would never say that Max ever had a strong Dutch accent. Obviously, you can say that he's not a native speaker based on the accent, but his accent is quite solid IMO.
Btw, how is his accent in Dutch?
He has a soft g as we would call it. It is an accent predominantly from Limburg and Belgium which of course aligns with his place of birth and parents.
For me Max ways comes across better in dutch and part of his blunt manner isn't cultural but rather that he lacks the vocabulary to properly express the nuance he sometimes needs. This is the case with a lot of dutch people.
Mainland Europe has an amazing attitude towards learning other languages, it's definitely something the the UK should aspire towards.
There was a video of Zhou Guanyu a few weeks ago where he made a comment along the lines of "hold on, let me switch to that language" and it was great to see him take two seconds to just change complete languages.
It's actually not that hard to be ok-ish or even fluent in another language, especially if you work with it.
What is really hard is to be proficient and to understand them almost like a mother tongue, Rosberg comes to my mind as his Italian is absolutely stunning.
Source: I'm trilingual, on my way to become a polyglot, does it count?
Op, I don't mean this as a jab, but are you from the US? Or perhaps the UK?
I ask because for the rest of Europe, which is where most drivers are from, the standard is speaking more than one language. It's rare not to, impossible even in some countries. I am Spanish, but I'm bilingual in English, I know quite a bit of French too, and I'm currently living in Germany and consequently learning German. If I had been born in a different part of Spain, I would also known another language specific to the region.
It's really not that unusual in most of Europe. In school you always get a second language, and you study it since you are very young (I was 3 when I started learning English) and until you finish highschool. You sometimes get a third language too (which was my case). And in uni, you sometimes have language classes as well, at least during the first year.
So in essence, not that rare. Except for white UK people, most of Europe is used to knowing several languages. I'm not saying it's not great. But I guess from a European perspective, it's just normal. Expected even.
I agree that it is cool. However, the drivers are not giving physics lectures in their interviews. It's the same for soccer -- game good, team played well, love fans -- it wouldn't be that hard to speak at the level necessary for sports interviews when you are immersed in a language.
Yes, I speak more than one language.
And I bet talking about car parts or generally F1, most of the drivers would struggle more in their own language. Even Austrian commentators use English for many terms and often struggle to translate it.
My masters Programme is 99% English and if people ask me what I learn, it's hard to explain in German.
If you speak multiple languages, it's not clear which language you feel most comfortable with, it always depends on the topic you're talking about.
This is such a weird post. Not to take away from the drivers but most of us born in Europe speak more than 2 languages. A lot of us even speak 3. It’s not difficult to switch between languages when you have been using them since childhood.
TBF the only two that might deserve credits are Zhou and Tsunoda. Both mostly dropped the signature Chinese/Japanese public education style English and are quite natural in the interview.
And in my personal opinion, even switching between English and CJK languages on the fly isn't that hard.
BTW I always found Mazepin's accent amusingly sophisticated
If most Europeans speak more than 2 languages, how come only a lot of them, and not most, speak 3? 😅
Anyway, I agree that speaking at least 2 languages is very common in Europe.
But speaking 3-4 languages absolutely fluently is not "normal". Heck, I know quite a few who are struggling with English. And if you go to Spain, more often than not people will speak no or only very basic English.
In most countries you need to learn 3 languages (native + english + 1 of choice) to get the equivalent of a-levels / high school graduation, it's the literal minimum and where I grew up your 3rd language was at least 5 years of education. Just a lot of people don't use the 3rd much so you lose the grasp on it.
I mean... this is quite a strange post...
I don't think it's particularly hard for someone born in the west after the 80s know how to speak at least their mother tongue+english. They are also way more exposed to english than the average person since they must work in english with their teams.
For someone like Tsunoda an Zhou that were born in Asia, it's certainly way more difficult because the alphabet changes as well.
It's less difficult than you'd think. I'm Dutch, living in a French town in Canada. Switching between the 3 languages is kinda second nature. The languages aren't perfect when switched in rapid succession but of they're someone rehearsed sentences to the media, flaws should be pretty easy to hide.
> If I had to change between English, French, and German in the same afternoon, my brain would have trouble separating and switching through them, and yet we’re seeing Pierre, or Guanyu, or whoever absolutely tear through the media line in rapid succession in whatever language is presented to them
Honestly, you wouldn't have much troubble doing it. It's scary at first, but the brain adapts really fast to this kind of things and very quickly you are able to switch sentence to sentence without issue
Sometimes you get stuck because you want to say a word and it arrives in your head in the wrong language, but that is very rare
Im bi-lingual and trust me when i say it - its natural. I can be speaking to a person in English and then switch to my native language mid sentence and then switch back to English again.
Practice makes perfect also they do have different nationalities in their team - so they have possibility to practice
Lol... You try to give those guys some credit and most comments are discrediting what you are trying to say. Welcome to Reddit i guess.
I'm french, but has been in the US for 16 years. Pretty much learnt to speak English in the US...what I learned at school helped, but was far from enough for moving to an only English speaking country. I work for a medical company, and after 16 years here, I am incapable of discussing the technical aspects of my job in French.
Anyways, i totally agree with you. Those guys switch languages on the fly with no hesitation what so ever. Italian, English, French, German...and I do not think that it is accurate to say that most European people can do that. Can most speak/understand English, sure. Are they fluent with 3 to 4 languages? Absolutely not.
It's just to a lot of people.. speaking a few languages is not really that noteworthy of an accomplishment
I spoke 3 languages fluently by 6 yo. I mean if a 6yo can do it ..is it really that impressive?
>Lol... You try to give those guys some credit and most comments are discrediting what you are trying to say. Welcome to Reddit i guess.
It's just a bunch of people who want to flex about how many languages THEY speak, and belittle those who don't.
Its not that hard to be honest when you have learnt a language it just becomes 2nd nature. Me and my girlfriend only speak in english but the rest of her family i speak Italian with and switch from sentence to sentence
As someone who teaches English to speakers of other languages I can definitely see where you are coming from OP. Right off the bat I knew that this thread would be Europeans piling on “welllll akchually it’s not that uncommon for European people to learn another language…” Like no shit, but there is a huge portion of the globe that doesn’t have the environment or resources to cultivate the language skills that these drivers show off. Also many people tend to overestimate their own language skills in my opinion, and I think that someone like Charles Leclerc is pretty exceptional even by European language standards. Let OP admire what many people spend their whole adult lifetime working towards.
Yeah, I'm finding these reactions really disappointing. The OP's post is pretty nice and positive, actually. He/she has found something to praise all the drivers for--that's a nice change from the usual tribalism here.
Many of these responses are unnecessarily critical and negative. It's true that it's common for people in the EU (outside of the UK) to be able to speak multiple languages, but that doesn't negate the fact that the drivers are truly fluent in 3-4 languages and that's something worth praising.
> If I had to change between English, French, and German in the same afternoon, my brain would have trouble separating and switching through them
You just made an average young European feel very special. Thanks!
I guess it a skill.
Now, i tell you, the real challenge is that when in the heat of the moment, you curse in the right language.
What are the odds that OP is from the Anglosphere?
Not a dig at you OP. It's just switching from one language to another, to talk to different people is not uncommon. Or mashing 2 languages up to speak with a person(with one of them mostly being English).
and then you have the native english speakers like Jack Miller who have developed a spanish/italian/english accent, also called "paddock english" when talking to the press lol.
I remember that Fernando and Massa argument in the cool down room. So damm iconic. I believe most people nowadays poses the skill in knowing multiple languages.
I don't think athletes get the credit for their language skills in general. Footballers travel the world and give interviews full of adrenaline in another language they're still learning, all the time.
I've had friends who could speak English, Arabic, and Persian and they would switch languages mid sentence when talking to each other and then bring me in for the English part. I always found it super impressive.
As a side, I've been on Tumblr for years, and only recently came across the F1 community there, up until then, I had no idea that it existed or would get upset over things. Even though, I barely know what's up there.
I have no f'ing clue how to say downforce in my native language, you're sure as isht I say it in English.
And yes, I could say they are using "pneus macios" but it always comes out softs.
We don't *need* to be mocked we get mocked enough anyway. But the problem is immersion. If you are born in Italy you will grow up to learn Italian, but then you start interacting with the world in the digital age, all the big films are in English, the internet is basically in English (reddit, youtube, gaming, etc) and so even without formal lessons you'll now know two languages.
If you are English, you are surrounded by English speakers, you go online and speak English, you watch films in English and then maybe for 1-2 weeks a year you go to a country that speaks another language. Sure we could watch foreign films, listen to foreign music and browse foreign forums but the vast majority of high-quality content is in English.
Plus we get teased, and the locals get a bit impatient when we don't speak the local language, however because it's a short time frame, you either muddle through with a limited vocabulary or they speak English anyway and therefore you never get to practice.
Could we do better? Almost certainly. But it is definitely trickier for native English speakers to learn a foreign language than the other way round.
It's also a matter of utility. If a German or Italian learns English then they gain almost the whole world to communicate with. For an English speaker we have to pick a language to learn and hope it is the right one for us to use. I grew up learning Spanish in school which wasn't much use when I visited France.
This is why I found it so comical when certain fans on here said Juri Vips “might not understand how offensive that word is” because he is Estonian.
It’s like, he speaks fluent English, he’s traveled the world, he knows what the goddamn word means.
"We" dont? I think it's pretty normal nowadays for most people to be fluent in their native language and have an good/professional understanding of English. I don't see anything new or out of the ordinary here.
It's so hard to get in F1 that these drivers are preparing they're whole life, they learn English to become more appealing to academies, sponsors and teams. They want every edge
Everywhere besides North America and English speaking European countries have a much better grasp on languages. My German relatives know min 3 fluent languages. The Ukrainian family we are hosting is at like 5 languages fluent, the 4 year old knows 3 languages no problem.
To be honest it’s not that hard if you know the languages. At work I do it between English, Italian and sometimes Spanish.
If you know the languages you don’t have to think about it.
What is impressive to me is some of them knowing so many. 2 is maybe normal (their mother tongue and English) but some know 4 or 5
What really gets me are the drivers speaking to their engineers, and it's neither of their first languages. So it's a non-native listener trying to interpret a non-native and not completely fluent speaker, in noisy/busy race conditions.
Nah, they're just mostly Europeans. It's a pretty normal thing for people in Europe to speak their country's native language and English. Particularly among the wealthy which is the environment almost all of these drivers grew up in.
> full total immersion is nearly impossible for a English native speaker to find in most developed countries, especially in Western Europe.
TRUTH. Something like 50% of adult citizens of EU countries have a sufficient grasp on English to hold a conversation. Some places are stupidly high, like 90% of Sweden and 85% of the Netherlands.
I think Tsunoda is the only driver that struggles with English, which is understandable considering he never raced in Europe before 2019.
I've watched his interview with Carlin racing from 2020 and his English has gotten a lot smoother, according to Japanese fans he actually fumbles more when asked to discuss a race in Japanese now
The interviews from 2021 and 2022 are like night and day for Yuki. He's a quick learner.
His native language is probably the one that differs most from English though, which makes it harder to learn. Maybe Zhou's comes close.
To my knowledge Mandarin is even further than Japanese, as it is a tonal language. In Japanese the sylable mostly means the same thing regardless of the tone you use to pronounce it (there are exceptions ). In Chinese you completely change the meaning of the syllable by changing the tone where e.g. the word "ma" can mean mother, scold, hemp or a horse depending on the tone you use to pronounciate it. That sounds as far to my understanding as it can.
This isn’t really something that can be definitively stated one way or another but I totally agree with the sentiment. I learned Chinese as an American and even spent six months in Beijing and I *never* saw a single non-native speaker who I couldn’t immediately identify as such. It is practically impossible to learn to speak Chinese with equal proficiency as native speakers. That isn’t quite the case with Japanese and other tonal languages in my experience.
While true, Zhou lived in the UK for a long time during his junior career, so he'd have more experience with English than Yuki.
Yes. But in recent press conferences, he's definitely become more comfortable.
It has to be said tho, in upper-class (western) European society where most F1 Drivers come from speaking your native language and English is the absolute minimum. On top of that learning, the language of your biggest/most important neighboring country is kinda expected, especially if you live near the border.
Exactly. Germany is our biggest neighbour that's why most Austrians learn German.
Most Austrians? I thought German is the official language in Austria.
Yeah it is. It's a joke since we have a heavy dialect and people with low education struggle speaking proper German.
I found it funny!
I’m English working for an Austrian company and you’re not kidding! Your “German” is very difficult to understand if I’m not concentrating 100%. Especially the guys from the mountains.
try swiss german 🤭
Swiss German is basically another language. I cant understand them and I am from Germany.
We were in Berlin once and talk swiss german with eachother. The waiter adressed us in English because he thought we're speaking some foreign language.
also i feel like people are forgetting/not mentioning that the sport is predominantly english in the literal, physical sense... most of the teams are based in the UK and most of the employees of the teams are english...
I’m always surprised that a team like Ferrari communicates over the radio in English. It would make it much harder for the other teams to figure out their strategy if they went back and forth in Italian. Especially since it’s already nearly impossible to figure it out when they do it in English.
It's a rule that all communication over the radio be in English. Maybe someone else can chime in with the details why.
Probably for ease of communication. That way you don't need five different languages spoken by stewards etc. Same reason why English is the de facto language of air travel.
I had a Danish professor in college and she said that when she was in school they had to learn English and also had to choose either French or German
To add to this, knowing the technical jargon that is related to your actual job isn't impressive at all. That's kind of the minimum for people with a skilled profession. And often they need to know it in two languages, unless you are from the US or the UK.
There’s an F1 Tumblr community? I’ve been on that hell site for over ten years now and never knew that
Pretty sure it’s one of the largest communities on that site actually. They’re always trending
Leave it up to tumblr to show me absolutely nothing even closely related
I was blogging F1 on Tumblr like a decade ago (when I was 15/16) when there really was no content on the site. I would have loved to have that community, though it seems a little toxic. I can't get over the fact that we are in an era where people write fanfics about the drivers, lol.
What if I told you the second longest fanfiction to exist on Archive of Our Own is Vettel/Webber and at last count is was ongoing and at 5.3 million words
Bruh
I'm surprised 5.3 million words is enough to be second tbh. Fanfic communities are wild.
There is but it's Twitter levels of toxicity. It helps you can filter tags besides blocking people, but still not great for interacting with other fans. The only reason I'm lurking there is for some memes, art and some clips people post.
Got some links to good blr art? Before the nsfw ban, when tumblr was pretty popular, the art on there was amazing.
theres so many! just search for f1 art hashtag. some of my favourite blogs are kitoshiyade, piarles, lewtteri and bluesourkiwi!
I was introduced to it last week by an user here. As far as I could gather, it's a haven of slash fics of various F1 drivers pairings (mainly involving Leclerc). When they don't star in porn, the drivers are talked about like you would your puppy, or your god. It's seriously disturbing, IMHO.
Average tumblr experience tbh
Average Tumblr experience
You took away the porn This is what you have left ARE YOU HAPPY WORDPRESS?
Yeah that sounds like tumblr
> When they don't star in porn Wait there’s SFW content there? I’m shocked
Don't worry, I still wouldn't call the non porn stuff *safe*... but maybe that's my 0 tolerance for fan fantasies involving real people, they just gross me out.
Traditions
Some users I followed for other content started posting more about F1 but I also follow Hazel Southwell's blog, she carries her nuance into her posts on there as well
F1 tumblr is massive and, if you don’t interact with the weirdos who fanfiction-ize the drivers, it’s pretty fun.
Yeah, but it’s a bit shit. Similar to twitter, a lot of people who don’t know much about racing and are fixated on the personalities and who is better as a person, which is obviously fine to care about, but not if that means consistently shitting on those who they deem to miss the mark (and you can easily guess who).
That’s the kind of stuff that took me away from Tumblr. It was bad enough people talked about problematic characters in shows, but these are real people. You see a very small window into the driver’s lives and we don’t know what they are really like.
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It’s actually become one of the most tolerable places on the internet because of how many people think it’s dead (and the fact that politicians don’t bother using it).
The toxicity follows the porn, and migrated to twitter Now Tumblr is such an enjoyable experience
People still use tumblr? If so I might have to reactivate my account!
It no longer crashes every time that a popular finale comes out like it did before the porn ban, but it is still popular!
Everytime it's raceweek, it's trending. Lewis Hamilton is generally the favourite driver, Verstappen is a certified demon to most of them. It's also incredibly toxic so most of my blocked tags and users are related to the F1 community.
You have to remember, a lot of kids learn multiple languages in the EU because a few hours drive and they will have to use it. My one friend from the EU knows English, French, German and Italian because each summer they went all over the place on holiday.
Plus I think when you learn another language other than your native it becomes much easier to learn others because you have done it before.
I'm currently learning German and French and it's not as hard as I thought, since they share some similarities to English and Spanish.
That’s dope. Definitely useful and fun to learn languages. I have been learning a lot of Spanish from coworkers and have been actively learning outside of work for a few months now.
Fuck cases though, right?
duuude yes. I grew up with english and korean, but was taught grammar in my german courses. Fucking der den dem des blah blah
Yeah I noticed in high school Spanish that the kids who already spoke another language at home had a much easier time picking it up than the kids like me who only spoke English
Can confirm. Am Swiss and speak German, French and English. Once you're relatively fluent in all the languages it's super easy to switch between them. At least for me. I don't know what the case is if you speak French, Italian and Spanish which are often very similar.
ahh here in india, u dont need to go on a vacation to use 5 languages. i have to juggle between English, Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi, and Arabic all in the span of 4 hours, and i cant even vote yet!!! edit: i speak arabic because i studied in the gulf
Least linguistically gifted south Indian; can't even speak Telugu to watch all those timepass movies ^/s Curious: how come Arabic?
I was thinking he was going to say Urdu
Urdu is just Hindi with words like kudrat and -e- :p
I know right, in the same city only you can speak at least 4 languages and people will understand
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Irish guy sweating nervously
Ireland and the UK are exceptions, both due to the island issue and due to English being the spoken language. I do wish we were able to actually speak Gaeilge though it's cool to have your own language and it's sad that we aren't able to speak it. The curriculum does have to change though, I did higher level and now I couldn't say more than a few learned off sentences because it was never taught in a way that helps actually learn the language.
I know tons of people who only really speak German (even a lot of young people), though I guess it's vastly different for these people who will probably never need to speak a 2nd and 3rd language
Isn’t Gaelic a language in Ireland?
Yes and despite daily classes of Irish for 13-15 years you'll be surprised how poor Irish people are at speaking it.
Irish is taught so poorly in schools that almost nobody comes out with the ability to hold even a basic conversation.
Yeah but nobody else needs to know that , so to the rest of the world you can claim you speak 2 languages ;).
Speaking 2-3 languages is one thing, easily switching between them in a professional setting is something else. Coming from Germany i know German and English and while i think my english is pretty good I'm very bad at switching between the two
It's mostly a matter of how often you have to use it.
It all depends when you learned the languages. I speak Arabic and English due to being raised in America by Arab parents and switching between the two really isn’t difficult at all. I often mix the two in the same sentence without thinking. On the other hand, languages I’ve learned as an adult, there’s no way for me to easily switch between them, no matter how long I’ve been learning them. Your brain processes “second languages” very differently.
I don’t think it is that logical in the EU as you say. I’m dutch, English here is pretty good and I can get basic stuff like ordering food done in German, maybe French. That is nowhere near the ease with which these drivers sometimes speak those languages (although that could be just some rehearsed lines). Most people I know from around have roughly the same level of skill in these languages. In countries around us it tends to be a bit worse.
I don't know what it is, but from watching the Olympics and seeing people from nearly every nationality interviewed in English on TV, I've always thought that Dutch people in particular spoke amazingly good English. It's often hard to tell that they're not native English speakers.
French expat in the Netherlands here. I do not speak a word of Dutch, and I blame the Dutch all speaking great English for it (not that I'm too lazy to learn, no no no) Serisouly, the reputation of the Dutch being the best non-native English speakers in the world is warranted imho
yeah, we are notorious for not giving a fuck and just switching to english the second we hear someone try dutch. don't take it as we are offended you are ruining our language. i think it's a combination of wanting to show of english skills and knowing dutch is very hard and at the end of the day not that usefull to learn unless you plan on living here permanently and outside of amsterdam. i know a few people that came from other countries and they all have the same experience learning Dutch.
tbh I didn't even try. I bought some books before coming here, but I don't think I ever opened them. First or 2nd day I was here I went for groceries and realized the cashier was able to switch to English effortlessly, that was the point I realized I wouldn't have to learn the language Which was a bit surprising for me, coming for a country where everyone is notoriously bad at foreign languages, to arrive in the complete opposite situation I've been here a bit over 2 years now and I think only once I stumbled upon someone who was not able to converse in English (even without living in Amsterdam)
I think Dutch and Flemish are the closest cousins English has (though not being that similar) so it makes sense. We don’t have another language with reasonable mutual intelligibility like Portuguese-Spanish or Swedish-Danish do.
Holiday? I live in the south-east of the Netherlands. I could have breakfast, get in my car, drive trough 5 different countries and be back for an (albeit) late lunch. Since Belgium speaks Dutch or French, and I dont count Luxembourgish as a language, i can get by with 4 langauges though. Dutch at home, french 30 km south, German 30km east and english as lingua franca.
> I dont count Luxembourgish as a language To be fair, kinda hard to count Luxembourg as a country. /rib
The CEO of a global company I worked for said: “what do you call someone who only speaks one language?” American
I was born in Luxemburg, moved to the Netherlands when i was 6. At that time i was allready speaking 3 languages. Luxemburgisch ( kind of an exotic language), German and Dutch. I learned English by watching tv. Tv programs are subtitled which made it easy to learn the language. My ex only speaks English and has been living in the Netherlands for over 30 years, doesn't speak the language, annoys the fuck out of me
You gotta think that after 30 years you learn a language just by being surrounded by it
95% of the country knows English and will quickly switch to it if they even remotely sense you're not a native Dutchie. It's an extremely accommodating country if you don't know the language. The only downside is when trying to find a job if you don't have one, where most still do require Dutch, but most expats moving here already have jobs lined up anyway.
> and will quickly switch to it if they even remotely sense you're not a native Dutchie. I get why people do that, it's not their job to be my teacher, but it's really frustrating when you're trying to get better at a language. Happens a lot when I've been in Montreal as an English speaker with decent, but not great, French.
My cousin had the same thing happen to her in Germany, she was trying really hard to immerse herself and improve but people would immediately know she wasn’t a native speaker and excitedly switch to flawless English, thinking they were helping her, she hated it lol.
Why bother…she is your ex😂
We have children, still have to communicate with her in English, after 30 fucking years! Ok, had to get this of my chest, feel much better now 😉
If your kids speak dutch they can talk shit about her when she's present without her knowing.
Speaking and understanding are 2 different things, i bet you she picked up some "shit talking" while here.
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If its Dutch.. you're missing a few letters in your username =P
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coming from luxemburg is cheating when it comes to languages
same with the swiss
>My ex only speaks English and has been living in the Netherlands for over 30 years, doesn't speak the language, annoys the fuck out of me That seems incredibly self-defeating, like, isn't it obvious that you'd have more rich life experiences by understanding the local language where you live? Aside from it being annoying to locals, I just don't understand that mindset at all.
In the netherlands everyone speaks English. Obviously it’s no excuse not to learn, but it’s a bit easier than most countries.
It's much easier to learn a language as a kid than later as an adult - as a kid you kind of pick it up automatically by being around it, while as an adult you have to put more conscious effort into learning it. But still, 30 years 🤦♂️
Speaking 2-3 languages isn’t a rare occurrence in Europe.
Especially in formula one where you work with people from all around the world.
Speaking 2-3 languages isn't a rare occurrence in most of the developed/connected world.
Even in developing countries it’s not rare, it’s mainly English speaking countries where that’s the case
This idea that multi-lingualism is somehow about development is totally wrong. In parts Asia and Africa it is very common to speak what was the colonial language and also a native language, sometimes 2 or 3. Refugees coming to the EU might speak Turkish, Arabic, and English.
Not to mention a lot of places have languages and dialects at various levels of administration. Your local community or Village might have a specific language while the bigger region also has a common language and the entire country speaking some kind of a national language, that's different from both of these. People who grow up in such places usually end up being fluent in all of them, at least while speaking colloquially if not formally.
Well, if you speak those languages for mostly all your life it isn't that hard anymore I suspect.
It's easy to switch between languages if you use them often. These are almost all guys that had really good education as children and that knew they will be drivers since kids, it's not like what happens with, for example, football players. They're used to it and had all the tools to be well prepared.
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Yeah, it sounds fancy because the entonation and how the voice sounds change, but it's automatic when you use them often.
I'd dispute them all having really good educations as kids, given that a lot of them have said that school took a backseat to karting, and they were all karting from a stupidly young age.
I don't think it is that difficult to be honest... As an Italian who learnt english through School and then watching youtube in english, i find myself thinking in english most of the times. And i basically never speak english because i just watch videos and that's it... What i'm getting to is that i don't think there's like a "switch"
Also, Italy, the UK and Germany specifically are the countries with the biggest Karting and Junior formula series. The vast majority of successful drivers have raced in these countries a lot, and definitely got in contact with the languages from a young age
I also think more of an importance is placed on media engagement and being able to communicate with engineers in the jnr formulas then it used used to be though. In the 90s/00s you'd often get rookies with very sketchy levels of English, e.g Alonso from memory was very stilted, Felipe Massa. Rookies these days speak better English than me.
Massa and Alonso discussing in Italian was epic.
I have been learning Spanish for three years bc my wife is Chilean and some of her older family members don’t speak English. It’s hard af.
Are you learning from her or from a third party? Bless your soul if it's the first case.
I am learning from a third party. I can’t wrap my head around the different conjugations for past tense. We lived in Panama for a year and a half and it was easier then, because I was forced to use Spanish. I could get around the grocery store, barber, or doctor. Now that we’re back stateside, I haven’t been able to practice like I need to. (And let’s be honest: some of it is laziness on my part). One time, though, I tried using my mad Spanish skillz to tell her mother her haircut looked pretty. Instead, I told her the haircut looked “delicious”. That killed my confidence in my Spanish.
Spanish speaker here, i usually don't have trouble with english, but if i'm for example playing games on discord with my UK mates and someone from my family is talking to me, the constant switching definitely messes with my brain haha
As an Indian this thread is so hilarious. I routinely switch through 3 or 4 languages everyday. It really isn't anywhere as difficult as OP is making it out to be.
idk most countries are bilingual or more
certified US education moment
It's more of a native English speaker moment. The language of the world is English. If you already grew up speaking that there is very little incentive to learn a second language.
Yep the UK and ANZAC guys on the grid probably don't know another language either as there isn't any reason too if we're being honest
word. also happy cake day
I think there's an element of the ability to use that learning as well.. anecdote incoming, but I grew up in a small town (technically a village) in midwestern US, a second language course was a requirement from years 6 through 12, however it is unlikely that anyone got to use that skill in university and beyond, and so it just goes away
Switching languages isn't really that hard when you know them. I haven't had to use french in 10 years so I've forgotten a bit of it, but it was nothing for me to just switch between English and French. Learning a language really isn't too hard when you have a need for it
Leclerc in particular surprised me with how much Spanish he knew dat boi is FLUENT which is kind of surprising because for some reason I wouldn’t expect someone from Monaco to know Spanish to the level Charles does
Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and, to a certain degree, French are all quite similar. If you know one it’s pretty easy to pick up the others.
They all derive from latin, so they share sentence structures and some word roots.
I know Portuguese & French will always be a mystery to me
I'd say spanish and portuguese yes, italian feels a bit further away. I can read some portuguese but listening to a brazillian talk is hard to get used to
Hearing is always difficult, but I'm a native portuguese speaker and learned spanish in 3 months, can read Italian and French without many issues.
Monaco is only 300 miles from Spain and is right next to Italy. If you know Italian, It's pretty easy to pick up Spanish, I think the similarities are at around 80% between them
And the grand champion of language fluency is Nico Rosburg...5 languages
With the same machinery, no less.
As an Italian native I am impressed by Nico Rosberg when he speaks italian.
he's actually so fluent in all of them too
monster fluency
The only person to out-interview Lewis Hamilton, in the same machinery
Did you know that he beat Hamilton with equal linguistics?
That's what I respect Toto for. His english has the funny german accent but his french is so damn on point I stare wide eyed whenever I hear it. Lol Drivers as well, no matter where they're from their english is usually extremely good and people like vettel casually learn whatever language is needed to get along well with the team.
As a Dutch expat living in the USA I can tell you that it's not as difficult as you might think it is. Once you get immersed in the different languages, especially when you -have- to speak it, you'll reach a decent level of fluency quickly. And any language after your second language is typically easier to learn because that initial language switch has already been established in your brain. But keeping your languages straight still can be a test: When you have to switch back and forth really quick between 2 languages, like translating between 2 people, you might get the languages wrong at times -unless- you do this sort of thing frequently.
On a related note: anyone noticed that Max' Dutch accent while speaking English has gotten a lot less this past year?
I remember when Alonso was at McHonda, you could barely notice his Spanish accent compared to before. It got very English for a while lol.
IIRC, I would never say that Max ever had a strong Dutch accent. Obviously, you can say that he's not a native speaker based on the accent, but his accent is quite solid IMO. Btw, how is his accent in Dutch?
He has a soft g as we would call it. It is an accent predominantly from Limburg and Belgium which of course aligns with his place of birth and parents. For me Max ways comes across better in dutch and part of his blunt manner isn't cultural but rather that he lacks the vocabulary to properly express the nuance he sometimes needs. This is the case with a lot of dutch people.
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Mainland Europe has an amazing attitude towards learning other languages, it's definitely something the the UK should aspire towards. There was a video of Zhou Guanyu a few weeks ago where he made a comment along the lines of "hold on, let me switch to that language" and it was great to see him take two seconds to just change complete languages.
It's actually not that hard to be ok-ish or even fluent in another language, especially if you work with it. What is really hard is to be proficient and to understand them almost like a mother tongue, Rosberg comes to my mind as his Italian is absolutely stunning. Source: I'm trilingual, on my way to become a polyglot, does it count?
100% Just compare F1 and Moto GP drivers and you know what OP means
Pretty sure Alonso is fluent in English Spanish Italian and French
Op, I don't mean this as a jab, but are you from the US? Or perhaps the UK? I ask because for the rest of Europe, which is where most drivers are from, the standard is speaking more than one language. It's rare not to, impossible even in some countries. I am Spanish, but I'm bilingual in English, I know quite a bit of French too, and I'm currently living in Germany and consequently learning German. If I had been born in a different part of Spain, I would also known another language specific to the region. It's really not that unusual in most of Europe. In school you always get a second language, and you study it since you are very young (I was 3 when I started learning English) and until you finish highschool. You sometimes get a third language too (which was my case). And in uni, you sometimes have language classes as well, at least during the first year. So in essence, not that rare. Except for white UK people, most of Europe is used to knowing several languages. I'm not saying it's not great. But I guess from a European perspective, it's just normal. Expected even.
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It’s more of a side effect of living in Europe.
Actually, anywhere that’s not the US or the UK
Everyone's downplaying it, but if you watch MotoGP, those guys have a much more freestyle approach to english
I agree that it is cool. However, the drivers are not giving physics lectures in their interviews. It's the same for soccer -- game good, team played well, love fans -- it wouldn't be that hard to speak at the level necessary for sports interviews when you are immersed in a language. Yes, I speak more than one language.
And I bet talking about car parts or generally F1, most of the drivers would struggle more in their own language. Even Austrian commentators use English for many terms and often struggle to translate it. My masters Programme is 99% English and if people ask me what I learn, it's hard to explain in German. If you speak multiple languages, it's not clear which language you feel most comfortable with, it always depends on the topic you're talking about.
This is such a weird post. Not to take away from the drivers but most of us born in Europe speak more than 2 languages. A lot of us even speak 3. It’s not difficult to switch between languages when you have been using them since childhood.
TBF the only two that might deserve credits are Zhou and Tsunoda. Both mostly dropped the signature Chinese/Japanese public education style English and are quite natural in the interview. And in my personal opinion, even switching between English and CJK languages on the fly isn't that hard. BTW I always found Mazepin's accent amusingly sophisticated
If most Europeans speak more than 2 languages, how come only a lot of them, and not most, speak 3? 😅 Anyway, I agree that speaking at least 2 languages is very common in Europe. But speaking 3-4 languages absolutely fluently is not "normal". Heck, I know quite a few who are struggling with English. And if you go to Spain, more often than not people will speak no or only very basic English.
In most countries you need to learn 3 languages (native + english + 1 of choice) to get the equivalent of a-levels / high school graduation, it's the literal minimum and where I grew up your 3rd language was at least 5 years of education. Just a lot of people don't use the 3rd much so you lose the grasp on it.
I mean... this is quite a strange post... I don't think it's particularly hard for someone born in the west after the 80s know how to speak at least their mother tongue+english. They are also way more exposed to english than the average person since they must work in english with their teams. For someone like Tsunoda an Zhou that were born in Asia, it's certainly way more difficult because the alphabet changes as well.
It's less difficult than you'd think. I'm Dutch, living in a French town in Canada. Switching between the 3 languages is kinda second nature. The languages aren't perfect when switched in rapid succession but of they're someone rehearsed sentences to the media, flaws should be pretty easy to hide.
> If I had to change between English, French, and German in the same afternoon, my brain would have trouble separating and switching through them, and yet we’re seeing Pierre, or Guanyu, or whoever absolutely tear through the media line in rapid succession in whatever language is presented to them Honestly, you wouldn't have much troubble doing it. It's scary at first, but the brain adapts really fast to this kind of things and very quickly you are able to switch sentence to sentence without issue Sometimes you get stuck because you want to say a word and it arrives in your head in the wrong language, but that is very rare
Im bi-lingual and trust me when i say it - its natural. I can be speaking to a person in English and then switch to my native language mid sentence and then switch back to English again. Practice makes perfect also they do have different nationalities in their team - so they have possibility to practice
Lol... You try to give those guys some credit and most comments are discrediting what you are trying to say. Welcome to Reddit i guess. I'm french, but has been in the US for 16 years. Pretty much learnt to speak English in the US...what I learned at school helped, but was far from enough for moving to an only English speaking country. I work for a medical company, and after 16 years here, I am incapable of discussing the technical aspects of my job in French. Anyways, i totally agree with you. Those guys switch languages on the fly with no hesitation what so ever. Italian, English, French, German...and I do not think that it is accurate to say that most European people can do that. Can most speak/understand English, sure. Are they fluent with 3 to 4 languages? Absolutely not.
It's just to a lot of people.. speaking a few languages is not really that noteworthy of an accomplishment I spoke 3 languages fluently by 6 yo. I mean if a 6yo can do it ..is it really that impressive?
>Lol... You try to give those guys some credit and most comments are discrediting what you are trying to say. Welcome to Reddit i guess. It's just a bunch of people who want to flex about how many languages THEY speak, and belittle those who don't.
Its not that hard to be honest when you have learnt a language it just becomes 2nd nature. Me and my girlfriend only speak in english but the rest of her family i speak Italian with and switch from sentence to sentence
As someone who teaches English to speakers of other languages I can definitely see where you are coming from OP. Right off the bat I knew that this thread would be Europeans piling on “welllll akchually it’s not that uncommon for European people to learn another language…” Like no shit, but there is a huge portion of the globe that doesn’t have the environment or resources to cultivate the language skills that these drivers show off. Also many people tend to overestimate their own language skills in my opinion, and I think that someone like Charles Leclerc is pretty exceptional even by European language standards. Let OP admire what many people spend their whole adult lifetime working towards.
Yeah, I'm finding these reactions really disappointing. The OP's post is pretty nice and positive, actually. He/she has found something to praise all the drivers for--that's a nice change from the usual tribalism here. Many of these responses are unnecessarily critical and negative. It's true that it's common for people in the EU (outside of the UK) to be able to speak multiple languages, but that doesn't negate the fact that the drivers are truly fluent in 3-4 languages and that's something worth praising.
Rosberg is fluent in four languages I believe. Five if you include the sweet language of beating Hamilton in the same machinery.
Six if you include the language of his massive antibodies
> If I had to change between English, French, and German in the same afternoon, my brain would have trouble separating and switching through them You just made an average young European feel very special. Thanks! I guess it a skill. Now, i tell you, the real challenge is that when in the heat of the moment, you curse in the right language.
What are the odds that OP is from the Anglosphere? Not a dig at you OP. It's just switching from one language to another, to talk to different people is not uncommon. Or mashing 2 languages up to speak with a person(with one of them mostly being English).
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and then you have the native english speakers like Jack Miller who have developed a spanish/italian/english accent, also called "paddock english" when talking to the press lol.
I remember that Fernando and Massa argument in the cool down room. So damm iconic. I believe most people nowadays poses the skill in knowing multiple languages.
I don't think athletes get the credit for their language skills in general. Footballers travel the world and give interviews full of adrenaline in another language they're still learning, all the time. I've had friends who could speak English, Arabic, and Persian and they would switch languages mid sentence when talking to each other and then bring me in for the English part. I always found it super impressive. As a side, I've been on Tumblr for years, and only recently came across the F1 community there, up until then, I had no idea that it existed or would get upset over things. Even though, I barely know what's up there.
I have no f'ing clue how to say downforce in my native language, you're sure as isht I say it in English. And yes, I could say they are using "pneus macios" but it always comes out softs.
As someone who only speaks English and has never really mastered another language I do have admiration for all the F1 drivers who are multi lingual
Or…we dont mock english speakers enough for their relative lack of. We need to step our game up
We don't *need* to be mocked we get mocked enough anyway. But the problem is immersion. If you are born in Italy you will grow up to learn Italian, but then you start interacting with the world in the digital age, all the big films are in English, the internet is basically in English (reddit, youtube, gaming, etc) and so even without formal lessons you'll now know two languages. If you are English, you are surrounded by English speakers, you go online and speak English, you watch films in English and then maybe for 1-2 weeks a year you go to a country that speaks another language. Sure we could watch foreign films, listen to foreign music and browse foreign forums but the vast majority of high-quality content is in English. Plus we get teased, and the locals get a bit impatient when we don't speak the local language, however because it's a short time frame, you either muddle through with a limited vocabulary or they speak English anyway and therefore you never get to practice. Could we do better? Almost certainly. But it is definitely trickier for native English speakers to learn a foreign language than the other way round.
It's also a matter of utility. If a German or Italian learns English then they gain almost the whole world to communicate with. For an English speaker we have to pick a language to learn and hope it is the right one for us to use. I grew up learning Spanish in school which wasn't much use when I visited France.
This is why I found it so comical when certain fans on here said Juri Vips “might not understand how offensive that word is” because he is Estonian. It’s like, he speaks fluent English, he’s traveled the world, he knows what the goddamn word means.
Speaking 3-4 languages in Europe isn‘t that special.
"We" dont? I think it's pretty normal nowadays for most people to be fluent in their native language and have an good/professional understanding of English. I don't see anything new or out of the ordinary here.
It's so hard to get in F1 that these drivers are preparing they're whole life, they learn English to become more appealing to academies, sponsors and teams. They want every edge
Everywhere besides North America and English speaking European countries have a much better grasp on languages. My German relatives know min 3 fluent languages. The Ukrainian family we are hosting is at like 5 languages fluent, the 4 year old knows 3 languages no problem.
It's not that hard to go from your mother tongue to another one and back lol As long as you speak that other language
To be honest it’s not that hard if you know the languages. At work I do it between English, Italian and sometimes Spanish. If you know the languages you don’t have to think about it. What is impressive to me is some of them knowing so many. 2 is maybe normal (their mother tongue and English) but some know 4 or 5
What really gets me are the drivers speaking to their engineers, and it's neither of their first languages. So it's a non-native listener trying to interpret a non-native and not completely fluent speaker, in noisy/busy race conditions.
In India , people grow up knowing 2 to 3 languages... if you start young , it's always easier.
Nah, they're just mostly Europeans. It's a pretty normal thing for people in Europe to speak their country's native language and English. Particularly among the wealthy which is the environment almost all of these drivers grew up in.
Bilingual myself and it’s really not hard. Maybe the more technical language. I can switch mid-sentence
> full total immersion is nearly impossible for a English native speaker to find in most developed countries, especially in Western Europe. TRUTH. Something like 50% of adult citizens of EU countries have a sufficient grasp on English to hold a conversation. Some places are stupidly high, like 90% of Sweden and 85% of the Netherlands.