"Well... I'm the foreign minister and you're not. So there!"Alexander just can't let go of his jealousy over Kevin Rudd's fluency in mandarin impressing the Chinese delegation at APEC:
Asked if he was impressed by Mr Rudd's language skills, Mr Downer, a French speaker, said he was not one to flaunt his talent with foreign tongues.
"Remember I am the foreign minister so whether I can speak French or not seems to be reasonably immaterial.
"It's not something that I can speak French that I have paraded in all of my years in politics, though it's been quite useful to me as the foreign minister from time to time.
[...]
"I did the French language course and Mr Rudd did the Chinese language course. I did mine in two months and he did his in two years, that could say something him and me or something about the two languages. I think the former but that sounds a tad partisan."
I've studied French in year 8 at highschool for the 12 compulsory months, and got 98% for the year. I studied Mandarin for 2 and a half years full time at uni, got credits and distinctions (65-85%) and I'm nowhere near being fluent in either language. Not even close.
Either Alexander Downer is lying about being 'a French speaker', or he studied for a lot longer than 2 months.
Besides, French is dead easy compared with Mandarin. I should know.
4 comments:
It was hilarious. I laughed and laughed.
Mandarin is a whole different class of language to French.
Downer can't speak French.
Jon Faine challenged him this morning by asking (in French) if he thought he could speak reasonable French.
Now, I can't speak French, but I studied it for 3 years in high school and have travelled extensively in France over the last 20 years; so I can't really attest to the accuracy of this.
But. This is what I heard.
Downer replied "Oui, Je parlez Francay" [note incorrectly conjugated verb from the first page of a French course, and poor pronunciation].
Faine then asked "Vous parlez Francaise un petit peu?" [You speak French a little bit?}
Downer fluffed his response and went into his "I don't think it matters riff".
I am in no way fluent and even I can tell he's hopeless.
downer's just a moron. you can't learn french in two months. you're not getting invited to hu's house alex, get over it.
Thanks for the blog - good read.
Downers a tosser with a school yard mentality.
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