Language expert says Melania Trump's claim she speaks 6 languages is not true

[sandensea]

People in conservative circles have often said that Melania Trump has a higher IQ than any other First Lady. She herself boasts of being multi-lingual.

It’s claimed that she speaks Slovenian (her native language), Serbo-Croatian, Italian, German, and English - also, according to some sources, French.

But there is no actual proof that she speaks any language other than Slovenian and English with any actual degree of fluency.

There are no recordings of Melania Trump speaking any of the languages she claims to be fluent in except English. It is very possible that she studied it but does she or has she used it regularly - and what does she consider “fluent”?

Let’s look at her claims more deeply.

Melania says she speaks Italian, though when meeting the Pope - who is speaking Italian - in May 2017, Melania looks over to the translator to understand what he said.

Media reports likewise mentioned her speaking Italian in a Rome children's hospital - but it turns out she merely said “ciao” (“hi”).

When visiting a children’s hospital in France that July, the media reported she spoke French - but all she said was “Bonjour, je m’appelle Melania” (“Hello, my name is Melania”). And this August during the G-7, Melania was also spotted wearing translation headphones during the speech of French President Emanuel Macron.

At: https://www.politicalflare.com/2019/10/language-expert-says-melania-trumps-claim-she-speaks-6-languages-is-not-true/

Be best, dahlink: First Lady and alleged polyglot Melania Trump pretends to speak to Pope Francis in tourist Italian during Trump's May 2017 Vatican visit.

When Francis spoke, she was seen relying on an interpreter.

[Skittles]

1. she is as big a fraud as is Trump

remember when people thought she was some kind of highly educated architect?

[PSPS]

2. How hard is it to say "you pay me first" in different languages?

[Maven]

4. Her 6 languages

Dollars
Euros
Pounds
Yuan
Swiss francs

And of course

Rubles

[sandensea]

14. +1

Thread winner.

[spooky3]

53. Lol!!!

[dalton99a]

7. +1. And "Thank you - come again"

[Wounded Bear]

12. That costs extra...

[SammyWinstonJack]

32. Heh.

[Demovictory9]

10. lol

[kskiska]

3. I remember seeing the news clip of her with the French kids

and thought to myself that I can speak French as well as she. She never went beyond “Bonjour, je m’appelle Melania.”

[dalton99a]

8. +1. "She spoke fluent French!"

[sandensea]

17. Be beast!

Dahlink.

[rzemanfl]

37. Don't make me look things up early in the morning please.

[rzemanfl]

50. Back at you. n/t

[JHB]

6. Kung Pao Gai Ding. LOOK! I can speak Chinese!

[LuckyLib]

9. Americans easily accept someone's claim that they are "fluent" in a second or third

language other than their native tongue. Many also believe that 3 years of high school Spanish puts you in the fluency category. No such luck. People who live in areas where languages come in contact with each other may well have limited understanding of limited vocabulary related to a particular context. But complete fluency? No.
Melania understands English fairly well, though her production is minimal, protected by the limited contexts in which she has to use it. She no doubt has social vocabulary related to her station in life. With her family she uses Slovenian with her parents and Barron (a smart decision, so that he has grown up bilingual). If she only has limited comprehension of French or Italian, she's smart to use an interpreter.

[xmas74]

56. I had five years in Jr high and high school

And three semesters in college. (I chose French.) I had very good grades and supposedly had a "good ear". I could speak it and I could hold conversations. I never would have considered myself fluent or even conversational because it was all academic with no immersion. I never really had to use it and have sadly lost it over time.

I've had people tell me they were fluent in Spanish after one year of high school Spanish. It's insulting.

[myohmy2]

11. I...

...can barely understand her English...

...besides, she's got spooky looking eyes...

...they look like 2 piss holes in the snow...

...

[sandensea]

13. True.

She sounds like Zsa Zsa Gabor - but without any of the wit or charm.

Dahlink.

[herding cats]

15. Really?

I'm from a multi lingual household. I could have told you this due to her struggle with English. I know it's a difficult language to master, but the time she's had vs. her level of competency denotes a person predisposed to learning foreign languages.

When you're fully emerged in a language and still cannot master it decades on, you're not prone to be a natural at linguistics. Trust me on this one little thing.

[sandensea]

16. Predisposed to learning foreign languages, or not predisposed?

I found your reply interesting and, based on what I've seen, accurate.

Just had that one question.

[herding cats]

20. From what I've encountered some people have a knack others just don't.

For example: my one aunt has taken English language classes her entire life, and is still not truly fluent. She struggles with syntax to this day, it gets messed up in her mind. My grandmother is truly multi lingual. She immersed herself in the language. She speaks German, English plus Spanish fluently. Simply because she's lived in Germany, Mexico and the US and she adapted completely.

Many of us are multi lingual, as in we can think and speak more than one language, but others simply cannot. They think in one language and muddle through in others. Which means they're not fluent.

[sandensea]

22. So I take it Ms. Be Best wouldn't qualify as proficient?

Not that I hold it against her in the least.

It's just that it's pathetic that they - and the media - would constantly parade her as some kind of ninja polyglot - when in reality she can barely speak anything other than her native Slovenian.

My guess is that it was all Cheeto's idea - and that all this '5 languages' business probably embarrasses her.

[Dave Starsky]

29. Well, for a while they were saying she had a master's degree...

In design and architecture. I shit you not.

They finally removed that from her website.

[sandensea]

66. And this, from the same people who swear up and down that Obama 'didn't go to Harvard'.

"No one can remember him! His whole life is a lie!!"

[Coventina]

18. Yeah, she speaks six languages the same way I do.

A few phrases, hand gestures, and head scratching.
Then, referring to a dictionary.

[912gdm]

19. I will get a hide from this, and will proudly take it.

She is nothing but an eastern europeon whore.

[SergeStorms]

38. So far......

you're safe. A Venus flytrap by any other name....and so forth.

[rzemanfl]

39. Is "Europeon" deliberate? n/t

[LuvNewcastle]

49. Be Best

She's from south central Europe.

[DFW]

21. Fluency is a relative term.

Almost anyone from Slovenia will understand Serbian and Croatian, just like native speakers of Norwegian and Swedish converse with each other in their native languages because they are so similar.

Any Slovene will know a few phrases of Italian and German, since Slovenia has been under Hapsburg and Italian influence at various times over the last few centuries. I haven't been there in many years, but when I was there, I found Italian got me understood everywhere I went. I imagine in parts closer to the Austrian border, German would have been more widely spoken.

By the same token, total fluency means to me that a native will never know you're not one of them. I am not totally fluent in any language but English, but I am fully conversational in eight others. By Melania's standards, I am also fluent in Turkish, Portuguese, Japanese, Hungarian and Romanian, i.e. I can say good morning, say "thank you" and order tea for breakfast.

[cannabis_flower]

34. I think you can be fluent..

and still have an accent. I've met many people who speak almost perfect English but still have an accent. You would never mistake someone with an accent as a native speaker but if you can speak and be understood, you are able to listen and understand, you have a good vocabulary and you can read and write, I would say you are fluent even if you have an accent. In fact, I've met some people who speak better with an accent than a native without an accent.

Contrast Zbigniew Brzezinski with the fictional characters Beavis and Butthead. Brzezinski, fluent with an accent. Beavis and Butthead, native Americans but still not really fluent.

[DFW]

54. To be fair, "Zbig" was real life

I met him once, and yes, his English was excellent, as it well should have been. But I am thinking more of someone like Viktor Sukhodrev to have achieved total fluency. Or, closer to home, my two daughters, whom we deliberately raised to be bi-lingual.My wife and I made a point of only speaking our own native languages to them from day one, and it worked. When they speak German, Germans hear only a fellow German. When they speak English, Americans hear only another American.

On the other hand, maybe you are right, and I am using standards that are too stringent. I figure I am disqualified from fluency in Dutch when people in Holland tell me they can still tell I'm originally from South Africa and haven't completely lost my Afrikaans accent (I have never even been to South Africa), along with the fact that I never learned to write it.

[cannabis_flower]

59. Yes, I believe your standards are a little too stringent

According to Lexico.com, powered by Oxford ( https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/fluent ) fluent means:

1. Able to express oneself easily and articulately.

‘a fluent speaker and writer on technical subjects’

1.1 Able to speak or write a particular foreign language easily and accurately.
‘she became fluent in French and German’

1.2 (of a foreign language) spoken accurately and with facility.
‘he spoke fluent Spanish’

https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/fluent

So one can be fluent and still have an accent. One can also be an inarticulate native speaker - like Trump (Beavis or is it Butthead?)

[DFW]

64. That would generously make me fluent in nine languages

Last edited Thu Oct 3, 2019, 02:05 PM - Edit history (1)

I usually say I can speak nine languages, but never thought of myself as fluent in all of them.

[cannabis_flower]

68. I don't call myself fluent..

but I call myself semi-bilingual in Spanish. I speak pretty well according to Spanish speakers. I am really good at reading. I've taken online tests that measure my vocabulary as at about the level of a 10 year old which isn't too bad. My weakness is that I really suck at listening, especially when people are talking fast. I have started listening to music and watching more television in Spanish to try and remedy that but it's definitely a process. You don't become bilingual in just a few years.

I have also studied Portuguese, French, Russian, and Italian a little but I wouldn't call myself fluent or bilingual in any of them. I'm a little more advanced in Portuguese than the others though.

[DFW]

69. I used to live in Spain and went to school there

Majored in Spanish in college, too. I lived in Barcelona, and even when I speak Castellano, people in other parts of Spain say I have a Catalan accent. Ironically, when I speak Catalan in Barcelona, the locals say I haven't lost my Mallorca accent (Mallorquí is Catalan with a regional accent).

I don't know much Portuguese at all, although can understand much of the written language just from knowing French, Catalan and Castilian. French, Italian and Russian I can handle, although Russians call my spoken Russian very antiquated, since I mostly know it from literature classes, and was never exposed to Soviet era slang. I use my Germanic languages (German, Dutch, Swedish) almost daily with natives of those countries, so I keep them all current.

[Aussie105]

23. Awww, Gee!

You weren't supposed to question her IQ or her linguistic skills! Gone and spoilt it all now . . .

Brain plasticity means young children can pick up a new language and be fluent in it without any accent, while older people can't.

I came from a Dutch speaking country (guess which one?) at age 10, got dumped into an speaking English only primary school. Took a few years of this full immersion to catch up, but I did. Spoke Dutch at home, but my parents slowly soaked up English too, but it took much longer.
Father learnt English before coming to Australia, and kept his 'Queen's English' accent forever. Mother kept her accent for the rest of her life.

In short, at Melania's age she could only be fluent if she learnt, and was immersed in, another language at a much earlier age.
Maybe, doubt it though.
Melania's supporters claiming she has fluency in 6 languages, is just jive talk. Even English, she is not fluent in.

[cynatnite]

24. I don't care. n/t

[PCIntern]

25. Of course it's not true: they said it. Nt

[brewens]

26. She say, "anal is $300" in five different languages, but that doesn't qualify as fluent. Not at

language anyway.

[kozar]

36. Porn audio

is not a language,, that's where she got confused


Koz

[tavernier]

27. And odd that she doesn't claim to be fluent in Russian

Which I bet she is.

[no_hypocrisy]

28. *I* know five languages other than English because I took courses in college and

adult education and can prove I studied them.

I took Italian and German in college because I was a music major (opera). I started with French and Spanish in high school (and more Spanish in college). Then I learned International Sign Language to teach preschool/kindergarten students.

Melania was a college drop out and unlikely would have been exposed to "foreign language" study in Slovakian schools.

[neeksgeek]

30. By this standard, I'm a polyglot.

I’m fluent only in English.

Took French in high school, remember almost none of it. Over the years, through reading and study of other fields, I picked up tiny bits of German, French, Italian, Latin, and especially Spanish (enough to have a basic conversation, if I really try, or have a phrase book handy). Does that mean I speak five foreign languages???

I think not.

[leftyladyfrommo]

31. It's not a big deal. Lots of people in Europe speak

Several languages. Just comes with living where there are lots of different countries close together.

I had a friend from Belgium who spoke 4 or 5 languages and she thought nothing of it.

[Vinca]

33. It's obvious she's not the sharpest tack. Look what she married.

[Buns_of_Fire]

35. If she can speak only one language fluently, that puts her one ahead of her husband. nt

[blm]

47. She looks evil in that photo. Her eyes look evil.

Like there is no kindness there.

[sandensea]

67. And clueless.

To me, she looks as though she's thinking: "I am fooling him with my tourist Italian, no? I knew this little old man would be easy."

And Francis is thinking: "Mamma mia! The things I have to put up with in this job."

[Baltimike]

48. she also claimed Meredith wrote the speech she plagiarized from Michelle Obama.

liar, grifter.

[Thomas Hurt]

51. So the fact that I can ask where the bathroom is and order a beer in Spanish means I am bi-lingual..

[Mike Nelson]

52. She can speak...

... body language and is able to communicate in English. Saying common phrases in foreign languages does not make one fluent!

[Cousin Dupree]

55. I'm bi-lingual. Nick, nick bo bick, banana fana fo fick,fee fi fo fick. Nick.

Actually tri-lingual: ixnay on the rumptay.

And I took Spanish and Latin in HS. Gee, didn’t realize I’m multi-lingual!

[karynnj]

57. You know who could fluently speak at least that number of languages and should have been first lady?

Teresa Kerry, who had studied to be an interpreter and who who worked doing that at the UN.

Yet the right wing, who extol the many skills of Melania, complained that she had an accent and were unconcerned about her "work".

[njhoneybadger]

58. She's a semi literate gold digger

[luvs2sing]

60. When I was in elementary school..

the mothers of my best friends were German, Filipino, Swedish, and Japanese, and I learned basic phrases so I could communicate with them. Stuff like “Can Janice come out to play?”. I would not then and would not now claim to be proficient in any of those languages.

[flibbitygiblets]

61. "Leave the money on the table before you leave" in how many languages?

"I don't take checks, cash only"

also

"my vagina doesn't take ones, only $20's"

[sandensea]

65. When Cheeto heard that, he was smitten.

"Dirty and greedy? I think I'm in love!"

[WhiteTara]

62. In that case I speak 4 languages

I can say thank you in Spanish, Mandarin, German and English. I'm fluent is Spanish
I can say "Donde est el banjo?"

[Hortensis]

63. Many people in various parts of the world speak several languages,

anything from well to well enough to get by. It's not a "smart" thing but an exposure thing. I had a Czech pen pal (before the Soviet invasion disrupted it) who picked up English from TV fairly easily because she already spoke 3 or 4 languages ("I have 4 languages" as she put it). I remember the 2 taught in school included Russian but not English.

I see nothing strange in Melania claiming to "speak" 6 languages; that's the short-form way people describe such things. In my experience, speaking 5 languages is fairly common, 6 more distinctive, and 7 rarer still but not unusual.

My Danish DIL "speaks" Spanish because her mother grew up in South America and spoke it fluently, but she didn't keep it up after she hit her teens. What she actually rarely speaks nevertheless came in handy as a halting translation when our house was being built. A lot better than my 3 mostly forgotten "use it or lose it" years of Spanish in college because she listened to some for years in everyday life, didn't just study it briefly long ago.

[Mendocino]

70. Garsony

[sandensea]

71. Parfait!

That movie never gets old.

I just never thought we'd have a president like that (but without any of Chevy Chase's good-natured sense of humor!).

[area51]

72. Here's an interesting vid on the subject of Mel allegedly speaking multiple languages:

[WilmywoodNCparalegal]

73. On Italian TV

they showed an ancient clip of her speaking Italian. Do note that it's not unusual for Slovenians to speak Italian. Anyway, her Italian was very basic and broken, not fluent at all. But it was an ancient clip. Maybe she's now become a Dante scholar /sarcasm