The Australian:Rudd steals limelight with Mandarin: "But when Mr Rudd started addressing the leader of one quarter of the world's population, fluently in his own tongue, the effect was stunning."
When politicians come here they nearly always speak English irrespective of the language they speak in their own country. We have really got to meet people half way. It's not about one upmanship. It's about respect, consideration and letting people know you are willing to talk their language. Fortunately, a lot of Australians speak other languages and will make an effort to learn some language when they go on trips, but still we have this notion at the top that English is everything. It's not. Talking another language is another facet of your personality. When you welcome people as guests it is good to speak their language so that you can be seen to be genuinely respecting them. It is fantastic. This is the new face of Australian because monolingualism is moth ridden and multilingual is magnificent. People from other countries are naturally speaking several languages and are being brought up and educated that way. Germans slide from German to French to English to Dutch or Slovenian. The French are learning English, German and Spanish. We really need to get up to speed and it should not be a shock when a politician gets up to address someone in their language. I love it!!
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