Do you believe Melania Trump speaks 5 languages?

[Polak]

Simple question. Yes or no answer, and an explanation of why you believe she does or think she doesn’t, if possible.

Personally I don’t think she does. There’s no evidence of her ever speaking Italian, French or German to anybody fluently, other than saying the odd word here and there. It looks like one of those ‘spruce up your CV with a qualification you don’t really have’ cases.

 

[Lou2U]

Yes, I think she does. I have no reason to disbelieve her. From my impression of her, she’s much more reserved than her predecessor and so may just be keeping more behind closed doors. It could also be that at the time she wrote her CV, she was fluent in all these languages but hasn’t had to use them, or she’s not practised since. Knowledge of a language really deteriorates when you don’t use it, even for a short period of time. She may have lost confidence in her own ability and is reluctant to try.

 

[jvickers]

Just out of curiosity, how much research did you do prior to posting this? Her native language is, apparently, Slovene. So, she speaks at least two languages. That is a feat in itself for many. Also, It is not uncommon for some people in those areas to be polyglots. What is more to the point - what does it really matter?

 

[Polak]

Her native language isn’t apparently Slovene, it is Slovene obviously, because that’s where she is from.

Yes I did a bit of research on it and people who have looked into the subject have not been able to find any video or audio clips of her speaking fluently, or even at an intermediate level, in Italian, German or French, not now, and not in her younger years.

When she visited Italy a while back on an official trip and went into a school there, she didn’t speak Italian with the children, she had a translator. I think all she said to the children in Italian was ‘hi’.

It matters if she has made a claim that turns out to be false, because that’s called lying and she is the First Lady. We can’t say for sure that she doesn’t speak 5 languages, but as I said, there has been no sign of her doing so. Perhaps somebody from Italy, Germany or France could do an interview with her in their native tongue, and we could get confirmation?

 

[jvickers]

Perhaps somebody from Italy, Germany or France could do an interview with her in their native tongue, and we could get confirmation?

I think that would be a fair test.

And, I apologize if I offended you for my questioning the importance of the matter based on your initial sentence using “obviously”, which is an interesting linguistic marker, and the “because that’s called lying” which is clearly apparent.

 

[Polak]

Your ‘what does it really matter?’ indicates you seemed slightly upset or frustrated with my questioning of whether she can actually do what she claims she can do, given that nobody has ever seen it. I think it’s a fair question to ask.

I think that would be a fair test.

Glad you agree.

 

[jvickers]

No, I am neither upset nor frustrated. Text is a thin medium, and it is easy to incorrectly infer other’s emotions or intentions. Mine was just a question. To me, it doesn’t matter. I was just curious why it mattered to you.

You actually did get me curious about this. Apparently, she left Slovenia at a relatively early age and modeled in Milan and Paris, where she could have picked up other languages. That’s according to Vox: Melania Trump, explained - Vox. Looking through the different sites, there are pages that indicate she speaks multiple languages and pages that question it. I Think your test is probably the only way to know if she is fluent. But, then, fluency isn’t what is being called to question. As a former language teacher, there are different kind of “speak” running from speaking for survival purposes to basic conversational purposes to being totally fluent. For instance, I have can speak Mandarin for survival purposes. So, I think it’s important to clarify the level of “speaking” about what you wonder…

 

[Polak]

So, I think it’s important to clarify the level of “speaking” about what you wonder

I would say intermediate level. You could call that survival purposes. Basically if you can hold a conversation with somebody on most topics, even if you might not understand parts of what is being said to you but get the general idea, that’s enough for me to say that you can speak a language. I don’t think Melania has demonstrated she can even do that though. Being able to say the odd word or sentence isn’t enough. I can also do that in a lot of languages.

 

[jvickers]

I don’t know if she said she had intermediate ability to speak different languages. As @Lou2 indicated, her ability to speak a language might have deteriorated. Also, survival speaking is more than an few words or phrases. Being able to say, “Hello”, “Goodbye”, “I am an insert country or origin”, etc. isn’t survival. Ordering your food in a language, understanding directions, and things like that would be considered survival speaking.

 

[Polak]

I think if you are only able to order food, understand directions and other such basic things, I would say claiming you can speak that language is misleading. Perhaps saying you can speak a bit of Italian or a bit of French would be more accurate. Having said that, I doubt she is even capable of ‘survival speaking’ in Italian, French and German.

Btw per your previous point, I have also heard the argument that she can probably speak French and Italian because he did some modelling in those countries at an early age. Personally I think it’s a weak argument.

 

[jvickers]

I guess we will see what others have to say and if anything meaningful ever comes of the global debate about her being able to speak five languages. (Not this conversation, but in a larger sense.) I don’t think I’ll lose sleep over it either way, though. Thanks for the intellectual back-and-forth. I’ve got to attend a meeting soon and must prepare.

Have a great day and good discussion thread.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

I would guess she speaks Slovene and English fluently and has the basic knowledge of the other three languages she needed to do her job as a model. Most European people I know from my work speak their native language, speak English fluently (or they would not have been hired by my employer as this is a requirement) and are able to speak at least one other language at a level somewhere between functional and fluent. They may also know some other European languages especially if they live near borders but it may be a case of being able to read them and speak basic phrases.

In any event, the number of languages Melania knows has no more effect on my life than the number of languages Jackie Kennedy or Barbara Bush knew, so other than being a conversational tidbit, I don’t much care. The fact that she even knows two languages fluently is impressive enough to me.

 

[Montrose]

Simple question. Yes or no answer, and an explanation of why you believe she does or think she doesn’t, if possible.

Personally I don’t think she does. There’s no evidence of her ever speaking Italian, French or German to anybody fluently, other than saying the odd word here and there. It looks like one of those ‘spruce up your CV with a qualification you don’t really have’ cases.

Don’t know but it would appear doubtful.

Is Melania Trump Fluent in Five Languages? | Snopes.com

 

[7_Sorrows]

Why the need to go after Melania? Will their son be your next target?

Are you running out of attacks on the President? Time to turn the negative energy
toward the rest of the family now? @Polak

 

[dscath]

Don’t care.

 

[Montrose]

Why the need to go after Melania? Will their son be your next target?

Are you running out of attacks on the President? Time to turn the negative energy
toward the rest of the family now? @Polak

Actually Melania is the only one I have any time for. Trump and his children are not nice people. They only care about themselves and how their current positions can benefit their business.

 

[Polak]

Why the need to go after Melania? Will their son be your next target?

Are you running out of attacks on the President? Time to turn the negative energy
toward the rest of the family now? @Polak

Running out of attacks on the President? Haha if only you realised how daft that sounds. You either haven’t been following my posts on this forum or you have me confused with somebody else, or both. Firstly, I don’t post much about Trump. Secondly, if anything I am more for Trump than against him, but he and his family are far from perfect and I critique him (and them) also, if I feel they deserve it.

Unlike the left wingers on here who stop at nothing to attack him, and right wingers who stop at nothing to defend or praise him, I’m not American and have a more neutral view of the situation from the outside. I even stated in a recent post that I can understand why a Catholic wouldn’t vote Trump, but I can cannot for the life of me understand why they would vote Democrat.

Anyway, this thread hasn’t got anything to do with the President, it’s about Melania’s language skills.

In any event, the number of languages Melania knows has no more effect on my life than the number of languages Jackie Kennedy or Barbara Bush knew

I’m aware it has no effect on our lives but the point is, she said she could speak five languages and so far, nobody seems to have ever seen or heard her use three of those five languages anywhere. If she can’t really speak Italian, French and German, that makes her a liar, and that would leave a sour taste in the mouth. If she can only say a few sentences in those other languages though, and that is enough to count as ‘speaking’ then, then I too can speak about 7 or 8 languages.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

I’m aware it has no effect on our lives but the point is, she said she could speak five languages and so far, nobody seems to have ever seen or heard her use three of those five languages anywhere.

She’s not running for office or applying for a job that requires her to pass a language skills test. As our First Lady, she needs to speak English and she does that just fine.
She doesn’t owe you any demonstration of her language skills beyond that.

It’s also quite plausible that her language skills atrophied when she no longer had to use them daily after marrying her husband. I used to be able to converse en francais when I did it every week, but that was 2 decades ago, I would be much rustier now.

If you want to complain about this, it’s a free country, but it just makes you look nitpicky and petty IMHO.

Have a nice day.

 

[Convert3]

There are also different dialects for Italian and every other language that can make it more difficult to understand if it’s not your primary language. Imagine someone fro Scotland conversing with someone from Montgomery, Alabama! They might need interpreting too!

 

[Polak]

It’s also quite plausible that her language skills atrophied when she no longer had to use them daily after marrying her husband. I used to be able to converse en francais when I did it every week, but that was 2 decades ago, I would be much rustier now.

Erm, she said she could speak 5 languages in 2016. That’s four years ago. So either her language skills have deteriorated big time in the last four years, or she lied.

Have a nice day.

Is that your way of saying you’ve muted the thread after saying your piece and aren’t interested in any retort?

Don’t know but it would appear doubtful.

Yep that piece you linked to certainly shows it’s highly doubtful. Every opportunity she had to use those language skills of hers, she didn’t use them.