How Bad is Prime Minister Rutte's English?

Whenever a famous Dutch person speaks English in front of television cameras, my phone starts ringing. 

Dutch people call to say this:

"Deef! OH MY GOT! Did you saw Rutte speakink Englis yesterday on de TeeVee?! He was really TERRIBLE. Echt, ferry bet! O Deef, you must teachink him a little bit Englis. Really. It is a BIG problem!!!" 

After hearing the criticism, and reading it in abundance on Twitter, I hit YouTube to see for myself. I found many clips, the most viewed being the press conference he did to kick off the Nuclear Security Summit in the Hague. 

I listened with my English teacher ears - ready to pounce on the first mistake. 

In 11 minutes and a few seconds, I found exactly three mistakes. (I will list the mistakes below because I know you are curious.)

Three mistakes!

Having heard the criticism, I was expecting Rutte to really suck. I was expecting him to stand there nervously, beads of sweating bouncing onto his stylishly tailored suit, unable to mutter even the simplest words and phrases. I was expecting him to have a black out and run crying from the stage, never to be heard from again. 

Didn't happen. 

What I saw, and I say this as an English teacher and an American who lives in Holland, was a confident and eloquent performance.

No, it was not 'perfect'.

Yes, the man has an accent (he struggles with his 'r' and a bit with the 'th' as well - as 99% of Dutch people do).

But Prime Minister Rutte got the job done. He answered the questions. He faced the music. In my personal opinion, he swaggered in his typical understated fashion. 

To the critics, yes - there is room for improvement in Rutte's English. But ask yourself this: 

Have you ever stood in front of the ENTIRE FUCKING WORLD, and spoken English? 

The answer is, NO, you haven't.

Consider, for a moment, the pressure that Rutte is under. He knows we are all watching. He knows we are all judging. He knows he has an accent. He knows foreign language is not his greatest strength. 

But does he walk out on stage and perform in English anyway? 

You're goddamn right he does. 

He does it because he understands, better than his critics, that connection is not about grammar. It's not about pronunciation. 

Connecting with an audience is about sharing a piece of yourself. It's about standing in front of other human beings and daring to be vulnerable by exposing your weaknesses in full view of everyone. 

That is what speaks to people.

It's not his English. It's his courage.

And whether you disagree with him or not, whether you 'like' the sound of his English or not, Prime Minister Rutte dares to be vulnerable and, for that, he deserves our respect. 

So if you were embarrassed by his performance, if you thought he was a bad representative for your country, the Netherlands, I ask you to think again. I ask you to consider that Rutte's performance at the NSS was the work of an experienced, albeit imperfect, professional who did an excellent job of improving Holland's reputation. 

If you're still critical, think about this: 

Have you ever seen Berlusconi speak English on TV? 

Merkel? 

Sarkozy? 

No, no, and no. 

You haven't, because they don't. At least not in public.

Sure, they speak English behind the scenes, but that's easy. Anybody can do that. The leaders of the large European countries don't speak English in front of the cameras because they don't 'have' to, which is another way of saying:

"I don't wanna look like a dumb ass on CNN".

But Rutte does speak English in public. Not because he has to, but because he wants to. He dares to. And that makes me proud, both as an English teacher and a resident of the Netherlands.

Of course, if I was his English teacher, I would work on his 'Dutchisms'. I would work on his grammar. I would spend a little time on his pronunciation. But mostly I would just get him talking, and let him go, go, go. 

As if you need any more proof that Rutte did a great job this week, consider President Obama's remarks at his closing press conference. Obama charmingly used the Dutch word 'gezellig' and commended 'Mark' for his excellent work. Take it from me, the fact that Obama referred to the Prime Minister by his first name means a hell of a lot.

By saying 'Mark', Obama is saying:

"Hey man, I like you. I trust you. And thanks for doing a great job as a host. We really appreciate it."

If, at that very moment, a journalist had asked Obama what he thought of 'Mark's' English, he probably would have said: 

"Mark's English? It's very good. It's a helluva lot better than George W's English!!!" 

And we all would have laughed, safe in the knowledge that 'our' Mark is a true professional. 

Swagger on, Mr. Prime Minister. 

~ DAVE

ps - as promised, here are the three mistakes I heard during Rutte's speech: 

1. Rutte said to the guy who asked about Zwarte Piet: "You are exactly true there too..." The correct English would have been: "you are exactly right there too...".

2. Rutte pronounced the Dutch Antilles as: "the Antils..." It should be pronounced "An-ti-lees".

3. Rutte said, when referring to the black face paint for Zwarte Piet: "I'm for days trying to get the stuff off my face...". In proper English word order, the time should be at the end. "...I'm trying to get the paint off for days..." 

 

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Comments

[Iljnwlnd]

Well said. Compared to almost all of his predecessors (Balkenende!) Rutte's English is nothing to be ashamed about. By the way, I have heard Merkel speak in English as well. Heavily accented perhaps, but not bad in other aspects.

[Schijffie]

Hear hear

[Inge Loots]

It's normal to have an accent. Everybody has an accent, even native speakers have a (regional) accent. And it's normal to make mistakes. When someone starts talking like a book, with a 'neutral' accent and no mistakes, you know it's a foreigner.

I think those most vocal about Rutte's English are those who are just as bad, if not worse. I live in The Netherlands and am bilingual in German and Dutch. For me it's hard to listen to Dutch AND German people speaking English, because they remind me of my learning curve. But the trick is practice, practice and practice some more with native speakers. I'm forced to speak English all day at work and my Dutch/German accent is less prominent than it was when I started working eight years ago.