English>French>German seems to be the tier list. Then there’s Erdogan. Does everyone have go through their own translation service to call in, or does he have to provide a translator that everyone talks to? Situational?
When meeting with each other, heads of state who speak different languages always have their own translators present
While most of these leaders speak more than one language, many of them would not feel comfortable engaging in diplomacy or negotiations outside their native language
Yeah, e.g. Merkel and Putin. Both can speak German and Russian very well, but they still used translators for offical talks. Too much of a risk to use a phrase or word that means something in one language, but translated it can mean something else or have bad implications.
On that level you don’t want an accidental misunderstanding.
Not even talking about insults, world leaders cpuld identify that, but imagine accidentally promising or indicating something you didn’t want to.
English>French>German seems to be the tier list. Then there’s Erdogan. Does everyone have go through their own translation service to call in, or does he have to provide a translator that everyone talks to? Situational?
When meeting with each other, heads of state who speak different languages always have their own translators present
While most of these leaders speak more than one language, many of them would not feel comfortable engaging in diplomacy or negotiations outside their native language
Yeah, e.g. Merkel and Putin. Both can speak German and Russian very well, but they still used translators for offical talks. Too much of a risk to use a phrase or word that means something in one language, but translated it can mean something else or have bad implications.
On that level you don’t want an accidental misunderstanding.
Not even talking about insults, world leaders cpuld identify that, but imagine accidentally promising or indicating something you didn’t want to.
Which makes sense, the other guy’s translator could bullshit you and you wouldn’t notice
Yeah, you can end up with a negotiation like this:
https://youtu.be/foT9rsHmS24