# How does Trump "talk" to Putin? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 29, 2017, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-trump-talk-to-putin/778529 "2017-01-29T21:17:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mangosteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Mangosteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangosteen)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2017, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-trump-talk-to-putin/778529/1 "2017-01-29T21:17:37Z")
Does Putin speak English well enough to be understood by Trump? Or do they just use translators? Seems like it would be hard to get to know someone if you could only speak to one another through translators, especially on the phone. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2017, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-trump-talk-to-putin/778529/2 "2017-01-29T21:37:49Z")
Putin [can speak English](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiFAeluRtao), though it doesn’t sound like he’s up for serious negotiations in that language. For official business, there are [official translators](https://www.state.gov/m/a/ols/index.htm). If he happened to want to conduct unofficial business - well, he has an obvious candidate for translator not a million miles from him. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2017, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-trump-talk-to-putin/778529/3 "2017-01-29T23:29:30Z")
Melania probably isn’t much good as a translator. There’s more to translating than just being bilingual. ---
**Author:** ![Mangosteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Mangosteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangosteen)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2017, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-trump-talk-to-putin/778529/4 "2017-01-29T23:40:34Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Melania probably isn’t much good as a translator. There’s more to translating than just being bilingual. I didn’t see that “Russian” was on her list of languages spoken. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2017, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-trump-talk-to-putin/778529/5 "2017-01-29T23:50:49Z")
For In person meetings the translators usually sit behind the president and they translate the foreign language to English so the president can understand what the other person says. The president replies in English and the other side’s translator does their translation. I would guess the process is the same for phone calls. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2017, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-trump-talk-to-putin/778529/6 "2017-01-29T23:58:37Z")
Wasn’t there a skit, maybe SNL?, from the 80’s where the translators Reagan and Gorby where having their own, completely unrelated conversation to what they were supposed to be translating? Hilarity ensued, and I think also nuclear Armageddon. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2017, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-trump-talk-to-putin/778529/7 "2017-01-30T00:27:22Z")
This one maybe? [Spitting Image: Gorby & Reagan - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jBUnMqNy20) What would they have made of The Donald and Putan ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2017, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-trump-talk-to-putin/778529/8 "2017-01-30T01:02:34Z")
n/m ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2017, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-trump-talk-to-putin/778529/9 "2017-01-30T01:59:43Z")
Yeah, Putie can understand English well enough for informal conversation, but not for something official. Nitpick: you use an interpreter for speaking, and a translator for written material. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2017, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-trump-talk-to-putin/778529/10 "2017-01-30T02:03:15Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > This one maybe? [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jBUnMqNy20](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jBUnMqNy20) > > What would they have made of The Donald and Putan That wasn’t I was thinking of, but it is now haunting my wide-awake nightmares. So creepy. :eek::eek: ---
**Author:** ![Grim\_Render](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@Grim\_Render](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grim_Render)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2017, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-trump-talk-to-putin/778529/11 "2017-01-30T11:32:51Z")
Surprisingly. I understand Putin is quite fluent in Swedish. Not that that will get him any closer to understanding Trump, but that’s probably a lost cause anyway. I hear Putin during his days as a young man in the KGB was supposed to be posted to Sweden, and put in a lot of effort and hours learning the language. After which the Soviet Union promptly posted him to Germany. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2017, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-trump-talk-to-putin/778529/12 "2017-01-30T17:01:03Z")
> [@Mangosteen](#): > > How does Trump “talk” to Putin? If you look very carefully, you might see Putin’s lips move as Donald’s seated on his knee. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2017, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-trump-talk-to-putin/778529/13 "2017-01-30T17:18:48Z")
**Moderator Note** > [@PatrickLondon](#): > > If you look very carefully, you might see Putin’s lips move as Donald’s seated on his knee. No political pot-shots in GQ, please. Stick to the facts. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2017, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-trump-talk-to-putin/778529/14 "2017-01-30T17:46:32Z")
I would like to say that real-time interpretation is _much_ harder than translation. My wife is a skilled translator (French to English) but would never attempt to be an interpreter. She could do it if there were long enough pauses, but not in real time. I once participated in a demo of two-way interpretation. It was amazing. The interpreter had grown up in the US, the son of a French Canadian family and was not only utterly bilingual, but able to interpret a conversation I was having with a French speaker. He mentioned that had I thrown a French word into what I said, he would have put it into English. And afterwards, he had no idea what we had said. ---
**Author:** ![Corry\_El](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecae2f/32.png) [@Corry\_El](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corry_El)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2017, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-trump-talk-to-putin/778529/15 "2017-01-30T19:30:51Z")
> [@levdrakon](#): > > Yeah, Putie can understand English well enough for informal conversation, but not for something official. I’ve read that Putin puts an emphasis on trying to speak without interpreters, even doing it with a memorized message in Farsi to the Iranian leader. He was reported to have conversations with Bush in English, though has said himself his English isn’t that good and I’m sure it’s true no specific agreement was based on this social ice breaking. It’s easier in person than on the phone, too. In contrast it was reported that he and Gerhard Schoeder had hours long discussions in German, though under Merkel similar long interpreter-less talks are often reported as being due to her command of Russian. ---
**Author:** ![race\_to\_the\_bottom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c4cdca/32.png) [@race\_to\_the\_bottom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/race_to_the_bottom)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2017, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-trump-talk-to-putin/778529/16 "2017-02-02T04:40:32Z")
> [@Grim\_Render](#): > > Surprisingly. I understand Putin is quite fluent in Swedish. > > Not that that will get him any closer to understanding Trump, but that’s probably a lost cause anyway. I hear Putin during his days as a young man in the KGB was supposed to be posted to Sweden, and put in a lot of effort and hours learning the language. After which the Soviet Union promptly posted him to Germany. Putin speaks fluent German. Angela Merkel speaks fluent Russian. Also, Putin is caricatured in the US as some kind of crude individual. Not at all. Watch him on YouTube handling complex questions from the press. US Presidents are never that good. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2017, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-trump-talk-to-putin/778529/17 "2017-02-02T06:40:44Z")
> [@Grim\_Render](#): > > Surprisingly. I understand Putin is quite fluent in Swedish. > > Not that that will get him any closer to understanding Trump, but that’s probably a lost cause anyway. I hear Putin during his days as a young man in the KGB was supposed to be posted to Sweden, and put in a lot of effort and hours learning the language. After which the Soviet Union promptly posted him to Germany. AFAIK the KGB at that time required fluency in English of all officers. In addition they had to know thl languages of where they were posted. ---
**Author:** ![Malden\_Capell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malden_capell/32/5274_2.png) [@Malden\_Capell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malden_Capell)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2017, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-trump-talk-to-putin/778529/18 "2017-02-02T08:56:53Z")
‘You hang up’ ‘No, you hang up’