Kevin Rudd, the new PM of Australia, is the first Western leader to speak fluent Mandarin, or so we’ve been told repeatedly. But how fluent is he? I’m sure there are Dopers out there qualified to comment.
Linked above is one YouTube clip but I’m sure there are others if you need more material.
I asked my dad, who said that Rudd’s Mandarin is not bad at all. He said that Rudd’s accent is a bit “flat” as Westerners tend to have difficulty with the intonation, but his phrasing is excellent. Dad said he can understand Rudd without effort, whereas with a lot of Westerners he needs to concentrate to figure out what they’re trying to say.
So the verdict from dad was: not perfect, but definitely fluent.
I’ve wondered about this too. I recall a couple of years ago when some senior Chinese official addressed the Parliament in Canberra that Kevin Rudd was the only member to not use the interpreter headphones. So he must have felt confident that he’d understand a speech of that nature in Mandarin. Or perhaps he was just showing off as some of his less charitable colleagues in the ALP muttered.
I’ve heard him described as both “fluent” and “proficient” in Mandarin. Is there a difference? The former suggests more skill to me than the latter.
And I see now that **Kayeby ** has evidence of good fluency on Mr Rudd’s part.
He’s not bad in a qualified way. IMHO, He obviously sounds like a foreigner that speaks Chinese as a second language. Not sure if i would call him fluent from those few seconds of clips, and he certainly doesn’t sound all that natural. He sounds more stilted - which is easy if one doesn’t speak Mandarin all the time.
Let’s put it this way, he wouldn’t be a contender in a foreigner mandarin speaking contest. Basic stuff is probably no problem. I’d be surprised if he was business level fluency, but he might be.
As a foreigner, if you can say “knee how” most people will fall over backwards complementing you on mad Mandarin skillz. There are few to zero politicians that can say anything.
In terms of celebrity foreigners that speak mandarin, author Vikram Seth was pretty decent 20 years ago. Mina Sorvino was ok.
How good is Kevin Rudd’s Mandarin?
Not as nice as his tangerine.