Yukio Hatoyama speaks English
September 25th, 2009 by James
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama makes his debut at the United Nations, delivering a speech in English:
TV pundits have commented on Hatoyama’s English. I’m told that Dave Spector placed Hatoyama 2nd in his ranking of Japanese Prime Ministers with the best English proficiency (Kiichi Miyazawa was #1).
Rate his English:
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Sure as hell beats Miss Universe Japan’s English.
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His pronounciation is clear, but it looks like he’s reading it all word-for-word from a sheet of paper. Whatever he wrote, you can bet it was proofread by a translator, if not translated entirely by one.
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I’d also guess that it was written by a speech-writer, not by Hatoyama himself. Heads of state generally don’t write their own speeches.
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Finally a Prime Minister who is fluent in Japanese.
Oh yeah, his English is good too.
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I rated it OK for pronunciation, but poor for presentation – reading off the paper – did no-one set up the teleprompter for him? – and a very stiff delivery, but I suppose he was very nervous. You’d think his wife (and his PR people) would get him a few lessons in public speaking instead of the shifty eyes he always has.
Him missus’ singing (how about a poll on that!) was terrible for an ex-Takaraseinne according to wifey, and her English was better, but with a limited vocabulary, perhaps due to rustiness?
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In Japan the ability to give stirring speeches and really connect with the masses isn’t considered a great asset. To be honest I could probably give a better speech than him, I just couldn’t possibly do it as fluently in Japanese.
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Hatoyama’s speech was boring.
I think Koizumi was a good a public speaker and it was considered his asset.
The ability to give stirring speeches per se is not always good as in Hitler’s case, though.
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But the diplomacy protocol tells that a head of government SHOULD speak in his/her mother language. Even if his English is perfect, Hatoyama should address his speech in Japanese.
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Perhaps, but… I would rather he deliver a speech at an international gathering like this in English, which will be more widely understood, than in Japanese and open the door to third-party translation errors. Granted, not everyone at the UN speaks English as their first or even second language. But it is one of the official UN languages (Japanese is not) and probably far easier to translate into the other 5 official languages than Japanese. Plus, and I stand to be corrected here, but isn’t all UN business supposed to be conducted in one of the six official languages anyway?
Now, if Hatoyama was engaging in spontaneous diplomacy or having serious discussions with another leader, I would agree that perhaps he should speak in his native tongue to avoid misunderstandings. Then again, he did graduate from Stanford so I doubt his English ability is much of an issue. But anyway, for a prepared speech, I say let him read it in English.
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As an UN buff, I can confirm that as a general rule, one is to address the body in one of the six working languages: English, Spanish, French, Arabic, Russian, or Chinese.
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That is unusual. I can only assume that was meant to be a diplomatic gesture directed towards a specific English-speaking country.
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If you watch any world leader giving speeches in a formal setting, you will see that they always read their speeches. This is accepted practice and makes sure they don’t say something stupid (usually). This is true in Japanese culture as well. Any speech of any importance should be prepared ahead of time and read. This shows that you have prepared carefully. Extemporaneous formal speeches are not appropriate so criticizing him for reading his speech is does not make sense. That said, he was certainly struggling to read what he had, probably from the stress of giving a speech in a foreign language. He should have stuck with Japanese. It is proper protocol and it would have been much smoother.
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“Extemporaneous formal speeches are not appropriate”
Amen – someone want to tell Qadaffi?
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For a guy who lived and studied in the US for years, his English is frankly not very good. He has got rusty. So I would rate him as not that good for a Japanese PM considering how good he should be with a CV like that.
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Yukio Hatoyama graduated from Stanford in 1976. Assuming that he moved back to Japan and likely used English (spoken English, at least) very rarely, it’s expected that most of his ability would diminish over 30 years. It’s not impossible for someone to lose even their native language if they move to a foreign country and subsequently never use the language over many years.
As the saying goes, “use it or lose it.”
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Maybe. I grew up in Germany, but have lived (mostly) in the States for the last 20 years. Always takes me a few days to get back into thinking/speaking Deutsch when I return home for a visit, but I wouldn’t say “I’ve lost it” just because I don’t speak it daily.
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I think you are right.
I was thinking somewhere between “OK” and “Not so good” but I was surprised to see so many people rate him as “Good”. For me “Good” would mean he sounds like a native speaker. Whereas “Great” would be uses correct or formal English when speaking (sounds like a professional speaker). While he pronounced most of the words fine, he sounded like a Japanese guy reading some English off a card. There is nothing wrong with it, but it’s certainly not as good as people rated it in this poll.
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his speech is stupid though I dont care his English
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Considering your own English, I can see why you “dont care his English.”
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compared to the engrish we are all used to this is great, really.
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Hatoyama’s speech is on the UN website (pdf):
http://www.un.org/wcm/webdav/site/climatechange/shared/Documents/Japan.pdf
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His English is a lot better than the US Ambassador to Japan’s Japanese!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Got that right.
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Give the guy a break. It’s refreshing to see a Japanese politician reaching out to the world like this. Certainly beats the last 60 years of political stagnation this country has experienced.
He did receive a degree from Stanford but that was decades ago. His delivery was, admittedly, a bit jittery but his pronunciation was very good (compared to your average English speaker in Japan) and he made the effort, so I commend him.
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I thought he spoke very well, despite reading off a piece of paper that had a prepared speech. I’m wondering if when he spoke to Obama, they used an interpreter, or if the two national leaders were able to communicate sufficiently in English.
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I wanted to hear the song he was about to bust into at the end of that video. It had a funky groove.
Considering the fact that when I try to speak Japanese it makes me want to punch my own face, I can’t comment. I understood him just fine, and his voice is no less stilted in Japanese. Seems to be his way.
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