I love our First Lady, Dr. Jill Biden. She seems like a cool teacher, a cool grandma, an understanding professor and a good dog-mom. She’s the kind of teacher-lady who loves to do cheeseball celebrations for Valentine’s Day and I guarantee she’s going to warmly embrace a grown man dressed as the Easter Bunny over the next few days. But I think we all know that Dr. Jill will make mistakes! And some of those mistakes will be in public, as she gives a speech, and completely butchers the Spanish language. Dios Mio, as Hilaria Baldwin would say!
Almost! pic.twitter.com/ZW8PYVlqYn
— Alexei Koseff (@akoseff) March 31, 2021
Spanish-speakers will be like “COMO?? QUE??” I mean, bless her heart. “Si se puede” is “yes we can” in Spanish and it’s literally pronounced how it looks for Spanish speakers – See Say Puay-day. Jill was like “Pwaaadway!” It was funny. But of course the obvious people are trying to make this into a thing, and they’re still pretending Melania Trump was some kind of genius who could speak twenty languages. Nope.
Also, Dr. Jill was there (California) speaking to farmworkers and other food-chain essential workers, and she was encouraging them to get vaccinated. She was honoring the California-state holiday for Cesar Chavez as well.
These photos are from Monday, where the president and First Lady visited the Vietnam Memorial to pay their respects. Joe and Jill did a rubbing of some of the names, which is quite common for visitors. While the Vietnam Memorial is incredibly sad, it’s also one of the most beautiful landmarks in DC.
Photos courtesy of Getty, Avalon Red.
I give her a pass because she is out there and working – and trying and caring. Which is the opposite of the last FLOTUS. Plus, if this is all the Trumpers can point to when complaining about her, I say she is doing a great job. Muy bien Senora Biden!
It’s not that far off.
And it’s a hell of a lot more effort than Melania ever made.
To those saying it was so bad, have you ever given a speech? Appeared on TV? Probably not. Until you do, we’re withholding judgment on how badly you do.
Oh, this hurt my heart to hear, lol. I did take a lot of Spanish classes in school, but I feel like this isn’t hard to say even if you’ve never spoken it before. It seems more like she got nervous/tripped over her words, rather than she didn’t know how to say it.
Yeah, this was bad. I don’t know any Spanish but I can say this! Plus I’ve heard it chanted at rallies, etc. It’s not an unknown phrase. It’s gotta be nerves, she’s definitely smart enough (and I think she cares enough) to say it right.
You ever give a speech anywhere in another language?
Be on TV?
It was less incorrect than Trump and his wife speaking English.
I mean, she’s there, she’s working on their behalf, she treats them and speaks to and about them with respect. What a refreshing change. I doubt they care that her pronunciation isn’t perfect.
No shade because I can only speak one language…but is there a single word in Eeengleesh that Melania doesn’t mispronounce?
haha ding ding ding
Yes, there is a single word Melania can pronounce properly. It begins with “F” and has a “K” and she uses it to describe Christmas.
Oh, that was cute and I say this as one whose Spanish is part of my very soul. I can’t criticize her for this. At least she was trying.
I do think she got scrambled and mispronounced out of reasons other than incapacity. The first part maybe could be hard for someone because there are two vowels (a diphthong), although not separately emphasized. So you could say “pwed” without being wrong, even though a native Spanish speaker will have a nuance to the “ue” that has been lost. But for the second half pronounced “day”….any English speaker could say that part (even though, like the first part, it’s not the same as a native speaker’s nuance with the sound). So pwed-day is not hard even though it would not be beautiful like correctly-spoken Spanish is beautiful.
I think it is a cute and innocent error. She tried, and that’s fine with me.
I knew this Scottish guy who pronounced it “size pooood”, which had me falling off my chair.
I mean, the UK is not so far from Spain. Must monolinguals be so resolute? It is not so difficult to pronounce foreign words. You just have to listen carefully and mimic. That said, mispronunciations are pretty entertaining.
I like clicking embedded tweets to see the popular tweets on a topic.
This one leads to the “wrong” side of Twitter, though. Really jarring… but I suppose it’s interesting every once in a while to be reminded of these people’s bizarro world!
Eh I don’t really care about a mispronounciation like that, I care more about what this government is going to do to support and protect farm workers (many who are undocumented) that kept us fed during the pandemic. Pathway to citizenship and labor laws to protect them would be a great way to start…hint hint.
Slightly off-topic, but the American History Tellers podcast has an episode this week about the origins of the Wall monument which I’m very much looking forward to listening to.
I teach English Learners, most of whom have Spanish as their first language. Sometimes I practice my Spanish with them, which is REALLY bad. Sometimes they laugh at the way I say things, but in a good natured way. I think they appreciate that I try. (I also think it helps build the whole student/teacher relationship, but that’s not pertinent.)
I hope this is the vein in which Dr. Biden’s attempt will be taken. She’s trying, and at least she’s there. I firmly find no shame in anyone trying to speak in any language that is not their native language.
I’m bilingual and my American husband struggles so much with even basic pronunciation of my non-English language. He just has a terrible ear for languages. I think it’s incredibly rude to mock someone who’s genuinely trying to make an effort.
See – this is why people are unfortunately worried about how they sound when they learn a new language. We’re afraid we’re going to be mocked. -_-. But y’know what I’m gonna go with my Michael Bloomberg Spanish. Se, she, pew-day. My mini me, who has been taking Spanish since Kindergarten has mainly Spanish speaking friends. My husband who is also a Spanish speaker – they just give me looks.