Language Partners onderzoekt hoe het is gesteld met de talenkennis van onze BN’ers. Deze maand kijken we naar de Engelse talenkennis van Bert Koenders. Welk cijfer krijgt de minister van Buitenlandse Zaken?
Bert Koenders
This clip is just under 9 minutes and I have to say not one of the easiest of speeches to listen to – it is very complex and in a very formal setting whereas the other clips I have been looking at are all quite light hearted. However, the vocabulary on display in this clip is of a very high level.
General issues and pronunciation
The level of English demonstrated in this clip is very high. There is a hint of a Dutch accent which is apparent with the ‘th’ sound – which on many occasions comes out as ‘d’. This being said, the correct pronunciation is also used throughout too. The ‘r’ sound was also noticeable in words such as ‘really’ and ‘reach’ and ‘ruin’ between 3 min 30 and 4 mins.
To be honest, I could not pick up on any grammar mistakes at all which just confirms the high level. The sheer volume of complex vocabulary that is delivered here is admirable and the pronunciation is a very high standard – I think even a native English speaker would have struggled with some of the passages in this. Words such as ‘reunification’, ‘abundance’, ‘monopoly’, ‘autonomous’ which are not the easiest of words to say at the best of times! The sentences he used were packed with words like this one after the other and yet he still managed to maintain a natural sounding speech. To really nit-pick (and this is not a favourite thing of mine to do), the word ‘Cypriot’ was pronounced in 2 different ways around the 6 min 25 mark but that was the only thing that I noticed as far as ‘mistakes’ are concerned.
Coherence of the speech
This was undoubtedly a high caliber speech and the general pronunciation of the words was outstanding, especially considering that there was a barrage of academic and formal vocabulary in quick succession. This speech came across as quite relaxed and natural but also very genuine. The intonation was generally good and he placed emphasis on the correct words to make more of a statement. I daren’t pick any more faults with a man who can deliver this speech, I think I would have tripped over my words with this.
Conclusions and ratings
Bert Koenders sounded quite relaxed and extremely professional during the speech and retained the formality of the proceedings throughout. In my humble opinion as a language teacher, I would be able to do very little to improve his English here.
