Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Will North Korean Leader Kim Jong-Un Speak English To President Trump?

Reuters

WNU Editor: This is interesting .... Report: Kim may speak English in summit with Trump (UPI). I understand that he speaks basic English .... probably not good enough when he sits down with President Trump to discuss critical issues. Students who studied with him in Switzerland say that he is fluent in German, and of course he is fluent in Korean.

7 comments:

B.Poster said...

I will read the article when the time is available. Very respectfully the headline is brazenly silly. Of course Kim is NOT going to speak English during any meetings. This is not his native tongue and to try and do so would increase a risks of miscommunications. As such, he is not going to speak English any more than POTUS is going to speak Korean. They will use interpreters who are fluent in both language.

I'm kind of thinking duh!! Of course he's not going to be speaking English. The depths of silliness in the media never ceases to amaze. It also seems rather silly to be speaking of language protocols for a summit that has not even been set yet and may never be set.

fred said...

Will Trump speak English?
does not matter overly much who speaks what. Any agreements regarding nukes etc will have to be worked out by professionals on both sides and not leaders of the two nations

B.Poster said...

"does not matter overly much who speaks what." Actually it matters a great deal. The leaders will want to make sure that they are properly understood and will want to minimize the risk of saying anything that can later be used against them or taken out of context. As such, they will speak their native languages and will utilize highly skilled interpreters when communicating with each other. The leaders in consultation with their advisors will decide what they are willing to concede. The so called "professionals" will be consulted to find out what is feasible well in advance.

By suggesting it does not matter who speaks what suggests a very poor understanding of how basic interpersonal relations work much less a grasp of how delicate negotiations between historic enemies work.

fred said...

Fouling think the two will draw up a contract and sin it and that takes care of things?
Example. Workers two fighting ended but formal peace treaty took till 1947 to be signed

fred said...

excuse my fat fingers on a cell phone. What I meant: The leaders of the two nations will not down and sign a piece of paper and that is that. Japan, for example signed a paper announcing the end of hostilities (surrender) but the formal conditions etc were not in place till sometime in 1947...Kim is not going to initial a paper that says Ok we give up nukes and you can come here and inspect or do what you will and in return you will lift sanctions. Look at the negotiations for the Iran nuke deal, like it or not. That too took some time and more than two leaders were needed to work things out

fazman said...

They will wear translation earphones and understand each other perfectly.
With today's technology Kim could speak Klingon.

B.Poster said...

Fred,

Yes the negotiations are going to take some time and will not be done in a single day or even a week and no Trump and Kim will not solve everything overnight.

My point was that Trump will speak English. Kim will speak Korean. Both parties will use highly skilled translators to interpret. The symbolism matters allot. As such, neither side is going to want to make an unforced error at the start.

Having lost that particular argument you now needed to change the subject to tell me the obvious that they will not reach an agreement in one day or quickly. By the way I'm not sure why we are still talking about a meeting that has not even been scheduled yet and may not even take place.