Putin speaks german. Quite impressive (video)

Okay, this might not be of interest to non-german speakers, but it almost blew me off my chair

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppo92lB_-vQ

I had NO idea Putin spoke german... and THAT perfectly. I am impressed.

Also, to me he sounds so much "softer" in german That's totally weird.

My first reaction was.. "Joschka lebt".. und dann "Gerhard auch"... Altes Video.. Putin war ja vor nicht allzu langer Zeit in Dresden und hat dort auch auf Deutsch gesprochen. Putin-Fan werd ich aber trotzdem nicht...

cianty wrote:

My first reaction was.. "Joschka lebt".. und dann "Gerhard auch"...

Haha, ja, war ganz komisch den Fischer und den Schröder im Bundestag lehnen zu sehen
Aber "leben" tun sie doch noch beide soweit ich weiß.

cianty wrote:

Putin-Fan werd ich aber trotzdem
nicht...

Haha, that's for sure
But I think the symbolic gesture of doing the speech in german is quite remarkable. How many Eastern European politicians would be able to do a speech in Russian?

Perhaps his german was part of his KGB formation, where they had to learn several western european languages?

Putin was in Dresden from 1985 to 1990 so that's where he advanced his German language abilities.

He he, die Leben noch. Schröder ist Ölscheich und Fischer war danach ein Jahr lang Dozent an Princeton. Ich weiß nicht, wie es in Österreich ist, aber bei uns (zumindest in meiner nordischen Gegend) sagt man "lebst ja auch noch" im Sinne von "dich gibt's ja auch noch", wenn man jemanden nach längerer Zeit wieder sieht. Es bedeutet also eigentlich nur "hey, lange nicht gesehen".

cianty wrote:

Putin was in Dresden from 1985 to 1990

That explains it.

cianty wrote:

bei
uns [...] sagt man "lebst ja auch
noch" im Sinne von "dich gibt's ja auch noch", wenn man jemanden nach
längerer Zeit wieder sieht.

Schon klar. Sagt man bei uns auch Wollte nur reden um des Redens Willen.

Admin Tom wrote:

Wollte nur reden um des Redens Willen.

LOL!!

I have ABSOLUTELY no idea why I watched that. Trying to read a man's lips who is speaking a language I don't understand HAS got to be the ULTIMATE exercise in futility.
HOWEVER, looking at the man's eyes was a rather disturbing experience; rarely have I seen such a cold & dispassionate gaze from a warm blooded creature. This IS one scary Dude.

again: LOL!!

im impressed too cool! like he is a native German citizen!

DeafNala: I'd rather be ruled by Putin than Bush, at least Putin can construct a rational and meaningful sentence.

Chad wrote:

I'd rather be ruled by Putin than Bush

No need. You guys now have Obama. Yay for Barack.

Errrr, 'we guys' have Gordon Brown. Who's never had a single vote from anyone ever.

EDIT: you're right about Obama though. Best thing that's happened to the US since they gave our government the finger (why can't we give our government the finger? Check out these two articles from today's headlines: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8049412.stm, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8049614.stm.)

Chad wrote:

Errrr, 'we guys' have Gordon Brown. Who's never had a single vote from anyone ever.

LOL!

Yes, of course. By "you guys" I meant our American friends.

Chad wrote:

DeafNala: I'd rather be ruled by Putin than Bush, at least Putin can construct a rational and meaningful sentence.

Poor Old George may very well be the WORST President we've ever had & undoubtably an Idiot. However, he does have a sense of humor, which I understand Putin TOTALLY lacks. There is also the little bit about Putin being a KGB Agent which rather puts me off [he picked up his German as an operative in East Germany BTW].

So? No one hates James Bond for working for MI6? And Eisenhower was in the army. And lots of people think Georgie should have been.

Chad wrote:

So? No one hates James Bond for working for MI6? And Eisenhower was in the army. And lots of people think Georgie should have been.

Well...actually, everyone loves Sean Connery; Eisenhower was in the army NOT the SS; & Georgie was hiding out in the Air National Guard, where the rich kids avoided Viet Nam.

That said, with everything except human rights & freedom of the press, Mr. P IS probably the BEST head of state the people of Russia have EVER had. It's just that I put a value on my personal freedom

I love how you identify Sean Connery with James Bond. Yay, for Sir Sean. Boo Brosnan!

whow... don't forget good old Boris! he was a funny little guy... or at least appeared so, (I wasn't fully up to date in 2nd class in high school then...) But I liked the team of Clinton and Yeltsin: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Boris_Yeltsin_with_Bill_Clinton-1.jpg

DeafNala wrote:

It's just that I put a value on my personal freedom

Of course, and you're absolutley right. Putin is/was/will be a terrible ruler, but thesedays, there's no such thing as good ruler. I mean, where in the world is there a popular prime minister/president/ruling monarch?

Holland! we nominated the most spineless idiot we could find prime minister! seen him? (or harry potter for that matter, in the very first film - as they look the same... ) He's doing somewhat better now... but started out as supreme doofus... being so in awe of the fact that he was in the white house, that he completely forgot what he was doing there... and THAT is how we got involved in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan... thanks loads JP...

Ageed; political leaders are only "great" in retrospect. Even Abraham Lincoln was dubbed by his contempories as "the Original Ape".

Oh, in thailand they are rather fond of the king... though, to complain about him publicly means some serious punishment hurray for rulers!

We should get the royal family to rule again! At least it would give everyone a laugh, can you imagine the queen visiting the White House! LOL, she'd think it was the epitome of new-money and wouldn't hide it, and when Prince Charles takes over, he'd be ridiculous.

Actually, I can think of one ruler who was popular at the time, Queen Victoria, everyone loved her (actually, lots of people tried to kill her, but that just made even more people love her for being so brave), and still do.

I always thought it odd that while sexual inhabitions are generally associated with the Victorian Era the Good Queen had SO MANY children that by the outbreak of WWI almost every ruling family was related by marriage to Victoria Regina.

Putins Deutsch ist ziemlich beeindruckend! Um aufrichtig zu sein, erwartete ich nicht wirklich, dass er das flüssig sprach!