Čau Andreji (blog)

27.6.2019

Čau Andreji aneb Dear Mr Prime Minister,

Please, if possible do not appear in the foreign media and do not speak English in public. Please, save us from this feeling of shame for what we have recently become: a nation governed and exploited by someone like you, a nation exposed to your daily rhetoric, which you acquired in the „good“ old times („good“ for people of your kind) before 1989, a nation represented by someone ridiculous. It brings back some really bad memories, flashes of darkness of communist oppression and crime. Not only is „the idiot wind blowing every time you move your teeth“, you do not answer the reporter’s and anybody’s questions, you compare incomparable (yourself to Michael Bloomberg), you associate Ellis Island and US green cards with the recent European immigration issue and habitually make statements full of distorted facts, but also your English competence does not match the level of  self-confidence you use it with. As an English teacher of many years I will now give you a free lesson of English and correct your elementary mistakes in your CNN appearance of June 23, 2019. Please, accept it as a reversed subsidy from a worthless self-employed tax payer of negligible size to the Czech Administration that you are now representing with the support of the communist comrades once again!

You said:	You probably wanted to say:
We have to think about reform Europe	We have to think about reforming Europe
In Europe we have two biggest issue now…	In Europe we have two big issues now…
We have to solve these problem first.	We have to solve these problems first.
Then we can think about eventual bigger integration of member state…	Then we can think about an eventual bigger integration of the member states
I’m not populist…	I’m not a populist…
We married Czech woman…	We both married Czech women…
I have been in United States in 2015	I was in the United States in 2015
I build a big company	I built a big company.
On the other side	On the other hand
..the smugglers, which are promising…	…the smugglers, who promise….
… people which expect a better life…	…people who expect a better life…
I create this movement	I created this movement
We succeed already in four elections	We have already succeeded in four elections
We are one of the more successful country	We are one of the most successful countries
I was collecting 10 billion euro	I collected 10 billion euros
We have really fight…	We really have to fight..
We have to solve these problem	We have to solve these problems
Henry Kissinger said in the history „I would like to call Europe, so who should call I?“	HK said in the past „I would like to call Europe, who should I call?“
Czech Republic is small country	The Czech Republic is a small country

 

In summary, your speech sounds funny, Mr. Babis, regardless of the ideas which you are trying to put across. You only use the present tense, you confuse the words and connections, you do not use plural forms of nouns, you ignore articles, and your vocabulary is really limited to the very basics. The funniest thing is, however, your pronunciation (e.g. “migration is really pronounced „maigreišn“), including the word stress which makes your speech difficult to understand and you certainly have made lots of people laugh. Your level of English competence according to CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for languages) is obviously A2, i.e. elementary level and thus you are not qualified to use the language in any kind of official dealings within the EU or worldwide.  I am sorry.  Please, hire a good English teacher or an interpreter (I am sure you can afford it) or NEVER talk to the public in English again. Make this pledge part of your inauguration oaths next time you win an election, together with Mr. President!

Want to listen to the whole interview? Here’s the link:

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/06/23/europe/czech-republic-babis-protest-intl/index.html

Cheerio and study hard!

Zora Procházková