President Obama celebrates "Cinco de Cuatro"
From Yahoo News:
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama is celebrating Cinco de Mayo a little early.
On the eve of the Mexican holiday, Obama on Monday had an event in the East Room of the White House with Mexico's Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan (sahr-oo-KHAN').
Obama joked that it was "Cinco de Cuatro," botching a play on the Spanish word for "four" when he meant to say "Cuatro de Mayo," or the Fourth of May. He tried again, but he still did not get it right.
Moving past the jumbled translation, the president assured his guests that the White House wants to be early in commemorating the holiday.
Cinco de Mayo celebrates the Mexican troops' defeat of the French on May 5, 1862, at Puebla. Obama called it a "decisive victory" that inspired a sense of pride that Mexicans feel today.
And this coming from a President that loudly proclaimed during his campaign:
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Instead of worrying about whether immigrants can learn English, they will learn English. You need to make sure your child can speak Spanish."
He apparently could speak Spanish when the story shown below was released by the Washington Post back on the 28 May 2008:
Making use of relatively simple Spanish, but a very good accent, Barack Obama addresses the Democratic voters of Puerto Rico.
"Mensaje a Puerto Rico," or "Message to Puerto Rico" is a direct-to-camera appeal by Obama.
"Naci en una isla," he says, meaning "I was born on an island."
"Entiendo que la comida, la gasolina, y todo cuesta mas. Puerto Rico tiene derecho a un mejor futuro," Obama adds, meaning "I know that food, gas, and everything costs more. Puerto Rico has the right to a better future."
Later he states that, "Este primer de Junio, sera un honor contar con tu voto," meaning, "This first of June it would be an honor to have your vote."
"He's kind of always been around Latinos, and obviously heard some language," says Vincent Casillas, coordinator of Spanish media for the Obama campaign, who adds he only recent heard the senator's Spanish-speaking skills during a recent campaign stop in Miami. The ad has been well received in Puerto Rico, Casillas added, suggesting the senator may do similar ads in the coming months.
And of course all the comments regarding this story slammed then President Bush regarding his ability to speak Spanish (and English) while being from Texas and praised Obamas ability and fluency in Spanish.
Then he did another TV ad speaking in Spanish:
It is quite apparent President Obama can speak Spanish, he just has one hell of a terrible time once you remove him from his teleprompter umbilical cord.
The interesting aspect to this story and my point to the thread is the spin placed on it by the various news services and readers who comment on the story. When President Bush erred while speaking Spanish, he was held up to ridicule and mocked. Obama again gets a bye on any and all gaffes. For example, the Yahoo story passing over the gaffe with the glib comment "Moving past the jumbled translation...". LA Times? "...in a well-intentioned attempt at Spanish and a joke about being a day early, Obama said: "Bienvenidos. Welcome to Cinco de Cuatro -- (laughter) -- Cinco de Mayo at the White House. " Washington Post? Never mentioned. In fact the quip was omitted. "Yesterday, on what was technically Cuatro de Mayo, President Obama
invited Mexican Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan and other Latino dignitaries
to the White House to get the party started early."We are a day early, but we always like to get a head start here at
the Obama White House. . . . But even as we mark this joyous and
festive occasion, we do so mindful of the fact that this is a difficult
time for Mexico," Obama said."
Comments from readers:
Super Typical -- the entire world is making fun of obama for saying "cinco de cuatro" without actually understanding the sophistication of a joke he was making:
It was "five minutes to four" when he was speaking... thats why he looked at his watch -- idiots... hope that shuts up those people who thought they were smarter than Obama!"
If you cannot trust this man to get his Spanish correct, can you really trust him with nukes? Clearly everything that comes out of his mouth is suspect. Ha ha, just wanted to beat the conservative nuts to their punchline. Happy fifth of fourth.
You get the idea.
And if one wants to be absolutely correct in this, Cinco de Mayo is not universally celebrated in Mexico, being celebrated primarily in the state of Puebla. It is not a Mexican federal holiday but one observed voluntarily; strangely enough, mostly in the United States. Many also refer to this day erroneously as Mexican Independence Day which is in fact 16 September (dieciséis de septiembre).
I can be E-mailed at outrider@ohnoanotherconservativeblog.com if you have suggestions, questions, or would like to see a particular story written.
"It is quite apparent President Obama can speak Spanish ..."
Maybe, but I doubt it. It sounds to me like he did it phonetically like non-Spanish-speaking actors do it. He had an Anglo accent on all of the words that most English speakers tend to have it on. And if he really did speak it, there's no way he would screw up "Cuatro de mayo" with "Cinco de Cuatro" – twice. In any case, where and when could he have possibly become fluent? No one coming out of the American education system (both K-12 and university) are properly taught how to speak a foreign language in a natural way.
BTW, I've heard Bush speak Spanish and he seems to have a basic knowledge of it, albeit with an atrocious "gringo" accent.
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Unfortunately, when Americans or anyone else speaks a foreign language, we tend to keep our own accents thus producing an "atrocious gringo" accent. My German has a terrible accent but is still understandable.
Spanish accents sound different coming from a native Mexican than say, a Honduran, El Salvadoran or Columbian. The same when they speak English.
And yes, I agree; the American education requirements have slackened terribly in the last 20 or so years. It used to be required for high schoolers to study a language (Latin included) and it was a requirement for a BA degree.
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