Le Pot Ecossais

jimboab
jimboab Posts: 5
edited July 2007 in Pro race
I just watched Gert Steegmans being interviewed post stage in the Tour. He speaks English with a Scottish accent. Anyone know how come? And, more importantly, can he ride for us when we get our own team for the World Champs?

JB.

Comments

  • afx237vi
    afx237vi Posts: 12,630
    Eh, sounds like a typical Flemish accent to me:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ID_RoKJqZzw
  • method
    method Posts: 784
    Didn't sound at all Scottish, anyway, don't you come under team Great Britain...
  • timoid.
    timoid. Posts: 3,133
    Considering he'd walk into the Belgium team, its not an issue.

    There is also the slight issue of him being about as Scottish as Tintin
    It's a little like wrestling a gorilla. You don't quit when you're tired. You quit when the gorilla is tired.
  • method
    method Posts: 784
    Nice full stop you've got there Timoid
  • timoid.
    timoid. Posts: 3,133
    method wrote:
    Nice full stop you've got there Timoid


    Cheers. Henceforth I am to be known as Timoid (dot)

    A small price to pay for the forum great leap forward :wink:
    It's a little like wrestling a gorilla. You don't quit when you're tired. You quit when the gorilla is tired.
  • knedlicky
    knedlicky Posts: 3,097
    If it were just based on accent when speaking not the mother tongue, I think McEwen might be soon snapped up by the Flemish Belgians.
    Oh, just realised he is already has been!

    I actually find the language ability of many riders quite impressive considering many supposedly come from low social/low intelligence backgrounds. It just shows that some presumptions can be wrong.
    I suspect their grammar isn't always correct, though that doesn't matter if they have the fluidity and sufficient vocabulary, as foriegn footballers have demonstrated in the UK.
  • Monty Dog
    Monty Dog Posts: 20,614
    You'll have the sociologists up in arms about statements inferring that low social status infers low intelligence. From my experience, there's also an argument about the inverse - high social status and low intelligence - the only problem is that the rest of us are often afflicted by their stupidity whereas Darwinian principles generally see to the former.
    Make mine an Italian, with Campagnolo on the side..
  • knedlicky
    knedlicky Posts: 3,097
    Sorry, I didn't mean to infer that low social status infers low intelligence, in fact I purposely tried to avoid this by including the word "supposedly' ("many riders ... supposedly come from low social/low intelligence backgrounds") and adding the sentence "some presumptions can be wrong".

    It isn't something I should want to claim anyway, in my own interests - I come from a working class background (Dad a docker), but went through university to end up in a good job where I too need fluency in a foreign language. At the same time I've had my albeit minor successes in cycling events - on the podium in the odd duathlon, 18th in the national rankings of my category one year, Marmotte, etc.

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