Bush in Spanish

Here is a video of former US President George W. Bush speaking Spanish during his last year in office.

Transcription of the Spanish: Este es el último mes de la hispanidad que paso como presidente. Y por eso, le dije a mi personal que hoy quería hablarles sólo en español. ... "[...] presidente, antes de dar un discurso en español, ¿por qué no llega primero a dominar el inglés?"

English translation: This is the last Hispanic Heritage Month I will live through as President. And for that reason, I told my staff that, today, I wanted to talk to you all only in Spanish. ... "[...] President, before giving a speech in Spanish, why can't you master English first?"

I had read a couple of times about him saying a few Spanish phrases on a number of occasions, but had never actually heard him myself. The intent to speak a language that's not his is certainly commendable, but his pronunciation is far from perfect. Now, there seems to be some controversy surrounding the former President's Spanish skills, with some people claiming that he's actually fluent. Given the proof presented on this post, and the fact that his interviews with the Spanish-language networks have always been in English, you can form your own judgment.

It is my impression that he took Spanish as a class at some point in his schooling, enough to be able to read the language, which we can see him doing in the video. I would then imagine that he went over the Spanish parts of his speech with a native speaker for a few minutes, and he was ready for the show.
We gather from this video that he has difficulty pronouncing /r/ in Spanish; it is difficult for him, and not impossible because he does pronounce it correctly a few times, but, all other times, he defaults to the American English /r/ [ɹ]. In the end, his Spanish is decent enough for it to be understandable; and, in the end, that's all that matters when speaking a language.

On an interesting note, the only videos I could find on Youtube of Bush speaking Spanish are advertising a Spanish course daring viewers to "speak Spanish better than Bush" (you can see it on this video).

By contrast, Bush's successor, President Barack Obama, does a much better job speaking Spanish, as heard on the following video. Granted, an argument can be made that the next example is a commercial, and Obama surely had more opportunities to have his pronunciation corrected so it was as close to perfect as possible. That's the point, however; that attention was paid to detail. It is quite noticeable that Obama's pronunciation was reviewed and checked in preparation for this commercial. He pronounces the vowels clearly with little to no reduction, no sign of the American /r/, and he even pronounces intervocalic /d/ correctly as [θ] (puede ['pweθe]).

 

Spanish transcription: Compartimos un sueño... que trabajando duro, tu familia puede triunfar; que, si te enfermas, tengas un seguro médico; que nuestros hijos puedan recibir una buena educación, sean ricos o pobres. Este es el sueño americano. Te pido tu voto... no sólo para mí y los demócratas, sino para mantener ese sueño vivo para ti y para tus hijos. Soy Barack Obama y yo apruebo este mensaje.

English translation: We share a dream... that working hard, your family can succeed; that, if you get sick, you will have medical insurance; that our children will be able to receive a good education, whether they're rich or poor. This is the American dream. I ask you for your vote... not only for me and the Democrats, but to maintain that dream alive for you and for your children. I'm Barack Obama and I approve this message.

The comments, for the most part in Spanish, on that video page are of the following kind:

Translation: Obama-lies... now in Spanish!

Going into the reasons for why those comments are made, though, would involve delving into a hardcore political discussion, which is of no concern to the Filius Lunae community not the focus of this site.

To be fair, here is a commercial from 2004 in which George W. Bush speaks Spanish at the beginning: Soy George W. Bush, y aprobé este mensaje. My remarks about his pronunciation from the first video apply in this case as well.

Conclusion: If I had to grade their Spanish, George W. Bush would get an E for effort a C, and President Obama gets nota zece — an A.

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For some comic relief, here is a short clip from The Late Show from a segment called "George W. Bush: Fakin' It". In this clip, Bush "pretends to understand Spanish."