NHL players with the worst English

[MoeTheHobo]

If you have some basic knowledge of that language, then yeah, no doubt.
If starting from scratch though, I don't know, pretty sure watching an entire movie in Albanian with subtitles wouldn't improve my language skills even in the slightest...

As for Puljujärvi, I'm sort of with you on that

Well it's a long process ofc but if you watch Khazak movies for 10 years you'd probably know a thing or two.
I'm just trying to look back at how I learned English. I think I was 11 when we got it as a subject in school but I had watched English movies and played games before that so I had at least some sort of basic knowledge.

 

[sr edler]

Counter rant.

How many languages do you speak? What about movies in languages you don't understand? I bet don't speak russian. Dubbing is perfectly normal. The quality of it is a different question.

Rant over.

I speak 2. Why would I speak Russian, I have no use for it here where I live. (My wife does though because she's from Estonia). But if I saw a Russian film (which happens) I certainly wouldn't want the actors speaking Swedish or English.

 

[ICanMotteBelieveIt]

I live in Finland, so. And like I said before, Swedes speak better English but the Finns rank superbly high in english proficiency too. What a weird argument to even have. Compared to pretty much every other country besides Sweden Finns speak excellent English. You're just talking out of your ass.

Edit: And I was specifically talking about young people. Under 25 year old Finns generally speak very good English.

Older swedes vs older Finns, big difference.

Yes the younger generation is better than the older one. They still got an real noticeable accent, poor vocabulary.

Yeah, you understand them. But their english isn't that great.

There's a difference between understanding english and getting by, compared to being proficient in english, which swedes tend to be, more so at least.

 

[Plural]

Older swedes vs older Finns, big difference.

Yes the younger generation is better than the older one. They still got an real noticeable accent, poor vocabulary.

Yeah, you understand them. But their english isn't that great.

There's a difference between understanding english and getting by, compared to being proficient in english, which swedes tend to be, more so at least.

You are still talking out of your ass and everything you're claiming is contradicted by studies and data. Hmm, which one to believe? Studies, comparisons and data or some random Swede who "has been to Finland"? I live in Finland and clearly ubderstand what constitutes as good english skills. Why the hell would your anecdotes have more value than mine?

Just admit you were talking out of your ass and move on.

 

[Canucks5551]

Are foreign movies & series usually dubbed in North America?

Animated shows/movies are often dubbed, but live action is almost always subtitled from what I’ve seen.

 

[dragovici]

Kucherov has been in North America a lot longer.

Doesnt play anymore, but Holmstrom was bad. I know learning another language isn't easy, but Lidstrom sounded north American while you could tell Holmstrom wasn't. Even at the end of his career

Homer the f***ing GOAT

 

[dragovici]

You are still talking out of your ass and everything you're claiming is contradicted by studies and data. Hmm, which one to believe? Studies, comparisons and data or some random Swede who "has been to Finland"? I live in Finland and clearly ubderstand what constitutes as good english skills. Why the hell would your anecdotes have more value than mine?

Just admit you were talking out of your ass and move on.

Finns have considerably worse pronounciation due to the finnish phonological system and the rules regarding how and which phonemes are pronounced. Usually good language skills though.

 

[Plural]

Finns have considerably worse pronounciation due to the finnish phonological system and the rules regarding how and which phonemes are pronounced. Usually good language skills though.

Yeah. I already brought up how finnish is from another language family than swedish or english.

But, there literally are studies and surveys trying to measure the level of language proficiency among different countries. Finland has consistentlt ranked at the highest level and is among the highest in english proficiency. Some weird Swede saying it's not true because he sometimes visit's us here is not enough evidence for me.

 

[SaltNPeca]

Are foreign movies & series usually dubbed in North America?
...

US & Canada are a virtual fortress of English with an island that is Quebec and something of an invasion of Spanish from the South (for which many appear to be fighting against).

Since everything official in Canada is in both English and French no Average Joe is actually forced to read or hear their non-native language (caveat: gov't employees, military, or the like). Only a tiny portion of Canada along the St. Lawrence (e.g. Montreal & Ottawa) are really bilingual regions.

As you can imagine the culture that is Hollywood, US Television (Network, HBO, Netflix, etc.), Silicon Valley, Nashville, LA, NYC, WEB 2.0, "the internet", etc. is upwards of 99% Anglophone.

Even how you phrase the question is kind of funny. I'm not aware of any major cinemas showing any "foreign films" even with English dubbing (unless we're saying Valkyrie is German and Gladiator is Italian?). Note that the OG Mad Max had an "American Dub".

Top 100 Domestic Box Office movies hover around $300M USD.
After the Top 3 "foreign language" are all sub $50M USD.

 

[Long Live Lyle]

I'm actually surprise at how good Tarasenko's English is. If I remember correctly, he had a translator during his first press conference in the NHL.

Bobrovsky is similar. Basically couldn’t speak a lick of English with the Flyers/first year or so with CBJ and now answers questions thoroughly, cracks jokes, etc.

 

[Gobben]

Use subtitles? It's harder to learn a language if you're never exposed to it.
Mini comment over.

Which makes Puljujärvi a curious case, hasn't he watched any movies or played video games growing up? Having a thick accent is one thing, that's just muscle memory after all. My only rational explanation is that he is a bit... thick himself

You can have an accent, yet still speak correct English. After all, we all have them. You can also be highly talented. Here's Antti Törmänen.

 

[ICanMotteBelieveIt]

You are still talking out of your ass and everything you're claiming is contradicted by studies and data. Hmm, which one to believe? Studies, comparisons and data or some random Swede who "has been to Finland"? I live in Finland and clearly ubderstand what constitutes as good english skills. Why the hell would your anecdotes have more value than mine?

Just admit you were talking out of your ass and move on.

That's why do many young finns suck at english when they're coming over to join the NHL? The majority of the videos posted in this thread are finnish players struggling. Explain that?

 

[MartinS82]

Swedes speak considerably better English than Finns.

Correction. Swedes speak considerably better English than most Americans. (Sad thing is, I am only partly joking.)

 

[Trap Jesus]

Not that he has the worst by a long shot, but Malkin has always surprised me relative to other superstars that have been in the NHL for such a long time.

 

[Gobben]

Correction. Swedes speak considerably better English than most Americans. (Sad thing is, I am only partly joking.)

And some Englishmen.



You know, it is not very advanced, you know.

 

[BusQuets]

Russians is the easy answer outside of few exception but you can't really blame them.

 

[crackdown44]

Go to Louisiana or Mississippi, and see where you could not be more right.

I watched swamp people once on the history channel and I had to read the subtitles much more often than I anticipated

 

[Atas2000]

I speak 2. Why would I speak Russian, I have no use for it here where I live. (My wife does though because she's from Estonia). But if I saw a Russian film (which happens) I certainly wouldn't want the actors speaking Swedish or English.

But you would not understand a word.

 

[Ducks76]

Russians is the easy answer outside of few exception but you can't really blame them.

France 39%? I thought nearly 20%.

 

[sr edler]

But you would not understand a word.

I would if there are subtitles in a language I understand.

 

[jbobell98]

Baffles me how long Ovechkin and Malkin have been playing in North America and can barely strain together two sentences.

 

[Rodgerwilco]

Been mentioned a few times, but Malkin’s English is rough. Given the amount of time he’s been in America you’d expect him to have improved a lot, but he still really doesn’t seem that great at speaking the language.

Sutter sounds like what the Amish speak around here, they call it “Pennsylvania Dutch”. Half of it sounds like gibberish with random snippets of English sprinkled in.

 

[sr edler]

A lot of (most perhaps) athletes are not very academically inclined and also often leave school a couple years earlier than most people to focus on their sports careers. It's not that surprising some of them lack some language skills. I remember Swedish footballer Tomas Brolin for instance telling some media outlet once he had never read a book.

 

[pucksakes666]

I shouldn't say it because he has health issues but Ryan Clowe use to have bad English .

 

[Stubu]

Swedes speak considerably better English than Finns.

Swedish like English is a Germanic language unlike Finnish (which isn't even an Indo-European language) but mother of god the hot takes in this thread so far. English is everywhere. Finns just speak less.