Romelu Lukaku | Chelsea

TsuWave said:
You said it was fairly normal. It is not. Even a provisional google search will tell you only 3% of the global population speaks 4 languages or more. Yes, diaspora kids will have a disposition to speak multiple languages, but not many are as proficient as Lukaku. I'm not even doubting your anecdotal evidence, I'm just saying it isn't fairly normal, because, well, it isn't.
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It's not a diaspora thing though. I'll give you an example for an african from a french colony that went at least to highschool it's not rare for them to speak decent english, french, the most common national dialect and a regional dialect. After that you have many that move to countries like Spain, Italy, Germany and add other languages. I also didn't even took into account the fact that both parents could have two different native languages or anyone that travelled to over african countries.
 
JPRouve said:
It's not a diaspora thing though. I'll give you an example for an african from a french colony that went to at least to highschool it's not rare for them to speak decent english, french, the most common national dialect and a regional dialect. After that you have many that move to countries like Spain, Italy, Germany and add other languages. I also didn't even took into account the fact that both parents could have two different native languages or anyone that travelled to over african countries.
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Can he say...”excuse me, can you help me improve my first touch?” In any language?
 
Tarrou said:
Lukaku lived with Boswinga in his first year at Chelsea and learned Portuguese from him

that's seriously impressive
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I'm skeptical about that kind of things, unless you use and used that language continuously it's unlikely that you are fluent. I'm personally at four languages and then there are three others that I understand but I wouldn't say that I speak them, mainly because I don't use them often and it takes me time to be comfortable.
 
JPRouve said:
It's not a diaspora thing though. I'll give you an example for an african from a french colony that went at least to highschool it's not rare for them to speak decent english, french, the most common national dialect and a regional dialect. After that you have many that move to countries like Spain, Italy, Germany and add other languages. I also didn't even took into account the fact that both parents could have two different native languages or anyone that travelled to over african countries.
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For clarification, when I refer to diaspora in this context I’m speaking of African diaspora. Kids of African descent born in and/or that migrated to countries outside of Africa. Most people I know are bilingual or speak multiple languages, that’s common and reflected in said provisional Google searches with stats ranging from 40% to 48% of the world population being bilingual. +5 languages though, it’s a small percentile of people.
 
JPRouve said:
I'm skeptical about that kind of things, unless you use and used that language continuously it's unlikely that you are fluent. I'm personally at four languages and then there are three others that I understand but I wouldn't say that I speak them, mainly because I don't use them often and it takes me time to be comfortable.
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I'm actually surprised more footballers don't speak more languages in general, to speak another language fluently immersion I'd say is critical, and with them living in different countries, and mixing with different nationalities on a consistent basis from the age of 5 they're in a privileged position, obviously most don't take advantage of it, but even a team mate of Lukaku, Kovačić speaks 5, whilst a fair few others speak 3.

Lukaku grew up speaking French and Flemish having being born in Belgium whilst speaking Lingala to relatives, that's three right off the bat then having lived in England and Italy, while not common for most people let alone footballers, he then spoke English and Italian.

During his time in England he stayed with a Portuguese team mate (immersion) and learned his language, its genuinely impressive but considering footballers are in the perfect environment for learning languages and have all the time in the world, I wouldn't say its exceptional.

Lukaku knows French, Flemish, Lingala, English, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and some German apparently? The only languages there that you could say are unusual is Spanish and German as he had no ties there (aside from team mates) and considering Spanish and Portuguese have close linguistic ties, that only really leaves German as the standout, to what level is his German? I couldn't say, but it would be interesting to see an interview in German (I'm off to Google).
 
He did well with Inter because they put fish in his diet. Thats the key.
 
Lukaku speaks 14 languages and can write with his feet. He's smart.
 
Lukaku seems more and more like a big baby. The way he left United and gave away training results to prove, he was not that slow. The way he left Inter and says he is sorry, when he wants to return. The way he treats Chelsea, who toke him in at a young age.
 
yumtum said:
I'm actually surprised more footballers don't speak more languages in general, to speak another language fluently immersion I'd say is critical, and with them living in different countries, and mixing with different nationalities on a consistent basis from the age of 5 they're in a privileged position, obviously most don't take advantage of it, but even a team mate of Lukaku, Kovačić speaks 5, whilst a fair few others speak 3.

Lukaku grew up speaking French and Flemish having being born in Belgium whilst speaking Lingala to relatives, that's three right off the bat then having lived in England and Italy, while not common for most people let alone footballers, he then spoke English and Italian.

During his time in England he stayed with a Portuguese team mate (immersion) and learned his language, its genuinely impressive but considering footballers are in the perfect environment for learning languages and have all the time in the world, I wouldn't say its exceptional.

Lukaku knows French, Flemish, Lingala, English, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and some German apparently? The only languages there that you could say are unusual is Spanish and German as he had no ties there (aside from team mates) and considering Spanish and Portuguese have close linguistic ties, that only really leaves German as the standout, to what level is his German? I couldn't say, but it would be interesting to see an interview in German (I'm off to Google).
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Yeah, some people are just a bit strange for me. I lived in Dakar for almost a year and after a couple of months I was able to converse in Wolof and also learned portuguese since I was mainly around Cap Verdians and portuguese. Now I almost completely lost Wolof and portuguese stuck a bit more since it's a closer to spanish and french. But I wouldn't tell anyone that I speak Portuguese or Wolof, it would be a gross exaggeration.
 
kouroux said:
It is very much debatable as there are millions of examples of all over the world of people speaking several languages without them being specially smart, when I said "Einstein" I was purposely exaggerating.
My initial point is that if one speaks several languages, it gives me no indication of one's level of intellect whatsoever. Speaking several languages isn't that special at all in many parts of the world.
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Good thing I didn’t refer to him as smart or whatever you understand that to be. In regards to him being intelligent. I’ve already addressed that, a basic definition of intelligence is the ability to learn/acquire knowledge and apply it efficiently. Speaking multiple languages fluently is a reflection of said concept. Couple it with him being a very successful striker, and what that entails, Lukaku has plenty of intelligence markers for me to label him intelligent.
 
TsuWave said:
Good thing I didn’t refer to him as smart or whatever you understand that to be. In regards to him being intelligent. I’ve already addressed that, a basic definition of intelligence is the ability to learn/acquire knowledge and apply it efficiently. Speaking multiple languages fluently is a reflection of said concept. Couple it with him being a very successful striker, and what that entails, Lukaku has plenty of intelligence markers for me to label him intelligent.
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Tbh I didn't have Lukaku's example on my mind here, I was talking in general which is why it seems we are in disagreement when we are just talking about 2 separate things
 
Liverpool are playing their youth keeper today. Big Rom would've had a field day.
 
Smart thing by Tuchel to exclude the donkey. Its shows great leadership and its not like Lukaku would do anything remarkable against Pool anyway.
 
I agree that being able to speak multiple languages doesnt necessarily mean someone is intelligent. I lived my teenager life having to spoke several languages to people around me, I can speak at least 4 but I wont say I master them. So its more about conditioning and habbit more than anything. And I dont consider myself smart either, I'm dumb to be honest.
 
JPRouve said:
Yeah, some people are just a bit strange for me. I lived in Dakar for almost a year and after a couple of months I was able to converse in Wolof and also learned portuguese since I was mainly around Cap Verdians and portuguese. Now I almost completely lost Wolof and portuguese stuck a bit more since it's a closer to spanish and french. But I wouldn't tell anyone that I speak Portuguese or Wolof, it would be a gross exaggeration.
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I think this is the thing, to what level does Lukaku speak these languages? My girlfriend is British born Chinese, and I remember asking her if she spoke Cantonese or Mandarin and her response was neither - I didn't think anything of it until she got a phone call from her grandmother and she started speaking Cantonese, I was obviously shocked, but she said she gets by, but wouldn't say she could speak it as she wasn't fluent.

I'm the same with Welsh, I could hold a conversation, but I don't tick any boxes saying I'm a Welsh speaker on job postings etc, I can also understand a little French and Cantonese, does that mean I know 4 languages? Absolutely not.

Making an assumption, but I guess Lukaku knows enough to get by in most of his languages he says he knows which is impressive, but considering his job and where/how he grew up, I wouldn't call him intelligent considering all the evidence of his daft antics.
 
JPRouve said:
I'm skeptical about that kind of things, unless you use and used that language continuously it's unlikely that you are fluent. I'm personally at four languages and then there are three others that I understand but I wouldn't say that I speak them, mainly because I don't use them often and it takes me time to be comfortable.
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he did an interview in Portuguese though

but yeah he’s probably not super fluent but clearly has an aptitude for learning languages

I have Portuguese mates I haven’t learned shit
 
Since this thread is already sidetracked.. Here and here you can see some of his language skills. At least seems to be speaking French, Dutch, Italian, English and Spanish (somewhat) fluently.
 
Tarrou said:
he did an interview in Portuguese though

but yeah he’s probably not super fluent but clearly has an aptitude for learning languages

I have Portuguese mates I haven’t learned shit
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That's because you didn't try. :D
 
I wouldn’t care if Lukaku translates ancient Greek texts. He’s a clown and Tuchel is right to drop him.
 
Put the whole team in a difficult position and now 2 nil down and lucky to have 11 on the pitch. Agent Rom....
 
It's not like he scores against the better sides.
 
Speaking multiple languages equating to being intelligent is probably one of the weirdest concepts I have read on the Caf.
 
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