The Thunberg Effect: Why Some Australians Overheat At The Mere Mention Of Swedish Climate Activist - New Matilda
The Thunberg Effect: Why Some Australians Overheat At The Mere Mention Of Swedish Climate Activist - New Matilda
If you’re going to campaign to save the world, then best do it with a strong command of the English language. Dean Frenkel weighs in on the fury that surrounds a young Swedish climate activist. Why do Australian conservatives bristle at Greta Thunberg? It begins with who she is, not what she’s ...
Thunberg is a Swedish resident who speaks English as a second language.
Many 2nd generation immigrants speak better English than 6th generation Australians.
These Australians are not jealous of Thunberg's speech-competence nor do they necessarily want to speak better than her, instead they have a deep-seated bias against people who speak too well.
Greta's accomplishment as an elite English speaker is amazing for someone born and raised speaking Swedish in a non-English-speaking country; even more-so that she probably hasn't spent a lifetime nurturing her English.
Most Australians don't speak clearly and many don't speak confidently or functionally and it's not only tradespeople who are impeded but also politicians, judges, air traffic controllers and doctors - it's across the board.
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Greta is a fine speaker, but this article proposes that the reaction to her is caused not by what she says but by how she says it? Ridiculous.
The author is a paid speaking coach, so it looks to me like there’s a conflict of interest here.
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Dude, aussies absolutely have a fucked up relation with how well spoken someone is.
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You're right.
It didn't make much sense to me, but it's content. Make of it as you will.
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I will admit I enjoyed imagining Rowan Dean from Sky News raving about the quality of her enunciation.
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New Matilda had put out some interesting stuff in the past but if this low tier clickbait garbage by Dean Frenkel is the direction they’re going I suppose I should write them off.
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Independent Australia also has some questionable articles too lately.
But then ABC is basically terrible and I'm debating whether or not to even bother using them as a source.
That said, I'm not posting these because I agree with it, think of me as a bot just transferring articles and summaries to a link aggregator with minor discernment.
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ABC News on the air is okay.
ABC News website? Why? Just... why? Half the time you load it up, every second story is a human interest story about the struggles of being poor, disabled, a woman, or gay. And I don't mean a mix, I mean they seem to have a different theme for each day of the week. Tuesdays are Poverty Porn day, Wednesday Women's Woes, Thursdays it's a slate of disability inspiration porn that's so saccharine and maudlin that I can't read it... and I am disabled. Instead of having to pick the news stories that interest me, it's a struggle just to pick the actual news stories.
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Lol very misleading. The article begins.. “Why do Australian conservatives bristle at Greta Thunberg?”
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They are insulted by the audacity of her age – a protester who became a worldwide superstar at the age of 15; they’re disoriented by her lack of regard for social niceties and particularly dislike that she’s given airtime and taken seriously. They don’t like her tone and intensity. “How dare you?”
I mean the article starts out on a sensible foot - she's an awful choice of spokesperson. I probably agree with 90% of what she has to say, but I'm not going to get as far as finding out. I bristle at celebrity at the best of times, never mind when some team of marketing people and managers keep shoving some blunt kid in my face.
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Perhaps there is some truth in this article but to call Sweden a non-English speaking country is incorrect. All students study English at school and IMHO speak it better than many Australians do upon graduation. They might not use it everyday but the only barrier to speaking great English I have come across is confidence to do so.