Personalities of Non-English Speaking Fighters (Bilingual Bros GTFIH)

[B0l0joe]

Zhang Wei Li

She speaks as though she lacks a proper education (guessing she was brought up through sports schools which are quite unique in China), right off the bat her accent is something of a lowly village girl, even looks wise it is obvious she isn’t from a developed part of China.

Yet, she comes across as very nice and somewhat girly, but also her patriotic nature leads me to believe she is 100% behind her nation and will argue for the mainland which I detest extremely.

I never really caught the lack of education. What makes you think that?

 

[TheLinguist]

I never really caught the lack of education. What makes you think that?

Grammar and vernacular

 

[Rvd Slmr]

You must not be very gifted in terms of language to have needed 5 mn to realise that the French-Canadians were speaking French.

It's one thing for a French person to have trouble understanding French-Canadians, which I can understand. Some French Canadians can't articulate for shit and use expressions which are heavily marked by the old-French origins + bastardisation coming from the English language.

HOWEVER, not to recognise a word after 5 minutes? Dude, fuck off. I think you long down on us and belong to this minority of French people who are arrogant fucksticks and are hated everywhere.

French Canadians are very easy to understand if they know they are talking to a non Quebecois, but when they are talking among themselves in a more private situation (like in that case, not expecting anyone to speak any French in 100 miles radius), that's often a different story. And I've never looked down on anyone, some mainland French accents are even harder. Both of us would have a very difficult time understanding a grandma from the Pas-de-Calais that doesn't want to make any effort.

 

[B0l0joe]

Grammar and vernacular

Is Chinese your mother tongue?

Xu xiaodong, now there’s a guy that likes to curse a lot.

 

[KBE6EKCTAH_CCP]

Anyways, on topic, I think that GSP sounds weird when he speaks French. He has this weird voice and speaks as if he is a little bit socially awkward. Also, nothing wrong with that but he sounds sort of "not-very-educated-450-working-class-ish" - I am sure that other Montréalers will confirm, haha. He definitely sounds like a good guy, though, although he sounds less "nice/modest" than the way he comes across in English. You can tell that even if he is a good guy, that he is also a rough guy and won't take too much shit before telling you that he's unhappy with your presence.

OAM on the other hand sounds like he comes from an middle / upper middle-class family and gives that kind of smooth, stoner-ish vibe, to me. He sounds educated and does not sound like he had humble beginnings. He sounds like a pretty cool dude to have a beer with.

This is all very subjective, of course. Just my 0,02.

 

[phoenixikki]

Rickson and Royce have a carioca accent, but they speak in a calm and respectful manner, this is kind of funny because Brazilians think that cariocas sound cocky and somewhat fake.
Royler speaks with a thicker accent, which makes him sound even more cocky and brash.
Valentina Shevchenko's Spanish is actually really good, you can tell she isn't a native speaker though. Not because she has a strong Russian accent or anything, she just stresses some words wrong here and there. All in all, her "accent" is very cute.
Erick Silva sounds like a small boy, struggling to express himself in a world of grown men. Give him a couple of years, he will definitely sound like a teenager by then.

 

[KBE6EKCTAH_CCP]

French Canadians are very easy to understand if they know they are talking to a non Quebecois, but when they are talking among themselves in a more private situation (like in that case, not expecting anyone to speak any French in 100 miles radius), that's often a different story. And I've never looked down on anyone, some mainland French accents are even harder. Both of us would have a very difficult time understanding a grandma from the Pas-de-Calais that doesn't want to make any effort.

Well ok, then.



In my experience the nastiest accent in France is the Mosellan accent. Not super easy to understand sometimes and sounds trashy AF.

But I will concede that overall, the Québécois accent is not nice.

 

[ArtemV]

Frank Mir is articulate? We are talking about the same Frank Mir?

 

[Hotora86]

I made this thread years ago. Unfortunately it's gone, or I'm too stupid to find it. Either way, it's been a long time and there are plenty of new fighters to talk about.

The idea of the thread is to explain to us dummies who only speak one language, how some of the fighters who don't speak English extremely well sound in their native tongue. If there are specific fighters anyone would like to know about, ask. Maybe someone can answer.

For example:
-Frank Mir is very articulate and communicates well. He can sometimes sound a little pompous.
-The Diaz brothers speak in a way normally associated with "the hood" using a lot of slang and profanity. They are often dismissive or defensive with interviewers. They dgaf.

Some specifics I remember from the first thread that stuck with me:
-Shogun and Ninja Rua have a rural accent and a weird cadence. A Brazilian poster who described it, seemed to like it.
-Kid Yamamoto (R.I.P.) spoke in what could be considered a "hood" way. Iirc it was basically described as how hoodlums speak over there.
-Korean Zombie is very articulate and very polite
-I wasn't able to get much about Fedor other than that he seems really nice
-some people ITT accused me of trying to stereotype fighters and basically be a dick. That is not the case. I really just want to know what they're like.

There were a lot of good posts the last time. Hopefully this thread will deliver as well.

TLDR: If you speak a language other than English, tell us ignorant Americans what the fighters who primarily speak that language are like.

Edit: some specific fighters I'm interested in are Petr Yan, Jan Blachowicz, Paulo Costa, GSP's French, Horiguchi, Aoki, Wanderlei, Nogueira brothers, Fedor, Aleksander E., and I'd love to hear about anyone else you guys can tell us about.

I speak fluent Russian and Polish so...

Petr Yan comes off as a bit of a chav but it's because he was raised in a chav-ish city with crime and drugs being common. Actually, I am quite impressed that he has made it this far coming from an arguably shithole part of Russia. I will be rooting for him in the title fight.

Jan Blachowicz used to rub me the wrong way in KSW but he's gotten a lot more modest and serious about training in the UFC (probably gained perspective, he used to be a big fish in a small pond) and I find myself rooting for him often. He's developed an English sense of humor too, as evidenced by the recent trolling of Jones, haha.

Fedor used to be every Russian fan's sweetheart, so modest, so kind, so honest and frank. At some point he joined the Russian ruling political party tho and started responding with "God's will" to almost every question - both of these facts diminished my fandom. Russians still mostly root for him tho.

Aleks E. is just horrible. He's an insane, psychotic alcoholic. He's made friends with Kadyrov. He gets shitfaced a lot. Gets arrested and acts like that's a good thing. Talks mad shit all the time. Almost nobody likes him. Ugh.

Any other details you wanna know about anyone - ask me.

 

[French Canadian]

I always found GSP stiff when he speaks in french. He tries to be well spoken but it doesnt sound natural at all. You know he doesnt talk like that at all normally.

Its normal, we all want to appear well spoken in front of the camera but Georges takes it to another level. He still is very respected here and a great role rodel.

Georges bless

Edit:
On the Other hand, Aubin Mercier (OAM) and the newcomer Charles Jourdain are really well spoken and natural in all the interviews I saw them

Came here to say this about GSP. When he is interviewed it always makes me realize that appearing natural on TV is probably harder than we think. You can really see the difference in the level of ease between him and the interviewer / other media personalities on the TV set.

 

[Based and White Pilled]

Frank Mir is articulate? We are talking about the same Frank Mir?

He used to do commentary for WEC and was considered by many to be the best at it. When the UFC started dabbling in having fighters do commentary, people on here frequently called for Mir to do it. It's been a few years since I heard him speak so maybe he's had some CTE induced regression, but he definitely used to be an articulate guy.

 

[Rvd Slmr]

Well ok, then.



In my experience the nastiest accent in France is the Mosellan accent. Not super easy to understand sometimes and sounds trashy AF.

But I will concede that overall, the Québécois accent is not nice.

This is awesome because I considered using my late Mosellan grand-mother as an example of a French person that would sound like gibberish to tons of French speakers.

 

[KBE6EKCTAH_CCP]

I speak fluent Russian and Polish so...

Petr Yan comes off as a bit of a chav but it's because he was raised in a chav-ish city with crime and drugs being common. Actually, I am quite impressed that he has made it this far coming from an arguably shithole part of Russia. I will be rooting for him in the title fight.

Jan Blachowicz used to rub me the wrong way in KSW but he's gotten a lot more modest and serious about training in the UFC (probably gained perspective, he used to be a big fish in a small pond) and I find myself rooting for him often. He's developed an English sense of humor too, as evidenced by the recent trolling of Jones, haha.

Fedor used to be every Russian fan's sweetheart, so modest, so kind, so honest and frank. At some point he joined the Russian ruling political party tho and started responding with "God's will" to almost every question - both of these facts diminished my fandom. Russians still mostly root for him tho.

Aleks E. is just horrible. He's an insane, psychotic alcoholic. He's made friends with Kadyrov. He gets shitfaced a lot. Gets arrested and acts like that's a good thing. Talks mad shit all the time. Almost nobody likes him. Ugh.

Any other details you wanna know about anyone - ask me.

Obvious question: what about Khabib? I speak some Russian and to my ears he sounds distinctively "foreign-ish", i.e. non-native speaker.
I mean I know that Avar is his mother language, but interestingly I can't find a link of him speaking Avar outside of the odd sentence here and there. Anytime he is with his Caucasian crew he seems to be speaking Russian with them. It could be because many of them speak another Dagestani language but then I wonder when does he ever speak Avar, in that case?
Interesting topic, IMO.

 

[Katsushyro]

Shogun sounds effeminate.

Paulo Costa in unremakable, maybe because we are from the same town I don't get any accent from him. He kinda has a lisp tho.

Wand souns like a neandertal

Anderson talks soft and in a low tone, kinda like he's being manipulative.

Gilbert has a regular Rio accent, but without sounding like a douche, like most people from Rio do.

 

[Willie]

This is awesome because I considered using my late Mosellan grand-mother as an example of a French person that would sound like gibberish to tons of French speakers.

Never heard Mosellan but to me the Chti accent puts you out of the picture straight away.

 

[ViD]

Khabib and other North Caucasian (not all are Muslim there) typically have a heavy accent with slang used in their parts of the country when speaking Russian.

As for personalities, Zabit comes off as a very shy, modest dude, while Khabib tries to be like that in the interviews, but his real life interactions show that he’s very self confident and sometimes rude to a point of talking like a Diaz

 

[TheOnlyGreatest]

Khabib has a typical Caucus (Kavkaz) accent when speaking Russian. I guess it could be compared to how some Hispanic people speak here - even the ones who aren't immigrants. Think Puerto Rican from New York.

 

[TheOnlyGreatest]

Khabib and other North Caucasian (not all are Muslim there) typically have a heavy accent with slang used in their parts of the country when speaking Russian.

As for personalities, Zabit comes off as a very shy, modest dude, while Khabib tries to be like that in the interviews, but his real life interactions show that he’s very self confident and sometimes rude to a point of talking like a Diaz

Didn't see this before my post but yes.

 

[Willie]

Khabib and other North Caucasian (not all are Muslim there) typically have a heavy accent with slang used in their parts of the country when speaking Russian.

As for personalities, Zabit comes off as a very shy, modest dude, while Khabib tries to be like that in the interviews, but his real life interactions show that he’s very self confident and sometimes rude to a point of talking like a Diaz

There was that incident with a russian rapper last year, Khabib wrote a 'heartfelt' message about the guy on Instagram, it had to be removed because it contained some rude words to say the least, he called him a rooster, and other 'orientated' words which in russian is supposed to be super offending. I was surprised to see Khabib go that far. I dont think I ever heard Khabib swear at all, at least not in english.

 

[ViD]

There was that incident with a russian rapper last year, Khabib wrote a 'heartfelt' message about the guy on Instagram, it had to be removed because it contained some rude words to say the least, he called him a rooster, and other 'orientated' words which in russian is supposed to be super offending. I was surprised to see Khabib go that far. I dont think I ever heard Khabib swear at all, at least not in english.

Yeah I was surprised he went that far considering the rapper he had a beef with is mostly cool with people from North Caucasus and was very polite and respectful when he addressed Khabib, the word choice by Khabib was YouTube comment section bad