Obama Impresses State Dept. Staff With His Indonesian (VIDEO)

Barack Obama put on a bilingual display today while visiting the State Department. Obama, who lived in Indonesia from 1967 to 1971, until the age of ten, broke into Indonesian after being greeted by a State Dept. staffer in the language.

ABC News has more details:

As President Obama worked the rope-line at the State Department Thursday, a State Department staffer named Charles Silver, knowing the President once lived in Indonesia, shouted out, "good afternoon" in the local language.

Obama responded back in what Silver later told ABC News was "very good" Bahasa Indonesian. The two then chatted briefly about the neighborhood Obama once lived in.

Video via MSNBC:

Comments

[TiredandPragmatic]

Nice, very nice

[madtom]

America finally has a culturally literate President.

After the Eight Years of Shame, who could have imagined this?

[CarolinaDem]

Remember they claimed that Bush spoke Spanish? What a change this is!

[eden4barack08]

Yeah, and Bush thought he spoke "Mexican".

[FrTown]

Obama pisses me off!
He raised the bar way too high again.

[amkhussein]

LOL.

[abigail1]

:)

[loya]

Bush can't speak in English

[FrankenPC]

Bush speaks 'merican. It's a one off derivative of the American-English version of English. Since Bush owns that language, he can alter and create new words at will without any prior authorization.

You know...like his view on reality.

[jennytaylia]

The 'Mur-can language is the only one that pronounces n-u-c-l-e-a-r as "new-kew-lur".

[harriettubman]

That's what a multicultural life can do for a person. He greeted reporters with his Hawaiian dialect over Christmas too.

[mcantwell]

He'll have to learn a bit of Japanese if he ever travels to Obama, Japan.

[TruthfullyYours]

i won't be surprised if he's learning to speak japanese right now! or even urdu.

i believe he's the first president (at least in a long, long while) that speaks not only english, and spanish for that matter, but rather other exotic languages as well.

such an intellectual leader that we're so lucky to have leading us.

[TXfemmom]

I learned a little Hawaiian when my son was at Pearl Harbor. It is not an easy thing to follow. My grandson, who was three at the time could fill me in on quite a bit of it. Made me very proud.

[SabrinaFair]

I just love this clip.

I travel all over the world for business and while I've had to learn and now speak five languages, I have never been as cool and confident as our wonderful new president, while speaking one.

People seeing this clip around the world will be impressed as well.

Quite an upgrade after eight years of a dummy in office.

[eminent]

believe me, we're very impressed and that you guys chose him.

[jeg]

I've supported him since he announced he was *thinking* about running, and I'm absolutely stunned he got elected. Very pleased, but surprised.

[tsktsktsk]

Can you imagine the welcome he'll get when he returns to Indonesia and Kenya?! I can even imagine the frenzy if he were to visit Ireland the ancestral home of his father. This man has roots all around the world.

[hbw3]

O'Bama - funny!

[CarolinaDem]

You can't call him "Al" 'cause you get Alobama

[SabrinaFair]

I'm sure it will be a national holiday should the president visit those countries.

[roshni]

And empathy for all cultures given the richness of his cultural background. Out with the monolithic, in with the diverse!

[tweedy54]

Where do you read/hear that Ireland is Obama's father ancestral homeland?
That sounds strange, since his father is from Afrika.

[eden4barack08]

I guess he meant "his grandfather".

[TruthfullyYours]

kenya is the ancestral home of his father. although, with president obama, all countries are now together as one. he's now leading not only the united states but also the rest of the world.

[NoToGOP08]

Ask Palin and her wingnut crowd - to them Obama speaks foreign when he is speaking English.

[krackote]

not american enough(which rank do we hold on education around the world? and those little panhandling kids can ask for money in your language and perhaps 6 other languages)...he's such an elitist (even though he probably lived in the poorest places in indonesia)...English 1st...that's not american at all(melting pot of the earth?)...


sounds familiar?

you trolls and the RIGHT... it should really be utterly embarassing to drag yourself in front of any podium and quack!!!

I love my President

[manumoka]

During the primary campaign, a Kenyan friend of mine was speaking with Obama and said "Welcome" in Swahili. Obama responded immediately in fluent Swahili, asking him how he was and where he was from. My friend didn't expect to get a Swahili response, and so he kind of stammered for a moment, and then answered in English. The two chatted for a few minutes in English, and afterwards he told me how disappointed he was that he was so flustered that he didn't get a chance to continue the conversation with him in Swahili.

I have to wonder: when and where did he learn Swahili?

[Ginger5]

Finally An educated president

[Margij]

Maybe in college. My needed a foreign language to graduate.

[dutchman]

Why do you have to wonder? Is this one of the right wing concerns now - that he knows something about his ancestral language? Are you one of those that doesn't believe he's really an American? It must be hard for you, having a Democrat in office for the next 8 years.

[phantom5551]

when he was part of that kenyan terrorist cell. no just kidding. its nice to finally have a president that we won't be embarrassed by. he is charismatic, intelligent and cultured. i wish him all the best because it will take these qualities and more to undo all the damage that has been done to the country.

[luziannagirl]

I understand Swahili is a sort of universal language in Africa.

[Ibackobama]

It is, he probably picked it up during his travels and maybe even had an interest and picked up a Swahili book especially if he could not communicate with his grandmother, a swahili word here and there and both would be on the same page :o) And its actually not as difficult as most think it is. It is a mixture of Bantu and Arab languages.

[mcantwell]

I love the way President Obama is comfortable and confident in any setting.

[deevee]

I love the way I get to type "President Obama"!

[harriscrl3]

If they are swooning now wait until they say hello in Arabic. They will just Faint.

Carol

[SavonarolaGirolamo]

Yew Murikunz ain't never heer no furrn tawk? Them fowk tawk awl funny, lahk them don nevr git no skoolin er nuttin. GIVE ME A BREAK, Y'ALL. By the way, it's "Marhabah" which I learned by asking the Egyptian guy at the corner market. You ought to try learning how to say Hello in as many languages as you can, maybe you would learn to understand when someone says something NICE to you, my dear friend (habibi). As an American who is fluent in two "furrn" languages, I say CIAO and I send you a SORRISO (smile). Bonne journée! (Have a nice day!)

[eminent]

lol.auguri! rappelez-moi de ne pas vous provoquer.that was epic.

[Ibackobama]

Asante! tunafaa kufundisha watoto wetu lugha ili wajivunie lugha ya pili (Thanks, we need to teach our kids an additional language so that they can proudly say they speak more than one language) - Kiswahili

[furiousMB]

I'm embarrassed for you.

I'm sure you're the type of American that expects everyone to "Speak english!" when they visit the States but can't be bothered to even offer hello in the language of a country you are visiting. Then again, people who make ignorant comments like you don't travel.

I hope President Obama CAN offer an Arabic greeting to the people in the Middle East. Most Arabs are regular working people, with the same everyday highs and lows we have here in the U.S. Our President reaching out to them as a polite human being would be big step in the right direction. Get some help for your Xenophobia. It humiliates you.

[LeighAnnes]

Have you noticed that all those Americans who want everyone to speak English can't do it themselves?

[TruthfullyYours]

i think you've missed her point. what she meant, i think, is compliment president obama that he can speak other languages at a drop of a hat. i'm sure that's what she wants to say.

[Canuck27]

Whats' the big deal George Bush spoke in a foreign language all the time.

[eminent]

LOL! klingon?

[eminent]

doesn't Geithner speak fluent Japanese and another language-korean and/or chinese?

[Jude1930]

Now, that is too funny! Very good!

[LeighAnnes]

Now don't be dissing Klingon like that. It's a more complex language than W used, I'm sure.

[nefertiti]

HA HA HA HA too funny .

[Bluejay00234]

LOL

[kelleyajones]

Ditto :)

[Tanker10a]

What is that English or Texan?

[BabsfromKansas]

pidgin

[rockyb26]

definitely not texan. he speaks fluent stoopid though

[KofTX]

Great!!! What's better is that he speaks perfect English!

[lisalovesamelie]

truly

[CarolinaDem]

well no, like all people of his generation he still gets the first person pronoun case wrong once in awhile, "it has occurred to both Joe Biden and I".... But that's something you nail in the 8th grade or never. sadly.

[deevee]

Me know what you mean

[LeighAnnes]

His mistakes are rare. At least he speaks in complete sentences and can pronounce "nuclear."

[TruthfullyYours]

it's a lot more bearable when the president gets his first person pronoun case wrong at times than when ex-pres bush gets his english wrong most of the time.

also, the president speaks more languages that perhaps you and i (i speak four). therefore, it's easy to misspeak sometimes.

[Helanren]

"... But first, there was a remarkable and unusual moment today during the President's visit to the States Department. Today, someone yelled from the crowd "hello"......in a foreign language! And Obama spoke back ..."

Good for Obama that he remembers his childhood language (and/or any others that I am not aware of). Pretty sad reflection on the USA though, that the mere fact that the nation's President is able to speak more than one language is cause for surprise and (since it seems as if they are not just reporting it as an amusing aside) deemed to be Newsworthy with a capital N.

[Julia Bailey]

I travel a lot and people are always amazed when I speak another language. They ask me how I learned it as an American. I have to confess I grew up in Canada and learned my few languages there. I did learn Spanish after moving to the states.