which presidential candidate has the best English skills?
In alphabetical order: Ma, Soong, or Tsai?
(was about to include vice presidential candidates, but
probably wouldn’t have been a fair question, since of of
them was an American up until a few months ago 
)
British or American English? A relevant question I think considering Ma is Harvard educated and Tsai graduated from LSE. Overall, I’d say Ma.
speaking of Harvard… I was watching some Pearl Harbor 70th anniversary special on TV. Apparently the commander of the Japanese navy strike force
was a graduate of Harvard as well… (Admiral Yamamoto) Just saying… 
Tsai’s English is noticeably better than Ma’s.
Tsai’s English is noticeably better than Ma’s.[/quote]
I’ll take your word for it. Never heard her speak up close. I’d assume both of them have quite good English.
Ma’s is very good. But Tsai’s English is remarkable. In control and precise.
.
[quote=“sandman”]That’s fantastic! The farmers down Pingdong way will be delighted, I’m sure.
Look, face it! David Cameron is the great leader of my great and wonderful country (see? I LOVE my homeland!). But can he say “ni hao?” I doubt it.
Ma, Tsai, Soong, don’t matter. If they want their message to get across to other countries, they have plenty of people to do it for them.
Who gives a flying FUCK if they can spikken in the ole foreign tongues? What a complete cop-out! 
[/quote]
I was thinking they can look for jobs in other English-speaking countries, if they don’t get elected(or re-elected)
Of course, whoever can speak the most PERFECT English is highly suspect for being you-know-what… 
[quote=“sandman”]That’s fantastic! The farmers down Pingdong way will be delighted, I’m sure.
Look, face it! David Cameron is the great leader of my great and wonderful country (see? I LOVE my homeland!). But can he say “ni hao?” I doubt it.
Ma, Tsai, Soong, don’t matter. If they want their message to get across to other countries, they have plenty of people to do it for them.
Who gives a flying FUCK if they can spikken in the ole foreign tongues? What a complete cop-out! [/quote]
I agree.
But it’s like being a Russian aristocrat. You had to speak French. A class marker.
.
English is Tsai’s … uh… middle name.
Googled and found this video where she is speaking English. Sounds pretty good:
youtube.com/watch?v=SXUzVZwciXk
Saw an interview with Ma on CNN a while back, and he also had a pretty good command as well. A bit hard to tell with both of them since I would imagine they were relatively prepared for what they were going to say.
*edit
Found this, which I found interesting, probably less scripted…
youtube.com/watch?v=5ygpAnK0 … re=related
uh… her entire given name “ING-WEN”(英文) means “English” (not sure if her parents meant British or American English :roflmao: )
Ma’s middle name “Ying” (英) is also “English” 
Although I think his name is actually “British Kowloon”(in Hong Kong, where he was born)
Soong’s English is pretty good and Ma’s is overrated and actually not that good. Tsai’s English flows very easily.
Tsai and Ma are more or less tied in English ability, but Tsai is more natural and less hesitant in her speech. Ma speaks too slowly for the news media to pull successful soundbites out of him, and seems to lose the political precision he accords terms such as “Taiwan” and “Republic of China” that he maintains in Mandarin. Soong isn’t bad either, but sounds like he hasn’t been using his English skills on a regular basis for a very long time, and has a more pronounced Chinese accent.
Soong has more of an accent, but from what I saw in the press conference yesterday, he seems to be able to speak English fairly naturally when put on the spot which Ma did not do well in front of the int’l. media after the typhoon in 2008. He really only sounds good when he’s prepared to read a statement talking about his political stance. Tsai’s English is clearly more natural and she seems fairly happy to speak it.
[quote=“gnaij”]1) Tsai
2) Ma
3) Soong
Tsai and Ma are more or less tied in English ability, but Tsai is more natural and less hesitant in her speech. Ma speaks too slowly for the news media to pull successful soundbites out of him, and seems to lose the political precision he accords terms such as “Taiwan” and “Republic of China” that he maintains in Mandarin. Soong isn’t bad either, but sounds like he hasn’t been using his English skills on a regular basis for a very long time, and has a more pronounced Chinese accent.[/quote]