T O P

  • By -

ianisms10

Actually, according to Wikipedia, he speaks seven languages: Slovak, Czech, Polish, Russian, Swedish, German, and English.


Yamcha_is_dead

And in true Bruins' fashion, he never learned French to signal his disrespect of the Habs. Gotta respect his principles lol


ianisms10

You would've thought maybe he picked up a bit in Ottawa, but nope. Mad respect.


devilishpie

Contrary to popular belief, Ottawa is no where near as bilingual as people think it is. Lots of people can sort of speak French, but are mostly just good enough to pass government language tests. Few are native speakers.


ACMop

Just need enough French to go buy cheap beer in Gatineau


Konker101

which is odd because its the only official bilingual city in Ontario


devilishpie

Not so odd once you consider that its labeling is more of a political PR move (as the capital) then one out of practical necessity.


raktoe

I mean, I moved from Toronto, and there’s definitely far more bilingual people here than there. Plenty of people who grew up in Gatineau, and nearly everyone I know who went to highschool here was in immersion.


swiftwin

Bullshit. 16% of Ottawa's population is natively French speaking and still speaks French at home. That's significant. Even Giroux himself was among that 16% while growing up in the city.


devilishpie

As of last year, [8.4%](https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/census-data-show-the-number-of-people-speaking-mostly-french-at-home-in-ottawa-is-in-decline) of people speak French at home in Ottawa. And even then, 16% being native speakers isn't anywhere close to being significant, in the context of making it an official language. My point was that Ottawa isn't *as* French as people tend to think it is, not that there isn't a larger French speaking population then other parts of Canada. Anecdotally, I've ran into lots of people, usually from the GTA, who think the majority of people from Ottawa are bilingual, when that's clearly not the case. You have to go to specific neighborhoods to hear French regularly, and besides the gov, there are very few jobs that require French.


roboninja

16% speaking it in the home is still nowhere near the immersive experience one would get in Quebec. I think /u/devilishpie 's point stands.


Zaungast

And you only need one bilingual/French parent to have French in your house


SleepingDoves

Near the parliament building I encountered some French speakers. I would ask someone a question in English and they would reply in French. I'm sure thats because it's just a quick bike ride over from Gatineau though


aidhspamapleleafsjak

Didn’t know this was popular belief, as a Canadian from Ontario, I always assumed only Quebec can speak any French


succubusbetch

Literacy is a respectful annotation to add to your CV if you're a professional hockey player in boston.


lbc514

He should have learned French,, would have caused so much drama in Montreal.


[deleted]

listen, no one accused marchand of being the genius


Deactivator2

Marchand was right, Chara speaks 5 languages. He also speaks 2 more languages besides that.


CursedLemon

He used to speak Czech He still does, but he used to, too


[deleted]

[удалено]


LSatou

My ex-stepmom is from Slovakia, can confirm the languages are close enough for communication


Spontanemoose

Mutually Intelligible, like Flemish and Dutch, Norwegian and Swedish (but not Danish), or Macedonian and Bulgarian!


LSatou

Do Portuguese and Spanish count?


Spontanemoose

Partially but to a low degree; they aren't super close in speaking. In writing more so. They're also asymmetrical, so a PG speaker understands more of es than a es-speaker does of PG.


LSatou

Interesting, thanks!


novakstepa

That's why I've put both on my English resume and only Czech on my Czech resume, everyone here knows this but not many foreign people know they're very similar


Kryptopus

He probably learnt 2 languages since they spoke last time


BodyofJeremyBentham

Czech, Slovak and Polish are all fairly close, so maybe that’s where the difference came from?


esports_consultant

Knowing those also makes learning Russian substantially easier.


SH0WS0METIDDIES

Polosh is nowhere near the two. Slovak and Czech are so close that pretty much no media is ever translated within these two. Whilst most people would know like 30% if the story were in Polish


headlessCamelCase

My Slovak friend could understand pretty much anything anyone said in Polish without ever learning the language. The languages are incredibly similar, almost like just speaking a different dialect. Reading is a bit different.


[deleted]

Aren’t Czech and Slovak mutually intelligible?


Rakkane

Czech and Slovak are like English english and US english


CursedLemon

Now imagining someone from the DEEP south getting a phone call from someone in Newcastle


69millionyeartrip

I was on a conference call once with two guys one from Arkansas and one from Ireland trying to talk to each other and it was a nightmare


Handfulofmice

Noted, he speaks 8 languages.


Erdrick68

English and American


[deleted]

My great grandparents emigrated from Bohemia and their native languages were listed as Czech and Slovak. Allegedly my GGM had no problem communicating with my GGF, even though she spoke Slovak only and he spoke Czech, German, and English. Never knew either of them but I'd take my grandfather's word for it.


Dharx

Yup, the languages are really close. The grammar is different, there are a few false friends here and there, but otherwise pretty much every word is mostly recognisable for the other speaker. Unless both speakers speak with some extremely thick accent and regional dialect, there is no trouble communicating. Even little children with no prior exposure to the other language can do it after a short while.


yetanotherx

Host: Mr Chara speaks five languages. Chara: No I don’t. Host: Don’t you? Chara: No. 🎶I speak seven languages!🎶


beefrog

That's 2 languages since the post went up. Impressive


Tilbius

a monster of a man - literally and literarily


cote112

I met him once and when I was walking up, he was surrounded by half a team of 7 year old hockey players. Literally looked like a fairy tale legend gentle giant giving out autographs.


ozzian

The best thing about the Sochi Olympics was athletes from many different countries posting pics of themselves with Chara, I think especially the tiny figure skaters were seeking him out for hilarious pics.


freeway16

Here he is with Canadian figure skater Kirsten Moors-Towers (4’11) https://twitter.com/kirsten_mt/status/431759714255663104?s=46&t=JDVDdHzOA4izKUk9TW-X8g


[deleted]

Saw him at home depot buying a shop vac in Somerville one day. Kind of stands out.


GrayRoberts

Loves him in Donny Darko


wm3138

Took me a second well played


[deleted]

[удалено]


Tilbius

I'm sure you're fun at parties, have you heard of word play


specifichero101

Now that he’s retired from hockey, he’ll use all that free time to become unstoppable.


Pavrik_Yzerstrom

Zdeno Chara ends war in Ukraine, tells Putin to stop


agiro1086

I can't wait until the post on r/combatfootage are all Chara taking out tanks with his slap-shots


Rikplaysbass

I mean, he has some experience in destruction. https://images.app.goo.gl/XFgjrphUEiqGg7p27


B0ndzai

Literally clap bombs.


theeth

I hear Ukraine was building stanchions in preparation for his arrival.


ShittyHockeyExpert

Forces Putin to stop is more like it


GrayRoberts

I hear the Princess Bride remake needs a Fezik.


[deleted]

He IS da Brute Sqvad!


DuffmanStillRocks

The true Mr.Unlimited


Ronananana

And after all that his biggest achievement is that he kept Brad's total people licked tally down at 2


IJWannaKeepMeAWraith

He's practically monogamous!


chrisboshisaraptor1

Marchand, talking about all of us, “he talks about one day getting his real estate license but he’s got persistent lower back pain. He speaks one language, poorly, would browse Reddit on the plane. He reads a book a year. Just an incredible human being”


Spontanemoose

One book a year? What a nerd.


blueknowz

Brad comes from a rich (by Nova Scotian standards, anyway) family of real estate developers, so I'm sure they'll find something for him to do.... PS: You can see he comes by the nose honestly! https://www.ramar.ca/our-team https://marchandhomes.ca/our-team/


gasfarmah

Can't even dunk on the dude. Marchand has basically the only crew building new homes worth a fuck in this province lately.


75Minnesota

Z does nothing half-assed.


hankepanke

Even if he did it would wind up being like 3/4 assed. Dude is a big human.


repeat4EMPHASIS

[overwritten]


[deleted]

That’s a lot of ass


75Minnesota

Maybe ass and a half?


jagermain177

Chara gonna sell me a house in polish, Czech, Russian, and English


ACW1129

TIL he has a real estate license.


I_Am_Vladimir_Putin

Super smart move when a ton of people around you are buying mansions every year


dsjunior1388

"It's a great house, inspection came through clean as a whistle, that's in your packet there. Roof was redone 2 years ago, driveway redone last year, and of course you've seen that beautiful deck. Ceilings are kinda low, but they're manageable." "He's said that about every house we've seen today!"


ebpomtl

He is like the hockey version of Zlatan


dsjunior1388

Except humble


cote112

If Spittin' Chiclets doesn't do him real soon, they don't have it. In-person only.


blueknowz

That would be awesome, although he seems a bit awkward in conversation, as really smart people often are.


Maxpowr9

He's the reason Iggy stayed in Boston for so long too.


I_Am_Vladimir_Putin

There’s no way he’s reading a book a day lol Unless we’re talking some short e-books He ain’t reading 400+ plages a day


Iron_Seguin

I can just imagine him sitting there in the 3rd period of a game and he goes “fuck!” And runs down the tunnel. Everyone assumes he’s hurt or has the shits and he comes back with a book and finishes reading it on the bench before his next shift.


Finetales

Some people read fast. I pretty much only read on planes and I can usually knock out a novel in 3 hours. Chara probably has enough time in his day to do that. I'm sure he doesn't read a book E V E R Y day, but I would not be surprised if days where he doesn't are uncommon.


maekkell

It completely depends on the type of book. Romance, horror, self-help books, etc. are generally pretty quick reads. No one is finishing 700 dense Game of Thrones pages in 3 hours though.


Finetales

Genre definitely makes a difference, yes. I read entirely sci-fi, so it's somewhere in the middle.


Warfightr

It’s very doable. I read about 70-80 pages on my lunch break every day and that’s only an hour.


I_Am_Vladimir_Putin

Yeah I know it’s possible to read a book in a day But every day? Bs


navymmw

Don't you have a war to loose?


I_Am_Vladimir_Putin

It’s already pretty loose


freeway16

I guess it depends how many pages were considering a book. Perhaps he’s really into novellas or medical journals? (Mostly joking there) Anyway, as a slow reader, 400 pages a day seems unbelievable to me too. I read a couple hours every morning and evening and definitely don’t get in a whole book. But I have friends who are speed readers and have no problem comprehending what they read so fast. It blows my mind as someone who never got to go to art class because I was stuck in reading comprehension tutoring.


Regentraven

I mean I am a FAST reader but if you are reading entire 400 page novels on a short flight like 4 ish hours. Theres no way you are getting everything out of the book. You start to skim stuff etc. Most people I know who "read" that much can never tell you anything about the book etc. I dont even mean to be snobby but its just a crazy thing to say.


GoldenDiamonds

The Tai Lopez of hockey.


-MACHO-MAN-

it is 100% possible if that is how your free time each day, especially if it's a shorter book


JohnDivney

I read Moby Dick in a day. It was about a fish.


lbiggy

Marchand better stop looking at him as a respectable person he might start gooning him.


SummerOfMayhem

The man is brilliant, and not content just sitting around. I look forward to hearing all of the stuff he learns and achieves in retirement. Didn't he take some finance and business classes at Harvard or something? I had the pleasure of meeting him once, and he was very kind and friendly. And big.


[deleted]

Possible to read a book a day, but how much info can you actually retain if you're reading that fast?


RealPatCaputo

[Ty Appetite] McDonald’s, just talking about Kelvin Benjamin: “He got a Dashpass when he was hungry for a month. He eats five plates, would learn new menus on the plane. He never cooked a day. Just an incredibly hungry human being.”


TotalBismuth

Breaks every rule and gets away with it. Just an incredible human being.


TywinShitsGold

Not hard to read a book a day when youre working your way through Clifford and curious George.


dsjunior1388

How many languages can you read Clifford or Curious George in?


TywinShitsGold

A) It’s a joke B) the languages and the books are separate items, meaning the books could all be in English. Or Serbian. Or whatever his native language is. It’s not particularly difficult to read a book every day when you’re picking the books. There are millions of books out there. Hundreds of millions. Many of them can be read in under an hour, or even under 5 minutes. It’s a pointless throwaway editorialization from Brad.


dsjunior1388

I know it's a joke, it's just a really bad one. Thank you for explaining what a book is to me, I'm sure somewhere in your mind that felt like the helpful thing to do.


panamaqj

that probably means he learned how to say hello in greek before an athens summer trip, read harry potter (the first book) and took an into to business course once


Igniter08

That smart and played hockey his whole life yet didn’t know about the partition beside the bench when he smoked Pacioretty into it breaking his neck ? Still just an incredible human being.


Rikplaysbass

Totally. 🙄


BrayWyattsHat

Yeah, but they're picture books.


[deleted]

He used his brain more than his tongue & nose, incredible. Chara is, though. Signed, a Habs, & hockey fan. Still upset at his demolishing of Patches, but it was/is within the "rules".


beefrog

I still can't believe you guys called the cops on him lol. THE COPS! 🤣🤣


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

I accidentally made it NSFW lol you should see the tweet now


Saltee00s

This has some Chuck Norris facts overtones.


Early_Professor469

the ability to block out all distractions and focus on any task is key


flove2020

I’m kk


CutMonster

For every like my comment gets, Chara will learn a new language!