Themba “The Chief” Khumalo is a professional superbike rider in South Africa and also fluent in Spanish so he welcomed Maverick Viñales in the best way.
Maverick Viñales was in South Africa recently to meet and greet fans and join his team Yamaha for the launch of the new R1 and R6. Viñales is a MotoGP rider and very popular on the world stage.
Viñales is from Catalonia, Spain and while he is able to speak English, naturally he is more comfortable with his native Spanish. During his on-stage interview, he was introduced to Themba “The Chief” Khumalo, a South African Superbike racer whose goal is to get to the international circuit and join the likes of Brad and Darren Binder.
It was at this point that Themba “The Chief” Khumalo was called up to the stage. Themba then spoke to Viñales in his native Spanish, a massive show of respect.
The pair then switched back to English to discuss their matching finger injuries. Themba told Viñales about his injury years ago and it was because of the response he got from Viñales that he got back on his bike just three weeks later.
During their chat, they jumped between the two languages. Viñales wanted to impress on the listeners that he loves South Africa and plans to return for a holiday.
We love this story because it is an incredible show of character to learn another language, especially one that is so foreign in your home country, in order to communicate with people and it shows a great deal of respect to use it to put someone else at ease.
You can watch the brilliant moment below, it starts at around the 6-minute mark.
Yamaha Press Conference with Maverick Viñales Greg Moloney
#Yamaha Press Conference with Maverick Viñales Greg Moloney from Kyalami Grand Prix CircuitSuper-GP Champions Trophy Brad Anassis@ClintonSeller Mathew Scholtz Racing Steven Odendaal
Posted by ILEB on Wednesday, 13 December 2017
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