Being interviewed by someone is hard. You’re being put on the spot — especially in sports. The questions you get asked are immediately following some sort of action and you have to answer on the fly. That can be a difficult thing to do.
Now think about what it’s like to do it in another language entirely. That has to be tough, right?
Not for Marvin Jones it isn’t. Following the Lions season-opening win against the Chiefs on Thursday night, the wideout actually did an entire interview in Spanish after the game.
Yes, seriously. The whole thing. And he was really good at it, too. It was so cool to watch.
Marvin Jones condujo toda su entrevista con NBC Universo en español. pic.twitter.com/YK4xqnKHvz
— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) September 8, 2023
Initially, this might actually catch you off guard. What is Marvin Jones doing speaking Spanish this fluently? It’s super cool, but also kind of surprising.
It shouldn’t be, though. Jones has actually been putting in the work on his Spanish for a while. Back in 2016 in an interview with MLive, Jones talked about how he was teaching himself Spanish and brushing up on what he learned in high school.
“I took Spanish for two years in high school, and it’s just something that is very useful, especially in today’s time. There’s a lot of Latin people in this (country), and they’re growing at a rapid rate and stuff. I grew up around a lot of Latinos and stuff like that, so just to know a language — just to know a language so that when I come across somebody who speaks Spanish, I can directly connect with them. And that’s pretty cool, you know what I’m saying? It’s pretty cool to learn another language, and I want to travel and go to other places where I can conversate with the locals.”
It looks like all of that hard work paid off. Everyone was so impressed by this.
This is awesome. Had no idea Marvin Jones Jr. could speak Spanish. https://t.co/M67oaZ682B
— Kenny Morales (@KennyMoralesTV) September 8, 2023
Hearing the Colombian influence in Marvin Jones' Spanish is surprising but so cool at the same time.
Always admire when people take the time to truly learn and become conversational in a second language that isn't native to them. https://t.co/JcNIiTGWWT
— Jonathan Acosta (@_jacosta) September 8, 2023
this is so great, imagine this kind of access is awesome to see for spanish-speaking fans https://t.co/wz89KAlYN6
— ORIGINAL BERF (@EuroBigMacs) September 8, 2023
Marvin Jones having the ability to speak Spanish is awesome. https://t.co/ewtynTz0Gt
— Ari Alexander (@AriA1exander) September 8, 2023
He keeps talking like this and what fumble https://t.co/a628LGXlOc
— Trang (@traaang) September 8, 2023
The NFL has millions of Spanish speaking fans in the USA & Mexico. #MarvinJones showed his bilingual skills in an interview after last night’s game 👏🏽 https://t.co/Kr3DydaWvg
— Al West Coast (@AlWestCoast) September 8, 2023
new fav player https://t.co/jNlmoKD80P
— Paolo Uggetti (@PaoloUggetti) September 8, 2023
Love this https://t.co/3WIc5j5OTi
— Tim Brown (@timfsbrown) September 8, 2023
As a person who learned Spanish and is conversationally fluent, I love this. It takes courage to speak in your non-native language, especially in an interview! It’s a little thing, but a big thing when it comes to inclusion in sports https://t.co/dsYTk54lFH
— ✨Trenise Ferreira✨ (@TreniseFerreira) September 8, 2023
Marvin Jones 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 https://t.co/KAq1kvIpXO
— Mauricio Gutiérrez (@MGutierrezNFL) September 8, 2023
