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Political Leaders and Languages | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots |  | |
| jirpy100 Diglot Newbie South Africa Joined 6261 days ago 31 posts - 32 votes Speaks: Afrikaans*, English Studies: Esperanto | Message 73 of 142 03 November 2007 at 8:19am | IP Logged | ||
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Jonas Savimbi, leader of the Unita rebel group, and South African ally during the Angolan war.
From an interview with Fred Brigland: "Certainly an incredible linguist. He spoke four European languages, including English although he had never lived in an English-speaking country." Wikipedia: He fluently spoke seven languages, including four European languages and three African languages. French, English and Portuguese were some of them. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| nordantill Triglot Newbie Sweden Joined 6823 days ago 16 posts - 54 votes  Speaks: Swedish*, English, Mandarin Studies: Spanish, French | Message 74 of 142 03 November 2007 at 8:40am | IP Logged | ||
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Savimbi spoke fluent Portuguese,Spanish,French and English as well as Oshiwambo and 2 other african languages.
Nigeria's president Olusegun Obasanjo speaks at least 3 languages: English,Hausa and Arabic. He probably speaks some Igbo and Yoruba too, although I'm not sure. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Alvinho Triglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 6233 days ago 828 posts - 832 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English, Spanish | Message 75 of 142 04 November 2007 at 7:56pm | IP Logged | ||
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Here in Brazil, president Lula da Silva can't speak a good portuguese...
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| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6271 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 76 of 142 05 November 2007 at 9:04am | IP Logged | ||
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Louis XIV of France took a Latin lesson every day for a long time while king. His formal education had been rather limited, but he wanted to be able to read Papal dispatches himself and did not trust any efforts to translate them for him. Ironically French to a large extent pushed Latin aside as an international language during his reign.
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| tommus Senior Member CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5865 days ago 979 posts - 1688 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Dutch, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish | Message 77 of 142 21 March 2009 at 2:56am | IP Logged | ||
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Minister-president Jan Peter Balkenende - The Netherlands.
He speaks Dutch of course, and I have heard him speak excellent English with a bit of an accent. He probably speaks good German and French, but I don't know that. Anyone offer some comments on Mr. Balkenende's language abilities? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6271 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 78 of 142 21 March 2009 at 3:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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The German equivalent of Who's Who tends to list the foreign languages of the people it has entries for. Not surprisingly, many report knowing English, sometimes French, Italian, Spanish or other languages.
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 Fasulye Heptaglot Winner TAC 2012 Moderator Germany fasulyespolyglotblog Joined 5846 days ago 5460 posts - 6006 votes 1 sounds Speaks: German*, DutchC1, EnglishB2, French, Italian, Spanish, Esperanto Studies: Latin, Danish, Norwegian, Turkish Personal Language Map | Message 79 of 142 23 March 2009 at 8:27am | IP Logged | ||
I've heard Balkenende speaking German on German TV, he's absolutely fluent in German. Fasulye-Babylonia Edited by Fasulye on 23 March 2009 at 8:27am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Fasulye Heptaglot Winner TAC 2012 Moderator Germany fasulyespolyglotblog Joined 5846 days ago 5460 posts - 6006 votes 1 sounds Speaks: German*, DutchC1, EnglishB2, French, Italian, Spanish, Esperanto Studies: Latin, Danish, Norwegian, Turkish Personal Language Map | Message 80 of 142 23 March 2009 at 10:24am | IP Logged | ||
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The German chancelor Angela Merkel, who comes from Eastern Germany and learned Russian as a compulsory school language, and is said to be fluent in Russian and English.
Fasulye-Babylonia Edited by Fasulye on 23 March 2009 at 10:31am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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