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Political Leaders and Languages | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots |  | |
| Rout Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5711 days ago 326 posts - 417 votes  Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish Studies: Hindi | Message 89 of 142 26 May 2009 at 10:48am | IP Logged | |||||
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We're forgetting someone.. One of the greatest Americans to ever live.
Thomas Jefferson spoke English, Old English, french, Spanish, Italian, latin, and greek, and was suspected to have known quite a bit of German as well. George W. Bush's Spanish sounds pretty bad but Jeb Bush's Spanish is pretty good. I think his wife is Hispanic. He's so different than his brother, I think he's catholic too. Haha, W. ruined his political career though. Mitt Romney's French sounds pretty American to me. If you consider William F. Buckley a politician - his first language was Spanish, then he went to school in france (I think) THEN he learned English at the age of 7 and his mother was Swiss-German so maybe he knew a little. Maybe that's why he sounded like that. He wrote the introduction to a Latin book I have so he must have been good in that as well. Probably explains the sesquipedality of his English (Yes I know they're not world leaders, but they could have been.) Edited by Rout on 26 May 2009 at 11:04am 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 90 of 142 26 May 2009 at 3:55pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I read somewhere that Jefferson was even aware of the differences between classical Greek and modern Greek, and speculated about the causes for the differences. He was almost certainly the most intellectually powerful of US Presidents.
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| paparaciii Diglot Senior Member Latvia Joined 6335 days ago 204 posts - 223 votes Speaks: Latvian*, Russian Studies: English | Message 91 of 142 26 May 2009 at 5:36pm | IP Logged | |||||
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| Luso Hexaglot Senior Member Portugal Joined 6060 days ago 819 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, French, EnglishC2, GermanB1, Italian, Spanish Studies: Sanskrit, Arabic (classical) | Message 92 of 142 26 May 2009 at 7:03pm | IP Logged | |||||
Actually, it is the same language and, apart from the odd expression, we understand each other quite well. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Rout Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5711 days ago 326 posts - 417 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish Studies: Hindi | Message 93 of 142 27 May 2009 at 2:47am | IP Logged | |||||
No, because he was a scholar and brilliant statesman. 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 94 of 142 27 May 2009 at 6:53pm | IP Logged | |||||
Very interesting message, Cordelia! I knew that Queen Silvia is a polyglot and I heard her speaking Portuguese fluently in a docu on German TV about her charity work in Brasil. When I saw this docu some years ago, I asked myself how many languages she speaks, but in that time I got no answer. I assume that if she speaks foreign languages, she does it on a very high level. Fasulye Edited by Fasulye on 28 May 2009 at 6:06am 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 95 of 142 27 May 2009 at 8:31pm | IP Logged | |||||
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With Jefferson, the linguistic knowledge was only a part. He was a definite product of the Enlightenment and wrote extensively on all kinds of scholarly matters, including society, politics, science and other subjects.
This extract from Wikipedia gives an idea: "A polymath, Jefferson achieved distinction as, among other things, a horticulturist, statesman, architect, archaeologist, inventor, and founder of the University of Virginia. When President John F. Kennedy welcomed forty-nine Nobel Prize winners to the White House in 1962 he said, 'I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent and of human knowledge that has ever been gathered together at the White House – with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.'" Edited by William Camden on 27 May 2009 at 8:35pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| lecorbeau Diglot Senior Member Croatia Joined 6019 days ago 113 posts - 149 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Serbo-Croatian, Turkish | Message 96 of 142 19 June 2009 at 2:39pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Besides his native Croatian, the prime minister of Croatia studied in Rome, has a PhD in Romance Languages from the University of Innsbruck (Austria), and speaks fluent English, German, French, and Italian, and is alleged to have rudimentary knowledge of Spanish, Czech, and Greek.
I just YouTubed a speech of his made in English. Heavily accented, but correct (but then again, he was reading it off a piece of paper) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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