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Vernon Walters (1917 - 2002) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots |  | |
| M-Squared Senior Member United States Joined 7138 days ago 117 posts - 118 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish | Message 1 of 4 20 December 2005 at 9:08pm | IP Logged |
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I haven't seen the late General Vernon Walters mentioned here, so here
goes. Lt Gen Vernon Walters was a leading figure in US diplomacy from World War II until the late 1980's. He was a Lt. General in the US Army, Deputy Director of the CIA, and Ambassador to the United Nations and Germany. He was also a polyglot, who spoke (depending on the source) from 8 to 16 languages. He is generally reported to have been fluent in French, Italian, Spanish, Portugese, German, Dutch, Russian, and Chinese. His French, Spanish, and Portugese were good enough that he served several US Presidents as translator during intense personal negotiations. He rather famously drew compliments on his translation from French President Charles DeGaulle. The spread in how many languages he knew is probably dependent on how you measure competence. From stories he evidently could engage in diplomatic cocktail party chatter in very many languages, but was (of course) competent at the Presidential translator level in only (!) three. Interestingly, his formal education ended with secondary school. He was moved among schools in European countries as a child, picking up languages by immersion. He wrote that he learned Italian by being the only American posted to a division of 19,000 Italians as the sole liason. His skills were quickly recognized after he enlisted in the Army at the beginning of World War II, resulting in his commissioning as an officer and quick posting as a translator and intelligence officer. I find him particularly interesting since his skill in languages was central in, but still secondary to his main career. He was a career diplomat and intelligence officer. He had the trust of Presidents for several decades to conduct silent diplomatic missions and secret negotiations. His knowledge of language was central to this, but he did not devote his life to language study. It was something that he simply used to great effect. For those who are interested there are many biographies of him on the web, and he wrote two books. Edited by Fasulye on 08 July 2012 at 11:41am 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 2 of 4 08 July 2012 at 11:43am | IP Logged |
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I also want to accompany this post with a Wikipedia article about Vernon Walters:
English Wikipedia: Vernon Walters Fasulye 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Gorgoll2 Senior Member Brazil veritassword.blogspo Joined 5145 days ago 159 posts - 192 votes Speaks: Portuguese* | Message 3 of 4 08 July 2012 at 3:24pm | IP Logged |
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There are three topics about him... Walters is quite popular in Brasil. He had the
dubious honor to be the American diplomat at 1964 coup d´etat. His Portuguese was almost perfect, with no foreign accent. 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 4 of 4 08 July 2012 at 6:12pm | IP Logged |
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Vernon Walters is a person whom especially politically interested Germans should know because from 1989 to 1991 he was the U.S. Ambassador to West Germany. I remember that at that time I read in a German newspaper that Vernon Walters could speak several languages, but I have never heard him speaking German on German TV. So I missed the chance to evaluate the quality of his spoken German.
Fasulye Edited by Fasulye on 08 July 2012 at 6:19pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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