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French PM a true tetraglot | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots |  | |
| Ogrim Heptaglot Senior Member France Joined 4636 days ago 991 posts - 1896 votes  Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian | Message 1 of 7 04 November 2014 at 2:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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Here are some videos of French PM Manuel Valls, born in Spain by an Italian Swiss mother and a Catalan father. I'd say he speaks the four languages Catalan, French, Italian and Spanish at or very close to a native level. True, they all belong to the Romance family, but I still think it is quite impressive.
Interview in Catalan Interview in Spanish Speech in Italian I haven't bothered to add a video of him speaking in French, it's easy enough to find. I also haven't added any video of him speaking English, which is pretty rudimentary. In fact, few French politicians seem to speak English very well, as this video gives some examples of. Edited by Ogrim on 04 November 2014 at 3:35pm 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| eyðimörk Triglot Senior Member France goo.gl/aT4FY7 Joined 4096 days ago 490 posts - 1158 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French Studies: Breton, Italian | Message 2 of 7 04 November 2014 at 5:50pm | IP Logged | ||
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I didn't know he spoke Catalan. That's impressive... and interesting, given his politics when it comes to minority languages. Ah, well, politics and my visceral reactions to Valls, aside, that's interesting.
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| sctroyenne Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5388 days ago 739 posts - 1312 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish, Irish | Message 3 of 7 04 November 2014 at 6:02pm | IP Logged | ||
I can vouch for this. Even in the Consulate, the level of English wasn't very strong (aside from a few that grew up bilingual or who went to high school in the US). I found very high levels of English, though, among business school exchange students and a few students at a computer science school. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Ogrim Heptaglot Senior Member France Joined 4636 days ago 991 posts - 1896 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian | Message 4 of 7 04 November 2014 at 6:31pm | IP Logged | ||
Yes, one might say that he got his languages "for free", growing up with Catalan, Italian and French at home. But one should not forget that he never actually lived in Spain, or Switzerland for that matter, so clearly his parents must have been very conscious of transmitting their native languages to him. Spanish seems to be his "weakest language" insofar he has more of an accent, but still quite impressive the way he answers the journalist without making any notable mistakes. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| eyðimörk Triglot Senior Member France goo.gl/aT4FY7 Joined 4096 days ago 490 posts - 1158 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French Studies: Breton, Italian | Message 5 of 7 04 November 2014 at 6:41pm | IP Logged | ||
I thought that he was born in Spain and moved to France as a teenager. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Ogrim Heptaglot Senior Member France Joined 4636 days ago 991 posts - 1896 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian | Message 6 of 7 05 November 2014 at 8:59am | IP Logged | ||
For some reason lot of people think he grew up in Spain, but that is not the case. He explained himself in an interview with "Le Point" in 2007:
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| eyðimörk Triglot Senior Member France goo.gl/aT4FY7 Joined 4096 days ago 490 posts - 1158 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French Studies: Breton, Italian | Message 7 of 7 05 November 2014 at 11:40am | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks! I've wondered about that because when he replaced Ayrault I read up on him and everything I read said "born in Barcelona", "moved to France as a teenager", "naturalised citizen at age 20" (which seems late for someone who lived here all his life... but maybe the age limit wasn't 18 back then), but his father's Wikipedia page, which I read at the same time, said that he lived in Paris pretty much his whole life.
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