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Tony Blair speaking French | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots |  | |
| frankshoehorn Newbie United Kingdom Joined 6413 days ago 25 posts - 25 votes | Message 1 of 18 08 May 2007 at 3:54am | IP Logged | |||||
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| administrator Hexaglot Forum Admin Switzerland FXcuisine.com Joined 7375 days ago 3094 posts - 2987 votes  12 sounds Speaks: French*, EnglishC2, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 18 08 May 2007 at 7:01am | IP Logged | |||||
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A bit labored but quite brave! I think I could do better in English and maybe in Italian but beyond that Mr Blair rules Britannia.
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| Marc Frisch Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6664 days ago 1001 posts - 1169 votes Speaks: German*, French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Persian, Tamil | Message 3 of 18 09 May 2007 at 6:42am | IP Logged | |||||
Good one!
I wasn't too impressed, his pronunciation isn't very good and while listening I couldn't help asking myself whether he actually understands what he's saying. Probably, the speech was written by someone else (as most speeches are) and he practised it before. Anyway, it's nice that he made the effort and isn't afraid of sounding silly. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Zelaia Tetraglot Newbie El Salvador Joined 6808 days ago 29 posts - 37 votes Speaks: Spanish*, FrenchC1, English, Portuguese Studies: Kurdish | Message 4 of 18 10 May 2007 at 9:25am | IP Logged | |||||
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I think he has very good pronunciation, and he has very little accent (which is not normal when french spoken by an english speaker), obviously he has prepared a speech, but you can hear that he already speaks the language. I'm very impressed and it's very good to hear him speaking french!!!, the US embassador in my country doesn't speak Spanish, can you believe it? He is suppossed to do it if he is in an Spanish speaking country!
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| Languagelover1 Groupie United Kingdom Joined 6428 days ago 63 posts - 63 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 5 of 18 10 May 2007 at 12:16pm | IP Logged | |||||
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He worked for a year as a waiter in France when he was young, so he does speak the language fluently. I can't attest for his accent though as I don't have a good enough ear for French myself.
I do remember that at the start of his premiership he spoke to the French Parliament in French also. Although his French language skills didn't do much to build his relationship with Jacque Chirac, who liked to call him the 'perfidious Albion' LOL 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cage Diglot aka a.ardaschira, Athena, Michael Thomas Senior Member United States Joined 6623 days ago 382 posts - 393 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Portuguese | Message 6 of 18 20 May 2007 at 11:28pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Egads Zelaia! I am embarrassed that an embassador from my country to your country does not speak the language! I was under the impression that ambassadors spoke the languages of the countries in which they are posted.
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| Cage Diglot aka a.ardaschira, Athena, Michael Thomas Senior Member United States Joined 6623 days ago 382 posts - 393 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Portuguese | Message 7 of 18 21 May 2007 at 12:11am | IP Logged | |||||
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I have a question about Mezzofanti. If I am correct about this, he was fluent in 40 languages even though he never left his native country of Italy? He was challenged by native speakers of other languages from all over the world and they could not stump him in even the most minute nuances of the language? My question is how did he become so proficient in so many languages without having visited any foreign countries and during a time when there were no audio programs or internet sources available apparently relying solely on foreign visitors? I don't understand how this is possible? Am I missing something here?
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| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6438 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 8 of 18 21 May 2007 at 1:55am | IP Logged | |||||
More than that, he was also fluent in specific dialects. There's a rather lengthy book about him which you can read on this website, by clicking on "Mezzofanti" on the left of the page. From the description therein, it sounds like he had a near 'photographic' memory for sounds and vocabulary. On top of this, a lot of his work involved books in a large variety of languages, apparently including some dictionaries and grammars, and much of the rest involved talking to people (ie, taking confessions), as he was a priest, and eventually a cardinal. As a cardinal, he lived in Rome, the center of Catholicism, and a large trade center - and resultingly, a place with a lot of people to talk to. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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