jradetzky Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom geocities.com/jradet Joined 7210 days ago 521 posts - 485 votes 1 sounds Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2, GermanB1
| Message 1 of 17 20 April 2005 at 7:20am | IP Logged |
Does Herr Ratzinger speak as many languages as Pan Wojtyla? Does he speak any Spanish at all? If not, maybe he can start with Pimsleur Spanish now because he'll need it for addressing the Latin American catholics.
Edited by jradetzky on 20 April 2005 at 7:22am
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administrator Hexaglot Forum Admin Switzerland FXcuisine.com Joined 7379 days ago 3094 posts - 2987 votes 12 sounds Speaks: French*, EnglishC2, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian Personal Language Map
| Message 2 of 17 20 April 2005 at 11:46am | IP Logged |
'according to the Vatican, he speaks eight languages including German, English, French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish.' Seattle Time
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Jose.pm Newbie Joined 7166 days ago 12 posts - 13 votes
| Message 3 of 17 21 April 2005 at 4:30am | IP Logged |
Hello. The Spanish television showed images of him yesterday reading in Spanish quite well, in a university lecture. That was a few years ago. They said in the radio that he can read Spanish and that he can speak it a little, because it is similar to Italian. They also said that Spanish cardinals usually talked to him in Italian. Anyway, I don't know how many languages he can speak, but one thing is to speak a language and another thing is to read a lecture in a language, which can be practised before if you have good ear and diction.
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jradetzky Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom geocities.com/jradet Joined 7210 days ago 521 posts - 485 votes 1 sounds Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2, GermanB1
| Message 4 of 17 21 April 2005 at 9:57am | IP Logged |
If you were Herr Ratzinger, what course could you use to improve your Spanish language skills in preparation for trips to Latin America? Assimil's "Using Spanish"?
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Malcolm Triglot Retired Moderator Senior Member Korea, South Joined 7318 days ago 500 posts - 515 votes 5 sounds Speaks: English*, Spanish, Korean Studies: Mandarin, Japanese, Latin
| Message 5 of 17 21 April 2005 at 2:37pm | IP Logged |
I'm guessing he also knows Latin to a certain degree. That adds up to seven languages. Does anyone know what the eighth language is?
Jradetzky: Ratzinger seems like more of an FSI man than a Pimsleur or even Assimil man. Besides, "Using Spanish" teaches Iberian Spanish, not Latin American Spanish.
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jradetzky Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom geocities.com/jradet Joined 7210 days ago 521 posts - 485 votes 1 sounds Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2, GermanB1
| Message 6 of 17 21 April 2005 at 3:31pm | IP Logged |
If the US has its Foreign Service Institute, does the Vatican have its counterpart? They've been engaged in international dealings far longer than any other state and they must have a rather strong language institute.
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vilas Pentaglot Senior Member Italy Joined 6963 days ago 531 posts - 722 votes Speaks: Spanish, Italian*, English, French, Portuguese
| Message 7 of 17 02 December 2005 at 3:23pm | IP Logged |
If you want become a Pope , today, you MUST to be polyglot. Usually you are a priest (even if NOT compulsory to be a priest according to the Vatican rules, to become Pope) if you are a priest , you know Latin , then you have to have some knowledge of Italian, because you are supposed to make a show every sunday in S.Peter square....English is very important because is the most international language of the world,
Spanish and portuguese are quite easy after you learned latin and italian....
All the top ten cardinals at the last "Pope's race" were polyglots... Ciao Vilas ....from Spaghettiland
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Lugubert Heptaglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 6870 days ago 186 posts - 235 votes Speaks: Swedish*, Danish, Norwegian, EnglishC2, German, Dutch, French Studies: Mandarin, Hindi
| Message 8 of 17 05 February 2006 at 11:46am | IP Logged |
The Vatican has at least a great tradition to build on. There are just so many 'firsts' among dictionaries and grammars that were compiled by Jesuits and other missionaries. Some of those books, like the Hindi grammar by Rev. S.H. Kellogg, first edition in 1875, are still quite useful.
One of the heavier (in weight and usefulness) Chinese dictionaries is the "Grand Ricci", having its name from the Jesuit and missionary Matteo Ricci (1552–1610). It's the largest Chinese-French dictionary ever printed.
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