Register  Login  Active Topics  Maps  

Vernon Walters (1917 - 2002)

 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots Post Reply
M-Squared
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6898 days ago

117 posts - 118 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: German, Spanish

 
 Message 1 of 4
20 December 2005 at 9:08pm | IP Logged 
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 5606 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 
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 4905 days ago

159 posts - 192 votes 
Speaks: Portuguese*

 
 Message 3 of 4
08 July 2012 at 3:24pm | IP Logged 
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 5606 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 
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



If you wish to post a reply to this topic you must first login. If you are not already registered you must first register


Post ReplyPost New Topic Printable version Printable version

You cannot post new topics in this forum - You cannot reply to topics in this forum - You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum - You cannot create polls in this forum - You cannot vote in polls in this forum


This page was generated in 0.2188 seconds.


DHTML Menu By Milonic JavaScript
Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved
No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization.