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Political Leaders and Languages | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots |  | |
| andee Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 7054 days ago 681 posts - 724 votes  3 sounds Speaks: English*, German, Korean, French | Message 33 of 142 26 January 2006 at 9:37pm | IP Logged | ||
Well, I would assume Stalin spoke Georgian. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Linas Octoglot Senior Member Lithuania Joined 6889 days ago 253 posts - 279 votes 5 sounds Speaks: Lithuanian*, Russian, Latvian, French, English, German, Spanish, Polish Studies: Slovenian, Greek, Hungarian, Arabic (Written), Portuguese | Message 34 of 142 27 January 2006 at 2:05am | IP Logged | ||
Lenin spoke English and French, since he lived in English and French speaking countries for quite a long time during his political emigration. Probably he spoke also German but I am not sure. He also had some rudimentary survival Finnish knowledge. Somewhere I have reade that he also could read Swedish newspapers. Lenin started to learn English while being in deportation to Siberia, Shushenskoie. He learnt without being able to hear the pronounciation, so that after arrival to London he at first was unable to understand a word of spoken English, but living in England he learnt English quite quickly. Stalin certainly spoke Georgian(mother tongue) and Russian, as for Mao and Hitler I doubt whether they spoke more than their mother tongues. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Linas Octoglot Senior Member Lithuania Joined 6889 days ago 253 posts - 279 votes 5 sounds Speaks: Lithuanian*, Russian, Latvian, French, English, German, Spanish, Polish Studies: Slovenian, Greek, Hungarian, Arabic (Written), Portuguese | Message 35 of 142 27 January 2006 at 2:38am | IP Logged | ||
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A source writes about Lenin that "He was master of the English, German and French languages, and could read Italian, Swedish and Polish
http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1939/1939-leni n02.htm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Skandinav Hexaglot Senior Member Denmark Joined 6864 days ago 139 posts - 145 votes Speaks: Danish*, English, German, Russian, Swedish, Norwegian | Message 36 of 142 27 January 2006 at 5:10am | IP Logged | ||
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Ok, I wouldn't suspect that Mao knew more than a couple of Russian and perhaps Japanese phrases. But as for Hitler, an Austrian, he must have known some Italian, French or possibly Hungarian. After all, he wasn't that "focused" in his early days.
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| wombat Tetraglot Groupie Australia Joined 7094 days ago 49 posts - 50 votes Speaks: English*, German, French, Thai Studies: Mandarin | Message 37 of 142 05 April 2006 at 10:01am | IP Logged | ||
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Another political figure with multiple languages is Madeleine Albright, former Secretary of State of the US. According to her wikipedia article she is:
multilingual, being fluent in English, French, and Czech, with good speaking and reading abilities in Russian, German, Polish and Serbo-Croatian . 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| wombat Tetraglot Groupie Australia Joined 7094 days ago 49 posts - 50 votes Speaks: English*, German, French, Thai Studies: Mandarin | Message 38 of 142 05 April 2006 at 10:05am | IP Logged | ||
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The criticism of Condoleezza Rice and her Russian reminds me of a story concerning an Australian politician, Kevin Rudd, who is fluent in Mandarin.
When the Chinese leader visited the Australian Parliament to give a speech a few years ago, Rudd was faced with a dilemna. If he listened to the speech in English via headphones he would be attacked: "ah! he doesn't understand Chinese after all! Bloody liar" If he listened without the headphones, then he would also be attacked "What a smartarse! Bloody showoff!" 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| daghka Newbie Singapore Joined 6972 days ago 2 posts - 2 votes Speaks: English | Message 39 of 142 05 April 2006 at 5:26pm | IP Logged | ||
So what happened...haha.. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| JackFrost Diglot Newbie Canada Joined 6785 days ago 17 posts - 17 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Swedish, Icelandic | Message 40 of 142 09 April 2006 at 1:35am | IP Logged | ||
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Well, the prime minister of Québec (Jean Charest), I did hear him speaking a good English. Maybe that's not a surprise since he grew in the Eastern Townships part of the province, and that area has a strong English-speaking minority compared to the rest of province except Montréal.
As for prime minister of Canada (Stephen Harper), he sounds weird and sometimes struggles speaking French. PMs are often required to learn French if they expect to win supports in Québec, or otherwise you'll lose if Québec doesn't go along. We've been having PMs from Québec for most of three decades now and all of them speak a wonderful English...well, with a small exception for Jean Chrétien, but he's a different story...his French is corny as well. :P Edited by JackFrost on 09 April 2006 at 1:36am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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