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Political Leaders and Languages | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots |  | |
| Rout Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5503 days ago 326 posts - 417 votes  Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish Studies: Hindi | Message 105 of 142 09 July 2009 at 10:41pm | IP Logged | |||||
From what I've heard, I don't think his Spanish or his Indonesian are that great actually. Funny, considering the University of Columbia has foreign language requirements. Why doesn't he speak more languages if he went there? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| livlov Diglot Newbie ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5404 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes Speaks: Mandarin*, English | Message 106 of 142 13 July 2009 at 11:18pm | IP Logged | |||||
in fact, I was very much impressed by some Europeans' good command of English especially Belgian, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian and Swiss. Majority of the those people I met during my trips could speak English as well as they speak their own language. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| paparaciii Diglot Senior Member Latvia Joined 6127 days ago 204 posts - 223 votes Speaks: Latvian*, Russian Studies: English | Message 107 of 142 14 July 2009 at 1:37pm | IP Logged | |||||
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| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6063 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 108 of 142 14 July 2009 at 4:09pm | IP Logged | |||||
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His school record was apparently nothing to shout about and he also encountered difficulties in art college, not completing the course. I don't, incidentally, think he was lacking in intelligence (not the same as education). The Third Reich tended to despise intellectualism and most academic pursuits, and this went so far that the authorities sometimes became worried at the impact this had on young people. One article in a newspaper was entitled, Are our youth becoming more stupid?
There have been well-educated xenophobes. Hitler was not one. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Rout Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5503 days ago 326 posts - 417 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish Studies: Hindi | Message 109 of 142 14 July 2009 at 8:00pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Hitler may not be as xenophobic as you think. He was quite fond of opera; I believe his favorite was Verdi. Germany's allies went far beyond German speaking countries as well.
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| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6063 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 110 of 142 14 July 2009 at 10:30pm | IP Logged | |||||
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By all accounts he preferred Wagner.
Except for Switzerland, nearly all German-speaking territory was incorporated in the Third Reich anyway. As to allies, the Japanese were on the other side of the world, fighting a separate war. The Italians were allies because they wanted to be at the top table when they (mistakenly) thought the war was essentially over. And the Romanians, Hungarians, Slovaks etc. were on the German side because they wanted to avoid being the Germans' next invasion target. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| paparaciii Diglot Senior Member Latvia Joined 6127 days ago 204 posts - 223 votes Speaks: Latvian*, Russian Studies: English | Message 111 of 142 15 July 2009 at 6:07pm | IP Logged | |||||
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| Rout Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5503 days ago 326 posts - 417 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish Studies: Hindi | Message 112 of 142 16 July 2009 at 5:31am | IP Logged | |||||
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"He attended opera at least once a week, sometimes twice. In this way he saw his favorite Wagnerian operas, Lohengrin and Die Meistersinger, several times, and attended at least one performance of The Flying Dutchman, Tannhäuser, Tristan and Isolde, Parsifal, and the Ring cycle. He also saw Mozart's Marriage of Figaro and The Magic Flute, Beethoven's Fidelio, and five operas by Verdi: The Masked Ball, Il Trovatore, Rigoletto, La Traviata, and Aida, Which he admired more than the others. He showed no enthusiasm for Gounod's Faust, which he regarded as vulgar, or for the operas of Smetana. In his eyes Wagner reigned supreme above all other operatic composers. It was an opinion he formed in Linz, and it was now comfirmed by the superb performances he saw at the Opera House, with Gustav Mahler conducting."
Excerpt from The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler by Robert Payne I'd say there's a good chance he knew a few words of Italian and he certainly didn't seem xenophobic when it came to Verdi. He probably would have won the war if he would have cleaned up the western front by taking the Brits before invading Russia. Even then he stood a good chance but his army was spread thin because of the assistance he was lending to Italy. Wonder how that would have affected global communications and language usage if he'd won. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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