What other languages than their native tongues have famous leaders like Hitler, Stalin, Churchill and most US Presidents spoken?
I’ve heard that Hitler also spoke a bit of French
Stalin obviously spoke Georgian
Clinton spoke German (I think)
what about other famous world leaders?
Wouldn’t Stalin’s native tongue have been Georgian and the comment correctly be, “Stalin obviously spoke Russian?”
Gandhi: English.
I know Churchill spoke pretty good French, good enough to give speaches and make broadcast - but unfortunately in the MOST awful English accent. Sort of like a comedy Frenchman but in reverse…
Napoleon spoke his native Corsican dialect, as well as French, Italian and a little German I recall…
Stalin’s native tongue was indeed Georgian but he refused to speak it. Wouldn’t have reflected well on his attempts to Russify the Soviet Union, don’t you know.
Lenin spoke Russian, English, French, and German, and possibly some others as well - have to check on that.
Jomo Kenyatta’s native language was Kikuyu. But he was also a British-educated intellectual and highly literate in English. He published several books in English.
John Howard tries to speak Australian, peppering his speeches with “mate” and “fair go”. Then again, He is not a famous leader and Australian is not a language so I fail to see the relevance of this post.
I don’t know if you consider them famous leaders, but most of the later Czars of Russia preferred speaking and writing French instead of Russian. Nicholas II, for example. They might have also dabbled in German. Alexandra was from England, IIRC.
Jackie Kennedy (later Onassis) charmed French society with her command of their language. I don’t know if she was that fluent, or if they were just pleased with the effort.
I would hazard that Thomas Jefferson spoke French as well.
I understand that Stalin and Napolean spoke Russian and French, respectively, with atrocious accents.
I am sure that Jefferson spoke French, as did Franklin. I think both Jimmy Carter and W are quite fluent in Spanish. I just read that Chirac has traveled extensively and even lived in the US, so presumably speaks pretty good American.
Since many of the British prime ministers went to Oxbridge, I would assume that many of the pre-20th century ones must have spoken Latin. And of course, I imagine that the early Norman kings of England must have spoken at least some English. I don’t know who was the first king who spoke it as a native language though. I think every king (and Queen) has spoken French.
Oh yes, the current prime minister of Canada speaks somewhat fractured English.
Thanks, Olentzero; however, the OP asked as to what languages in addition to their native tongue the leaders spoke.
Mussolini spoke decent German and English in addition to Italian - which led to a fun situation at a meeting between Hitler, Mussolini and Chamberlain (I think. Can’t remember what year it was, nor what meeting it was, and I don’t have a book here to look it up) where nobody had arranged for translators so Mussolini was doing all the talking (which he probably would have done anyway, pompous git).
Oh, Laughing Lagomorph, Czarina Alexandra was German. Which royally pissed off Nicholas IIs dad, Alexander III. The Russian imperial family were indeed mostly speaking French and Nicholas II at least spoke fluent English, but then Nicholas II himself was only 1/128 Russian by blood.
Hari Seldon, I’m not sure about this, but I doubt that the early Norman kings spoke any English, as they immediately replaced the ruling aristocracy virtually wholesale with Normans. Norman kings would not really need to communicate directly with any English, or if they did, could probably use Latin through a translator from the church. Over time, the language became more of a creole, I think.
Brazilian emperor Pedro II was said to speak a dozen languages. At the very least, he was fluent in Portuguese, English, French, and German, but his favorite language was reputedly Hebrew, which he spoke with such eloquence that the chief rabbi of England said it was “a blessing” to converse with him.
According to this site, Cleopatra spoke at least eight languages.There may be other more scholarly sites, that dispute this.
With a heavy accent.
Caesar spoke Greek like all the other cool upper-class Romans of the time. Latin is for plebs
We were taught that “dedushka Lenin” spoke six languages fluently. They didn’t specify which.
I remember reading that Georgian President Saakashvili was fluent in: Georgian, Russian, Dutch, German, French and English
Vladimir Putin speaks German perfectly. He was stationed in East Germany from 1985 to 1990 when he was with the KGB. During that time that time and possibly after that he even spoke German at home with his family.
Israel’s first prime minister David Ben Gurion had a gift for languages, and spoke Hebrew, Yiddish, Turkish, English, Russian, French, German, Spanish and ancient Greek, at varying degrees of fluency.
Henry I, son of William the Conqueror, apparently spoke fluent English, but you’re right that it wasn’t the language of the Court. Henry IV (1399-1415) was the first to speak English as his first language.
French was the language of international courtly relations for a long time. The present Queen is fluent, famously chatting in french to a Canadian radio host who was pretending to be the Canadian Prime Minister. Tony Blair is fluent in French also.
Nelson Mandela speaks English and Afrikaans in addition to his native Xhosa. Wouldn’t surprise me if he spoke some Zulu and Sotho, as well as a little Portuguese.