Those people who have heard me ramble and read this blog probably know that I'm obsessed with languages, as well as people who speak many of them. Over time I have amassed a list of famous people who speak many languages, and as I can't find a list as similarly comprehensive on the web, I figured I'd post it here. I put admittedly too much worth in the ability to speak multiple, as it is something I find awesome but am not particularly good at. The list of great people who were monolinguals is perhaps more impressive than the list of polyglots, so it's important not to get carried away. Still, I found creating this fun and hope you enjoy and find yourself inspired. I judge people's greatness by their contribution to humanity and their lingustic aptitude by the quantity, fluency and diversity of their competent languages. This means that people who are famous only for knowing many languages (see Emil Krebs) are not included.
Historical:
Throughout time there have been some people who did great things while speaking many languages. They get their own section here because it's hard to tell from books how well these people spoke their languages, whether history has embellished their legend, and there are no rarely youtube clips available of them.
Among the best are:
Ho Chi Minh - The Communist dictator who led North Vietnam actually only spent the beginning and ends of his life living in Vietnam. Classical Chinese and French were part of his education. Birth and death sandwiched an interesting travel life, which he began by working in the kitchen of a French ship. He subsequently spent significant time in France, US, UK, USSR, China and even Thailand. He married a woman in Guangzhou who was unable to see him after he became leader in Vietnam. Besides his native Vietnamese, he could speak French, English, Russian, Cantonese and Mandarin, and gave interviews to the western media in French.
Christopher Lee - No not me, but the legendary British actor who became famous for portraying Dracula and has recently played Count Dooku in the Star Wars pretrilogy and Saruman in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy over a 60 year career. Lee grew up partially in Switzerland and speaks English, French, German, Italian, Spanish fluently and is moderately proficient in Russian, Swedish, and Greek. He has acted in English, Russian, Spanish, Italian, French and German.1
Historical:
Throughout time there have been some people who did great things while speaking many languages. They get their own section here because it's hard to tell from books how well these people spoke their languages, whether history has embellished their legend, and there are no rarely youtube clips available of them.
Among the best are:
Otto von Bismarck -, the statesmen who founded Germany and spoke German, English, French, Italian, Polish and Russian Cite
Nikola Tesla - The brilliant mad scientist who basically popularized electricity spoke Serbian, German, Hungarian, Italian, French, Czech, English and Latin.
Thomas Jefferson - The third American President was a true polymath who notably crafted the Declaration of Independence. He knew English, French, Italian, Latin and Ancient Greek. His Spanish is questionable (I read that he claimed to Sam Adams he learned Spanish on a boat voyage from the US to Europe).
Tenzig Norgay - The famous mountaineer who together with Edmund Hillary became the first humans to summit Mount Everest spoke either Sherpa or Tibetan natively and fluent Nepalese. He also could converse in English and Hindi.
Ho Chi Minh - The Communist dictator who led North Vietnam actually only spent the beginning and ends of his life living in Vietnam. Classical Chinese and French were part of his education. Birth and death sandwiched an interesting travel life, which he began by working in the kitchen of a French ship. He subsequently spent significant time in France, US, UK, USSR, China and even Thailand. He married a woman in Guangzhou who was unable to see him after he became leader in Vietnam. Besides his native Vietnamese, he could speak French, English, Russian, Cantonese and Mandarin, and gave interviews to the western media in French.
Friedrich Engels - The philosopher and political theorist who managed to help create Marxism without getting his name added onto the theory, supposedly spoke 20 languages. Documentation is hazy, but I think we're talking English, German, several other Germanic languages, the Romance languages, tons of Slavic languages, Arabic and Persian. 3
Black Beaver - This Delaware (tribe, born in Illinois) trapper traveled all across the American continent in the 1800's, back before there were road trips. If he's less famous than everyone else on this list, it's because the history most of us has read has so largely been written by Westerners. He spoke English, French, Spanish and about 10 Native American languages.
Gandhi - Sources aren't totally clear but the great Indian non-violent peacemaker spoke Gujarati natively and could understand Hindi, Malayam, Telegu, Kannada, Marathi and English.
John Paul II - The great Pope spoke Polish, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, English, German, Russian, Croatian, Ancient Greek and Latin and used them extensively on the job.
鄧麗君 (Teresa Teng) - The famous Taiwanese singer, whose 月亮代表我的心is probably the most famous Chinese song nowadays, spoke Mandarin and Taiwanese Hokkien natively. She definitely spoke Cantonese, English and Japanese proficiently, spending considerable time in Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan and the United States. She recorded albums in these languages, but also sang songs in Indonesian, Vietnamese and Khmer.
J.R.R. Tolkien - I never met anyone on this list, but I'd bet that the creator of Lord of the Rings is the one here most obsessed with languages. He was a professor on English Language and Literature, and in terms of modern languages, he could speak English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Welsh, Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, Russian, Greek and Serbian to different extents and was familiar with Finnish. However, he also extensively studied tons of ancient languages, including Middle English, Old English, Gothic, Lombardic, Old Norse, and Medieval Welsh, and was a foremost academic on the Germanic languages. He also invented many languages, notably Quenya and Sindarin, two Elvish languages spoken in Lord of the Rings.
鄧麗君 (Teresa Teng) - The famous Taiwanese singer, whose 月亮代表我的心is probably the most famous Chinese song nowadays, spoke Mandarin and Taiwanese Hokkien natively. She definitely spoke Cantonese, English and Japanese proficiently, spending considerable time in Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan and the United States. She recorded albums in these languages, but also sang songs in Indonesian, Vietnamese and Khmer.
J.R.R. Tolkien - I never met anyone on this list, but I'd bet that the creator of Lord of the Rings is the one here most obsessed with languages. He was a professor on English Language and Literature, and in terms of modern languages, he could speak English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Welsh, Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, Russian, Greek and Serbian to different extents and was familiar with Finnish. However, he also extensively studied tons of ancient languages, including Middle English, Old English, Gothic, Lombardic, Old Norse, and Medieval Welsh, and was a foremost academic on the Germanic languages. He also invented many languages, notably Quenya and Sindarin, two Elvish languages spoken in Lord of the Rings.
Sir Richard Francis Burton - Wikipedia calls the Captain a British geographer, explorer, translator, writer, soldier, orientalist, cartographer, ethnologist, spy, linguist, poet, fencer and diplomat. That's a lot of hats to wear, and "according to one count, he spoke [an ungodly amount of] 29 European, Asian and African languages. To the best of my reconstruction, these included English, French, Italian, Spanish, Latin, Portuguese, German, Armenian, Turkish, Arabic, Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, Persian, Sindhi, Pashto, Telugu, Sanskrit, Toda, Jataki, Swahili, Harari, Icelandic, Amharic, Fan, Egba, Hebrew and Ashanti. His exploits were numerous and legendary, including exploring the Great Lakes of Africa and making the Hajj.
Jose Rizal - To me, Rizal's life is the most impressive out of anyone in this list. Jose Rizal was a multiracial Filipino national hero who worked as an eye doctor (earning degrees from Madrid, Paris and Heidelberg), writer and revolutionary. His whole life story is fascinating and he even lived in Hong Kong for a while. I've found contrasting statements about his languages, but my best guess are: Tagalog, Spanish, English, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Catalan, Greek, Hebrew, Malay, Ilokano, Bisayan, Arabic, Chinese (probably Cantonese, Mandarin and Hokkien), Dutch, Russian, Japanese, Sanskrit and Latin. He could have and probably would have learned more, except that he was tragically executed by the Spanish at the age of 35. 1
Living:
Ok so these people's language lists are far less impressive as the above legends of yore, but you might know them better.
Shakira - The Colombian singer speaks Spanish, English and Portuguese fluently, and sings the 2010 World Cup theme song (Waka Waka) in all three. She is also of Lebanese and Italian descent, and speaks a smattering of Catalan, Italian, French and Arabic.
Jackie Chan - The Hong Kong mega Kung Fu star speaks Cantonese and Mandarin fluently, and English with a typical strong Hong Kong accent. Apparently though he speaks a bit of Korean, German and Japanese and American sign language, although I was only able to find clips of the Korean.
Novak Djokovic - Tennis is a very international sport and lots of tennis players speak many languages. Roger Federer speaks German, Swiss German, French and English (all flawlessly), and two-time Grand Slam winner Marat Safin spoke Russian, Tartar, Spanish and English. Djokovic gets the nod as the current world #2 and speaking Serbian, English, German and Italian, some Spanish and French (you can find youtube clips of him speaking French).
Serge Ibaka - The young Thunder Center who averaged 3.5 blocks per game is kinda a beast. He grew up in the Republic of Congo, moved to Spain following a traumatic Civil War, then came to the US. He speaks Lingala, French, Spanish, English and Catalan and can block shots in an additional six.
Wang Lee Hom - Alexander Wang was born in Rochester, New York to Taiwanese immigrants but supposedly didn't grow up speaking Mandarin 1. He started studying in college (I don't believe him). Well he went to Taiwan for a summer, got discovered, and is now one of the biggest pop icons in all of Asia. There's a youtube clip of him speaking English, Mandarin, French (high school study), Cantonese (started studying after acting in a Hong Kong film) and Japanese. As our life stories are pretty similar, I am holding out hope that I can speak that well when I'm his age, and become a mega Asian pop star.
Viggo Mortensen - Aragorn is of Danish descent on his father's side and American on his mother's side. He grew up in the US, Denmark and Argentina and as a result, speaks English, Spanish and Danish fluently. He can also converse in French and Italian and understand Swedish and Norwegian and some Elvish (one of these is a joke).
Daniel Bruhl - Inglourious Basterds was great for its use of European languages as a plot device, and Christoph Walz shone for his impeccable German, French and English as well as Italian (which he does not actually speak). However it is another actor in the film, Daniel Bruhl (who only speaks German and French in the movie) who is the real polyglot. Born to a German father in Barcelona, he speaks German, Spanish, Catalan, French and English fluently.
Madeleine Albright - The former US Ambassador to the United Nations and the Secretary of State and current Georgetown Professor of International Relations was born in Czechoslovakia and grew up in the UK, Switzerland and US. She speaks Czech, English, French and Russian fluently and can read and speak Polish and Serbo-Croatian.
Mohombi - The Swedish-Congolese singer is mainly known as a one-hit wonder for his 2010 hit "Bumpy Ride." I really like his sound though, which reflects his diverse upbringing, and hope he produces more quality songs. He was born in Kinshasa, Zaire (modern day Democratic Republic of Congo) to a Congolese father and a Swedish mother, and moved to Stockholm when he was 14 to escape the Civil War. He definitely speaks French, Swedish, English, Lingala and Swahili but claims here that he speaks six languages. The 6th one may be Spanish. Interestingly he has also collaborated with Moroccan-Swedish producer RedOne and Kenyan-Norwegian singer Stella Mwangi.
Madeleine Albright - The former US Ambassador to the United Nations and the Secretary of State and current Georgetown Professor of International Relations was born in Czechoslovakia and grew up in the UK, Switzerland and US. She speaks Czech, English, French and Russian fluently and can read and speak Polish and Serbo-Croatian.
Mohombi - The Swedish-Congolese singer is mainly known as a one-hit wonder for his 2010 hit "Bumpy Ride." I really like his sound though, which reflects his diverse upbringing, and hope he produces more quality songs. He was born in Kinshasa, Zaire (modern day Democratic Republic of Congo) to a Congolese father and a Swedish mother, and moved to Stockholm when he was 14 to escape the Civil War. He definitely speaks French, Swedish, English, Lingala and Swahili but claims here that he speaks six languages. The 6th one may be Spanish. Interestingly he has also collaborated with Moroccan-Swedish producer RedOne and Kenyan-Norwegian singer Stella Mwangi.
Hamid Karzai - The President of Afghanistan who has plenty of controversies to his name, graduated university in India and is well-versed in Pashto (native), Dari, Hindi, Urdu, English and French.
Aung San Suu Kyi - This amazing woman's life is very well-documented but amazingly I could not find comprehensive information about her linguistic skills. She definitely speaks Burmese and English fluently, and studied French and Japanese (brushing up on them during her home confinement). She was also noted for being good at foreign languages and lived in India and Nepal, graduating from university in New Delhi, so who knows how many other languages she can converse in?
Christopher Lee - No not me, but the legendary British actor who became famous for portraying Dracula and has recently played Count Dooku in the Star Wars pretrilogy and Saruman in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy over a 60 year career. Lee grew up partially in Switzerland and speaks English, French, German, Italian, Spanish fluently and is moderately proficient in Russian, Swedish, and Greek. He has acted in English, Russian, Spanish, Italian, French and German.1
So that's what I've compiled so far and I hope to add to the list, especially the contemporaries, and am open to suggestions. I also somehow have 3 Lord of the Rings references! I was unable to find an impressive polyglot who didn't speak English!
EDIT:
I'm ashamed to admit that I didn't know much about her life until her passing in May 2014, but she's truly an amazing individual and polyglot.
Maya Angelou - While best known as a great American writer and particularly strong African-American female literary voice, Maya Angelou was also a dancer, actress, playwright, journalist, civil rights activist, sex worker, film director and professor. Touring Europe as a member of a Porgy and Bess opera show, Angelou started picking up the languages in her host countries. She later worked in Cairo and Accra as a journalist. In those locations, she picked up French, Spanish, Italian, Arabic and Fanti.
Shaul Ladany
The incredible academic/Olympian/survivor Shaul Ladany is not as well known as he should be. Ladany was born in 1936 in Belgrade to Jewish parents. The city was bombed and conquered by German forces, and Ladany's family escaped to Hungary. However he was later captured and sent to a concentration camp in Germany. He was one of the few survivors, a fortunate beneficiary of a deal in which foreign Jews bought for the lives of 1000 prisoners. His family eventually immigrated to the new state of Israel following the war, where he went to university and eventually did his PhD in Industrial Engineering in Columbia. He somehow got into race walking and became the best Israeli walker, competing in the 1972 Olympics in Munich. He had just finished his race and gone to sleep when Palestinian terrorists invaded the Israeli compound, and he was one of only 6 Israeli athletes to survive the attack - his second incredible escape from a Jewish-targetted attack in Germany. Among his incredible and inspiring life, he spoke Serbo/Croatian, Hungarian, Russian, German, Yiddish, Hebrew, English and French. His linguistic life story is written below:
http://www.le-mot-juste-en-anglais.com/1995/01/linguist-of-the-month-of-september-shaul-ladany.html
EDIT:
I'm ashamed to admit that I didn't know much about her life until her passing in May 2014, but she's truly an amazing individual and polyglot.
Maya Angelou - While best known as a great American writer and particularly strong African-American female literary voice, Maya Angelou was also a dancer, actress, playwright, journalist, civil rights activist, sex worker, film director and professor. Touring Europe as a member of a Porgy and Bess opera show, Angelou started picking up the languages in her host countries. She later worked in Cairo and Accra as a journalist. In those locations, she picked up French, Spanish, Italian, Arabic and Fanti.
Shaul Ladany
The incredible academic/Olympian/survivor Shaul Ladany is not as well known as he should be. Ladany was born in 1936 in Belgrade to Jewish parents. The city was bombed and conquered by German forces, and Ladany's family escaped to Hungary. However he was later captured and sent to a concentration camp in Germany. He was one of the few survivors, a fortunate beneficiary of a deal in which foreign Jews bought for the lives of 1000 prisoners. His family eventually immigrated to the new state of Israel following the war, where he went to university and eventually did his PhD in Industrial Engineering in Columbia. He somehow got into race walking and became the best Israeli walker, competing in the 1972 Olympics in Munich. He had just finished his race and gone to sleep when Palestinian terrorists invaded the Israeli compound, and he was one of only 6 Israeli athletes to survive the attack - his second incredible escape from a Jewish-targetted attack in Germany. Among his incredible and inspiring life, he spoke Serbo/Croatian, Hungarian, Russian, German, Yiddish, Hebrew, English and French. His linguistic life story is written below:
http://www.le-mot-juste-en-anglais.com/1995/01/linguist-of-the-month-of-september-shaul-ladany.html
No comments:
Post a Comment