Linguistic capabilities of modern world leaders

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

English French German Italian Japanese Portuguese Russian Spanish Swedish
Yasuo Fukuda, Prime Minister of Japan Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Yes Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown
Michelle Bachelet, President of Chile[1] Yes Yes Yes No No Yes No Yes No
Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Yes Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown
Benedict XVI, Pope of the Roman Catholic Church[2] Yes Yes Yes Yes Unknown Yes Unknown Yes Unknown
George W. Bush, President of the United States Yes No No No No No No No[3] No
Juan Carlos, King of Spain Yes Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No
Nicolas Sarkozy, President of France Some[4] Yes Some Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown
Felipe Calderón, President of Mexico Yes[5] Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Yes Unknown
Tarja Halonen, President of Finland Yes Yes Yes No No Unknown No No Yes
Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada Yes Yes No No No No No No No
Hamid Karzai, President of Afghanistan[6] Yes Yes No No No No No No No
Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany Yes No Yes No No No Yes No No
Romano Prodi, Prime Minister of Italy Yes[7] Unknown Unknown Yes No Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown
Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation[8] Yes Unknown Yes Unknown Unknown No Yes Unknown No
Fredrik Reinfeldt, Prime Minister of Sweden Yes Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Yes
Alfred Gusenbauer, Chancellor of Austria Yes Unknown Yes Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown
Henri, Grand Duke of Luxembourg[9] Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No
José Ramos-Horta, President of Timor-Leste[10] Yes Yes No No No Yes No Yes No
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, President of Brazil No No No No No Yes No Some No

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Michelle Bachelet "speaks English, German, French and Portuguese, in addition to Spanish." More Info
  2. ^ Benedict XVI can speak a total of 10 languages, including Latin, which is not mentioned here. More info
  3. ^ George Bush speaks a few words of Spanish, but not enough to be classed as "Some." More Info
  4. ^ "...and he attended classes but never graduated, apparently for not having passed his English exams." [1]
  5. ^ It is presumed that Mr. Calderón speaks fluent English, as he earned a Masters Degree at Harvard University. More Info
  6. ^ "As a student Karzai became fluent in Urdu, English, French, and Hindi; he also speaks Pashto (Pushto) and Dari, the two official languages of Afghanistan." ("Hamid Karzai." Microsoft Student 2008 [DVD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2007.)
  7. ^ Romano Prodi is presumed to speak English due to the wording of this article. More Info
  8. ^ Vladimir Putin speaks German and English in addition to Russian. More Info
  9. ^ Also Luxembourgish. More Info
  10. ^ Also Tetum. More Info