Unsuspected celebrity polyglots

General discussion about learning languages
lichtrausch
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Re: Unsuspected celebrity polyglots

Postby lichtrausch » Tue Jan 11, 2022 6:16 pm

Kassym-Jomart Tokayev

"A native speaker of Kazakh, Tokayev is also fluent in Russian, Mandarin, and English, and has knowledge of French."
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lichtrausch
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Re: Unsuspected celebrity polyglots

Postby lichtrausch » Sat Jan 29, 2022 3:31 am

Ok, this one really beggars belief. Russian Minister of Defence Sergey Shoygu is allegedly "fluent in nine languages, including Russian, English, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, and Turkish."
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Jean-Luc
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Re: Unsuspected celebrity polyglots

Postby Jean-Luc » Sat Jan 29, 2022 3:06 pm

A list of unsuspected or suspected :) with all the details :
https://www.architekst.com/blog/famous-polyglots
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lichtrausch
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Re: Unsuspected celebrity polyglots

Postby lichtrausch » Mon Jul 11, 2022 3:10 pm

Not really unexpected, but here is Dilraba Dilmurat (a popular actress in China) doing an interview in Uyghur.

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ilmari
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Re: Unsuspected celebrity polyglots

Postby ilmari » Tue Jul 12, 2022 10:59 am

The French singer-songwriter Georges Moustaki (1934-2013) was speaking eight languages.
https://www.lexpress.fr/culture/musique/chanson/l-homme-de-rio_484547.html

He was an Egyptian-French of Jewish Italo-Greek origin, born in Alexandria.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Moustaki

I'm not sure the list is correct, but I think he was speaking French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, English.
Here is his moving last interview, which he gave in Spanish to an old Catalan friend, the singer Marina Rossell.

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