Polyglot
 Polyglot  (skill)   | |
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A polyglot is a person who knows and is able to use several languages. When mentioned as a special skill on Wikispooks, it normally means 4 or more.
The best multilingual speakers have acquired and maintained more than one language learnt during childhood. The first language (sometimes also referred to as the mother tongue) is usually acquired without formal education. Children acquiring two languages natively from these early years are called simultaneous bilinguals. It is common for young simultaneous bilinguals to be more proficient in one language than the other.
Languages learnt as an adult can never be as fluent.
Being able to speak two or more languages as a native is handy in jobs involving international relations. People listed with this skill on Wikispooks are normally involved in diplomacy, interpreting, spycraft or similar, but normally not in the top positions.
Examples
| Page name | Description |
|---|---|
| Samantha de Bendern | UK deep state-connected polyglot "international civil servant" with a masters degree in Wealth Management, fellow of the Institute for Statecraft, associate fellow of Chatham House |
| Enzo Bettiza | Anti-communist Moscow correspondent and editor who attended the 1974 Bilderberg Meeting. Later Europhile politician. |
| Victor Bout | Russian accused of arms smuggling by the US, was jailed with help from a turned associate, allegedly, on orders of the CIA. |
| İhsan Doğramacı | Turkish doctor and university administrator |
| Maurice Gourdault-Montagne | Senior French diplomat |
| Ivan Illich | Not particularly celebrated during his lifetime, Illich was one of the most original thinkers of the 20th century, perhaps of all time. |
| Michael Josselson | CIA agent who set up the Congress for Cultural Freedom in 1950. |
| Vernon Kell | |
| Katharine Klačanský | A member of the HCSS who unknowingly revealed some members and their link to the summer conference where the Dutch Cluster of the IfS was started. |
| Mira Milosevich | Polyglot fellow of the Integrity Initiative |
| Hugh Montgomery (spook) | 63 years with the Central Intelligence Agency, where he was one of the agency's greatest linguists. |
| Fernando Farinha Simões | |
| Terence Todman | U.S. Ambassador to Chad, Guinea, Costa Rica, Spain, Denmark, and Argentina. |
| Harold Williams | A polyglot who learned over 50 languages |
