THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY: As Nick Clegg fell fluently into German during his visit to Berlin last week, his senior Cabinet colleague William Hague held fast to his translation earphones so he could understand what the Deputy Prime Minister was saying. I bet he did. Anything could have been going on. Clegg could have signed Britain up to the euro.
A mastery of foreign languages is regarded by most of us with admiration – and suspicion. Clegg is more connected to European blood lines than the Royal Family, and can converse in most countries. He famously has five languages, six if you count his much-admired body language. It is not a question of token phrases. When John F Kennedy said "Ich bin ein Berliner" (before bashfully calling out for a translator) he was cheered wildly for managing four words. Clegg gabbled about the mist in Britain and the sun in Berlin before advancing to a meteorological metaphor about the refreshing German air being an omen for "our strengthening relationship".
Hague, who knows only Yorkshire drizzle, must have taken a dim view of his political colleague, a former ski instructor, and his fondness for high diplomatic altitudes. More wondrous than Clegg's German is his Dutch. His effortless conversation with Dutch journalists on a train has made YouTube. He did not just speak in Dutch, he gestured and ruminated and made jokes in Dutch. >>> Sarah Sands | Sunday, June 13, 2010
