MARVEL OF TONGUES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21264, 19 February 1931, Page 14

MARVEL OF TONGUES.

MAN OF MANY PARTS. Anyone who prides himself on his linguistic ability should talk for a while with Mr Maddox Harcoui-t, whose business it is to care for emigrants from Europe and Asia to the United States and Canada while they are in Livex-pool, says the Daily Mail. Mr Harcourt uses every modern European tongue in his work each day, but to make sure that he will not be caught unprepared he employs a few interpreters to help him with the rare Asiatic dialects and the little-used South American languages, because, he says, “though I can generally make myself understood, it is better to be on the safe side, especially when getting information for official statements.” With the stricter emigration laws of recent years, fewer foreign emigrants are sailing from Liverpool to the United States and Canada, but still Mr Harcourt is able to keep his knowledge of languages from going rusty. “ I think I can claim,” he said, “ to translate myself any modern language or find an interpreter to do so in half an hour. When the emigration business was flourishing we used to get train after train arriving in Liverpool laden with emigrants from all over the old world who were on their way to the United States and Canada. There were Russians, Poles, Scandinavians, Finns, Italians, Bulgarians, Mongolians, Spaniards, natives of Macedonia, and Austrians arriving day after day, and they all had to be looked after carefully. “ I had to divide my hotel into parts and insist that people of each nationality should keep to their quarters. Greeks used to have a Greek cook and a Greek steward; Mahommedans a Mahommedan cook and steward, and so on. So, living in that atmosphere and handling almost every kind of people, I picked up my smattering of languages. I cannot claim to be an expei't on any language, but I can make myself understood in almost every one.” Mr Harcourt’s greatest difficulty is with the Chinese, all of whom, he said, seem to use a diffei'ent dialect. “ I have never yet been faced with a man who spoke a language for which we could not find an, interpreter somehow,” he added, “ but we have to use very awkward methods. It has been quite common to have four interpreters passing the message on in turn through various dialects of Chinese. One could speak two dialects but not a third, another could speak the third and fourth but could not speak English, while the third man could speak English but only one of the dialects, and so, slowly, with the information we required passing through four dialects, we got what we wanted. “ I employ one steward who can speak 15 languages. He, I think, came from one of the small Baltic States. All of my stewards can speak three or four languages, but it is only when I meet a very rare dialect that I ask them to interpret for me. “ Even making allowances for the decline in eraigi’ation at Liverpool, one does not hear so many foreign languages spoken here nowadays. Almost every seaman who comes into Liverpool can speak English as well as his native tongue. English among seamen is rapidly becoming the international language.”