English Linguistic Abilities.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLIII, Issue 20, 17 November 1909, Page 55

English Linguistic Abilities.

We are so often assured that as regards the study of living languages England is a long way behind the Continent, that it is pleasing 'to receive a foreign compliment on this score. M. ]e Chatelier, the distinguished French scientist and inventor, ‘has told an interviewer that, at the International Chemical! Congress recently held in London, he was greatly impressed with the linguistic abilities- of his British confreres. “The President of the Congress,” he says, “Sir William Ramsay, welcomed the delegates eloquently in English, French, German, land. Italian, and 'Sir Hugh Bell, who presided over the labours of the Metallurgical Section, can discourse with equal facility in English, Genman, and French. On the other hand, few of the French delegates could speak any language but their own.”