It is a short-sighted shame to be dismissive of language ability
to imagine, but once a British prime minister could not only aim to put Britain “at the heart of Europe”; he could say so in fluent French to the Assemblée Nationale. Today, even if Theresa May, a successor to the Europhile Tony Blair, could emulate him, the politics of patriotism might require her to hide it. In the nationalistic climate, many people in the Anglophone democracies seem to consider the ability to talk to foreigners in their own languages distasteful, even suspect.
Spoken like a linguist. How his abilities are described often says more about those doing the describing. The left likes to see itself as the brainy wing of politics, in contrast to science-bashing conservatism. Yet that has not stopped some on the left from attacking Mr Buttigieg for his signature aptitude. To Nathan Robinson, writing in, Mr Buttigieg’s polyglottery is of a piece with his time as a consultant at McKinsey; a slick trick, an ability to tell people what they want to hear.
On the Republican side, it is not so much ability as attitude that differs. Though Mitt Romney speaks good French, he made little of it while running for president in 2012. Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush were unusual in speaking some Spanish on the campaign trail in 2016, but not without controversy. Ted Cruz took a swipe at Mr Rubio, a fellow Cuban-American, over an interview he had given in Spanish. Donald Trump said that Mr Bush should “set the example by speaking English in the United States”.
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