Many Americans know that Thomas Jefferson spoke five languages and could write in several more, but did you know that:

- James Garfield, the 20^th president, was not only multilingual, he was also ambidextrous.  He could write in Greek with one hand while writing in Latin with the other.

 - Dutch-speaker Martin Van Buren was the first president who was born a U.S. citizen (his predecessors had been born British citizens). He is the only president who spoke English as a second language and he spoke Dutch at home with his wife.

- First Lady Elizabeth Monroe spoke only French at home.

- Herbert Hoover and his wife, Lou, collaborated on the first English translation of a 16th century work on mining and used both the old Latin and German translated versions as sources.  The multilingual Hoovers were said to speak Mandarin in the White House when they didn’t want to be overheard. 

When Jackie Kennedy campaigned for her husband’s re-election to the Senate in 1958, she gave speeches in Italian, French, and Spanish to.  For JFK’s presidential run in 1960, she recorded a campaign spot for her husband in Spanish.  You can see the campaign spot here:  www.youtube.com/watch 

How do you think she did?

http://www.pandltranslations.com

Did you every wonder how actors learn the accents they need to use to be convincing in a role?  "Talk This Way: The Man Who Makes Hollywood Sound Right" is a fascinating profile of Tim Monich, a dialect coach who has worked with Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, and Leonardo DiCaprio. 

What is a dialect?The New Yorker article has this to say: "The way a person talks is called his or her idiolect.  A collection of idiolects form a dialect, which is an agreement, common to a place, about grammar and vocabulary and certain expressions."  An accent is how we pronounce the words in our dialect.

Were you convinced by Pitt's accent?

Image by kevin h. under Creative Commons license.

Are you ready for Valentine's Day?  Do you know the secrets of body language? Can you "recognize when someone is attracted to you"?  Do you want to "generate sexual and romantic interest in someone you desire"?

Supposedly, you can learn all this and how to get your dream job from just 42 cards.   Let us know how it goes.

Order your set from www.bodylanguages.com.

Do you want to know what The Guardian in London considers newsworthy (one story that made the front page today is "China's Pet Lovers Seek Ban on Eating Dogs")? Do you want to keep up with what's going on in one of your favorite cities? Are you trying to hone your vocabulary in a foreign language? 

Check out the worldwide newspaper map to read headlines from newspapers in hundreds of countries.  Put your cursor on a country, city, or state to see headlines from today's editions.  Double-click on the dot to see a larger version of the page.

Thanks to Newseum.org for updating the site daily.

Want to win a free "I'd Rather Be Grammatically Correct" t-shirt from A.Word.A.Day? They'll be selecting one winner every week from readers who have submitted comments. 

AWAD sends an email with a new English word every day from Monday through Friday.  Each week has a theme, like "Words that have changed with time" and "Covering the extremities".  It's a fascinating way to pick up new vocabulary and learn interesting tidbits about English.  The New York Times calls it "the most welcomed, most enduring piece" of daily email.  You can subscribe at  wordsmith.org

Image from www.uppityshirts.com