• Mike Huckabee speaks no language other than English but this former Arkansas Governor and
Southern Baptist preacher hopes to speak the language of the voters. His electrifying oratory
elevated him as the only Republican governor of Arkansas to be elected to two four-year terms.

• He learned to read koine Greek (the dialect in which the New Testament is written) while
studying to be a Baptist pastor but cannot speak the Greek language.

• Huckabee's early adult life wallowed in the communications business. At the young age of
21, he became director of a Christian advertising agency in Texas and by 25, he made his living by
ghostwriting books, designing church publications and writing ads. "He had a great sense of humor
that came out on the radio, in his sermons, and in the dorm room with the guys," Huckabee's college
roommate Rick Caldwell commented.

• Apart from English, Obama speaks, 'Indonesian and a little Spanish' as told to The Hill in
2006. He has confided that his 'German is not real good.'

• Barack Obama, the son of a Kenya-born Harvard-educated economist and an American
anthropologist, was brave enough to admit his handicap in not being able to speak a foreign
language.

• "I don't speak a foreign language. It's embarrassing!" were his words at a town hall
meeting in Powder Spring, Georgia on July 11, 2008.

• He is reported to have an average grasp of the Indonesian language as a result of the four
years he spent at local schools in Jakarta.

• However, despite having a multi-national family tree and being brought up in a diverse
cultural climate, Obama lacks a proficient grasp of any foreign languages.

• Though he himself could not be bilingual, this global leader of the free world is of the
firm opinion that in America "we should have every child speaking more than one language" and
emphasized the need for foreign language study in America's classrooms.

• Obama's embarrassment over Americans not knowing more foreign languages prompted a few
outrages from conservative groups who argued that the President?s comments meant Americans should be
forced to learn Spanish.

• Obama's heightened faculty as a writer par excellence in the English language stands him in
good stead among his supporters.

• Sarah Palin, the Alaskan 'Barracuda' and former Governor of Alaska, does not speak any
foreign language, did not own a passport until 2006 and has never lived abroad.

• In 2006, she had obtained a passport to visit members of the Alaska National Guard who were
stationed for fifteen months in Northern Kuwait, and that was the first time Palin ever got to
travel outside North America.

• Her folksy Alaskan tone in speech has invited several comments on its unusualness and
out-of-the-ordinary accent heard among natives of Wisconsin, Idaho and Canada.

• Palin actually has an Alaskan accent that is attributed to the Matnuska and Susitna region,
which is exactly where young Palin was brought up in her hometown of Wasilla.

• The dialect spoke by the people of Alaska is quite unusual thanks to the diversity of
inhabitants who came and settled in this land from far off places.

• In many ways, Alaskan English has a tiny amount of "Canadian raising" in it. Many residents
of Alaska originally came from the Pacific Northwest or Western Canada and features of the dialects
of these regions are most prominent in Alaskan English. Immigrants to Alaska from the Midwest have
also contributed unique elements to the Alaskan speech.

• Although Sarah Palin has limited linguistic skills, "She clearly has a very canny ability
to connect with people. What she says. How she says it. And her body language," said former Alaska
Governor Tony Knowles, a Democrat whom Palin defeated in 2006.

• Being a devout missionary, Republican Mitt Romney's dexterity with foreign languages
revolves around French and Swahili; two languages in which he can express himself quite out of the
ordinary.

• Romney has exceptional fluency in French and is known to have picked up the language during
his 30 month mission in France for the Mormon Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Mormon
missionaries often learned new languages while on their respective missions. During his
two-and-a-half year sojourn through Paris, Romney excelled in French.  In fact, Romney's three years
of French class at the exclusive Cranbrook school in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan had made him more
fluent than his peers.

• Voicing his thoughts on Barack Obama's embarrassment over ignorance of foreign languages
and being able to simply say 'Merci beaucoup' while traveling across Europe, Romney smiled, "Well,
I'm proud to say I can say a little bit more than Merci beaucoup, and I think a lot of other
Americans can, too. I know our kids in many schools across the country go to class and learn foreign
languages."

• Romney is basically of the opinion that America's concern need not be focused on whether we
can speak French or any other foreign language. On the other hand, America needs to be able to "keep
up with the world in math, computer science and other sciences."

• There are reports that state Romney also speaks Swahili though his level of fluency in the
language is yet to be ascertained. The records do not state where and how exactly he picked up the
language. 

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