This is notably true with regard to
Russian and Spanish. The English throat is more flexible than that
of the Frenchman or German, and, with the one exception of French,
there are no unwonted sounds in any European language that an
Englishman cannot reproduce fairly accurately. We have something
like the hard Russian "l" in the last syllable of "impossible,"
and to the Scottish or Irish throat the Dutch hard initial
guttural, and the Spanish soft guttural offer but little
difficulty. "Jorje," which looks like "George" spelt phonetically,
but is pronounced so very differently, can easily be mastered, and
that real teaser "gracht," the Dutch for "canal," with a strong
guttural at either end of it, eomes easily out of a Scottish
throat. The power to acquire these tongues is there, but the
inclination is woefully lacking.
Some ten years ago I went out to Panama to have a look at the
canal works. On board the mail-steamer there were twelve
commercial travellers representing British firms, bound for the
West Coast of South America. Ten of these twelve were Germans, all
speaking English and Spanish fluently in addition to their native
German.
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