atw: Re: Oh no, not 'mouses' again!

Brian A Clarke <brianclarke01@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

 "Perhaps you haven't noticed, but the French and  German
 languages have fallen, nay been eclipsed from their  once
 glorious places  - because of autodidacts like  de Gaulle."

Brian

This is a dubious assertion at best, and certainly no more than one of
several factors, but my main reason for posting is to challenge your use
of the word autodidact to describe Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle.

A good dictionary definition of autodidact is:

"a person who has learned a subject without the benefit of a teacher or
formal education; a self-taught person"

de Gaulle was the son of a a professor of philosophy and literature, and 
was formally educated at a prestigious school and France's foremost
military academy. Amongst other things, he was a fine prose stylist. Dip
into his memoirs and see for yourself.

Le General was most certainly not an autodidact. Josef Stalin was an
autodidact; Paul Keating is one.

Best

Peter Fagan
IntraDoc Pty Ltd

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