BECOMING A GLOBAL Internet sensation wasn’t the only thing on Michael D Higgins’s to-do list this summer. Learning Spanish was also a top priority for Ireland’s president.
Higgins and his wife Sabina have just complete an intensive three-week language and culture course in Santander, according to the Universidad Internacional Menéndez Pelayo (UIMP).
The college said the pair wanted to improve their Spanish ahead of a trip to South America later this year.
Mixed in with Japanese, Austrian and Polish students, Higgins’s academic routine was identical to all of his classmates in the northern Spain school. He took five hours of lessons each day for the first fortnight but in the last week he followed a plan that was specifically designed for him, taking in his political, legal and financial lingo needs.
Although his presence in the Cantabrian capital was barely noticed, the university did have to take some security measures to protect the 71-year-old.
Higgins’s four teachers said he is now able to speak Spanish spontaneously, as well as read and understand complex literary texts. It is understood that he showed off his newly-acquired communication skills at a dinner with the rector of the UIMP at the weekend.
The college thanked the president for choosing it and called him one of their most special foreign students.
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