Did you know that Franklin published the first non-English language newspaper in colonial America? In 1732, he started the German language Philadelphische Zeitung, which soon failed. Franklin taught himself five languages – French, Italian, Spanish, Latin, and German – which he spoke with varying degrees of fluency. For example, he told Italian physicist Giambatista Beccaria, in 1766, that, “I am pleased to hear that you read English, although you do not write it. I am in the same case with Italian.”
( from http://www.benjaminfranklin300.org)
