Liebelei Lawrence
Greg Roberts
Issue date: 10/26/05 Section: features
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Versus Magazine Online [Image based format]
Bonjour. Guten tag. Moïen. Γεια σου. It doesn't really matter how you say hello to Liebelei Lawrence-she's equally at home speaking any of those languages. And the most remarkable thing about this Vanderbilt sophomore isn't that she's fluent in five languages (Greek, French, German, Luxembourgish, and English), it's that she is a varsity athlete who is fluent in five languages. In other words, Lawrence blows the dumb jock stereotype out of the water.
"When we go to golf tournaments," teammate and roommate Helen Richards said, "you run into a lot of different players from different countries, and she can always speak to them. It's really funny to see how she can go up and have a conversation with them. Knowing those five languages, there aren't very many people she can't talk to."
Blessed with such tremendous talent both athletically and linguistically, Lawrence owes much of her abilities to her unique background. Born in Greece, Lawrence moved to Luxembourg at the age of three when her father, a pilot, was given a new base there. She grew up there until she moved to Florida at the age of 16 to pursue a career in golf. With a Greek mother and Luxembourg's blend of French and German culture, Lawrence explains that it was almost by default that she acquired her repertoire of languages.
"It wasn't really my choice," she said. "I picked up Greek with my mom-that was my first language. When we moved to Luxembourg and I was around my dad the whole time, I picked up English because that's all he speaks. So I had those two, and then since Luxembourgish isn't an official language-it's a spoken language, but it doesn't have actual grammar-elementary school in Luxembourg is in German, and then halfway through high school you switch to French."
Amazingly, Lawrence isn't content with knowing five languages, and is working on her sixth-Spanish. It seems that for Lawrence, speaking several forms of vernacular is second nature. But for those around her, as Richards expressed before, there is something both entertaining and captivating about watching her linguistic fluidity in action.