.jpg){kind=link}
Thanks for signing up!
Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go.
11 American presidents who mastered second languages
Before he became our second president, John Adams was sent to Paris twice for extended periods to negotiate with France. While he was serving there, he learned to speak French fluently.
Thomas Jefferson was fluent in Spanish and could speak some French. John Quincy Adams wrote in his diary that Jefferson told him he had learned Spanish in 19 days while crossing the Atlantic, with the help of a copy of Don Quixote.
Quincy Adams also notes that Jefferson had a tendency to tell “large stories” (i.e. exaggerate).
While his speaking abilities weren’t evidenced, James Madison was said to be quite proficient in written Greek and Latin at a young age. Madison also studied Hebrew while attending Princeton University.
Prior to becoming the fifth U.S. president, James Monroe was a minister to France and facilitated the Louisiana Purchase. Monroe and his family spoke French fluently.
While his father, the aforementioned John Adams, was serving in Paris, John Quincy Adams accompanied him and attended schools in Europe. He quickly became fluent in French, Dutch, and German.
Martin Van Buren was born in Kinderhook, New York, a town of Dutch settlers. Dutch was his first language, and he learned English as his second in school.
Teddy Roosevelt could read in French, German, Italian, and Latin, and kept his library stocked with books in all of those languages. He was also able to speak conversational French and German, though speaking them didn’t come easily to him, and his Secretary of State John Hay once said Roosevelt’s French was “lawless as to grammar” but not difficult to understand.
Hoover’s wife, Lou, was his language-learning companion. Together they translated a 16th-century document from Latin to English over the course of several years. They also learned Mandarin Chinese and would speak it when they didn’t want staff members to eavesdrop on their conversations.
FDR learned French and German from a young age. Governesses from France and Germany taught him their respective languages, as did his Swiss governess. Additionally, Roosevelt’s family traveled to Germany for five consecutive summers to get treatment for his father’s ailing heart. FDR attended school there for a while, where he continued to improve his language skills.
Though his grammar was far from perfect, Jimmy Carter was fairly proficient in the Spanish language. He studied Spanish when he attended the United States Naval Academy. Carter continued to practice the language on Christian mission trips later in life, and also as president when he made speeches in Spanish on various country visits. Carter said Spain was his favorite vacation spot, and he practiced his Spanish while there with his family.
Bill Clinton studied German during his college career at Georgetown University. He became proficient in the language, and spoke a little German in a speech at the Brandenburg Gate in 1994.
Although it seems like the general trend of language proficiency among American presidents has declined over the years, we would be remiss not to give honorable mentions to two of our 21st-century leaders:
George W. Bush (2001-2009) had some basic knowledge of Spanish from his many years living in Texas, and he even sprinkled it into a few of his speeches.
Barack Obama (2009-2017) lived in Indonesia with his mother and stepfather from age six to ten and attended school there. He developed a basic understanding of the Indonesian language and spoke a little bit in this speech.
Advertisement