Language Leaders

Obama’s presidency will most certainly encompass many milestones, but he won’t be the first ruler of the free world to communicate in more than one language. Many former residents of the Oval Office communicated in English, Spanish and more, reflecting the multicultural mix of America itself. Here are some presidents who knew the value of knowing another language.

Thomas Jefferson once said that he "cannot live without books," and his multilingualism enabled him to read authors in their native tongue. Fluent in at least six languages (English, French, Italian, German, Latin and Greek), Jefferson set the stage for both knowledge and diversity in the United States.

John Quincy Adams attended school in France and the Netherlands, and his mastery of French, the language of European diplomacy, brought him his first official appointment. He also spoke some Dutch.

Martin Van Buren actually considered English to be his second language. He spoke fluent Dutch in his home state of New York before he learned English.

James A. Garfield not only spoke English, Greek and Latin, he also wanted to pass that ability on to others. Early in his professional career, Garfield taught Classical Languages in New York. He was also said to be ambidextrous: People would ask him a question in English, and he would simultaneously write the answer in Latin with one hand and Greek with the other.

Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt loved poetry written in both German and French. Apparently, reading and writing paragraphs in German was a challenge for him, but he adored German poetry as much as the work of English poets.

Herbert Hoover and his wife could both speak Mandarin Chinese.

Woodrow Wilson learned German in order to earn his Ph.D. in history.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt immersed himself in the cultures of Germany and France as a young boy, developing conversational ability in both German and French, which he put to good use during the formidable challenges of World War II. He could also read and write in German, as his boyhood letters to his mother attest.

John F. Kennedy, despite being known for his "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech, actually had a great deal of difficulty remembering how to pronounce the phrase in German. (Had the Soviets blockaded Paris, he could have looked to his wife, Jackie, for the words, as she spoke perfect French.)

Jimmy Carter made a series of speeches in Central and South America to promote human rights in the region. He wrote the speeches himself, as he’s fluent in Spanish.

George Herbert Walker Bush is fluent in both English and French and frequently conversed with foreign leaders in French.

George W. Bush learned to speak Spanish as governor of Texas, reaching out to (and getting votes from) that state’s significant Hispanic population. His brother, Jeb Bush, as both a resident and former governor of Florida, also speaks Spanish.

Barack Obama when asked about his lingual skills as a senator, responded that he spoke "Indonesian and a little Spanish." In a campaign speech, he expressed the desire to have "every child speaking more than one language."

Considering the demographic trends in the United States, it’s extremely likely that future presidents will speak another language besides English. A little less than 20 percent of America’s populace speaks another language at home, with more than 10 percent of the country speaking Spanish. In fact, many of the country’s largest metropolitan areas, including Miami, Los Angeles, and Houston, have more than 30 percent of the population speaking Spanish at home.

In addition, more than 38 million people reside in the United States but were born in another country, an all-time high of more than 12 percent of the total population. While they can’t run for president, their children can-and who knows? Maybe one of them will become a leader of the free world.

This article is brought to you by Rosetta Stone, the world's leading language learning software company.

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