16 American Presidents Spoke Multiple Languages: One From NJ

I was doing some reading and came across some interesting facts regarding American Presidents and their ability to speak multiple languages.

One was from New Jersey.

It’s certainly not a prerequisite for the job, as only 16 of the 45 American Presidents could speak more than one language.

Early Presidents Needed To Speak Multiple Languages

Latin and Greek were standard practices during colonial America.

Other early American Presidents also spoke: French, German, and Mandarin.

Early American Presidents Were Multilingual

Multilingual means being able to speak more than two languages.

John Quincy Adams leads the pack, having been able to speak 9 languages: English, French, Dutch, German, Latin, Spanish, Greek, Italian and Russian. That’s impressive.

Theodore Roosevelt: English, German, Latin, French, Italian, Dutch and Greek

No surprise that the brilliant Thomas Jefferson could speak 5 languages: English, French, Italian, Latin, Greek and Spanish. HistoryFacts.com reports that Jefferson learned to speak Spanish in “19 days while reading a copy of Don Quixote on a 1784 sailing trip to France.”

James Madison: English, Latin, Italian, French, Greek, and Hebrew.

Franklin D. Roosevelt: English, French, German and Latin.

James A. Garfield: English, Latin, Greek, German and Hebrew.

Rutherford B. Hayes: English, Latin, Greek and French.

John Adams: English, Latin and French.

Martin Van Buren: English, Dutch and Latin.

William Henry Harrison: English, Latin and French.

James K. Polk: English, Latin and Greek.

Herbert Hoover: English, Latin and Mandarin.

James Buchanan: English, Greek and Latin.

John Tyler: English, Latin and Greek.

James Monroe: English, French and Latin.

Chester A. Arthur: English, Latin and Greek.

Bilingual American Presidents

Woodrow Wilson: English and German.

Jimmy Carter: English and Spanish.

Bill Clinton: English and German.

George W. Bush: English and Spanish. It should be noted that Bush Campaign spokesperson Sonia Colin confirmed in 2000 that while he may not have been completely fluent, “he could read and write conversationally,” according to HistoryFacts.com

Most Modern Presidents Are Not Multilingual or Bilingual

The need just is not there like it was during colonial times.

SOURCE: HistoryFacts.com