A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Which US Presidents were bilingual or multilingual?

Best Answers

George Washington only spoke English (and famously required an interpreter in his dealings with French and Dutch colonists), but many of his successors have been proficient in more than one language. read more

Wikipedia actually maintains a list of this: List of multilingual Presidents of the United States. To the best of our knowledge, 17 presidents could speak or read a language other than English fluently. Of those, 7 knew scholarly languages such as Ancient Greek, Ancient Hebrew, and Latin. read more

Of the 44 men who have served as Presidents of the United States, at least half have displayed proficiency in speaking or writing a language other than English. Of these, only one, Martin Van Buren, learned English as his second language; his first language was Dutch. read more

Four of the nation’s earliest presidents were multilingual, educated in classical languages such as Latin and ancient Greek, as well as German, Italian and most importantly French. sign up Of the 43 presidents, more than half spoke another language – all before 1945. read more

Encyclopedia Research