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Bilingual Celebrities—Who Knew?

A foreign actor, diplomat, writer, or athlete speaking fluent English is not much of a surprise to American or British audiences. Perhaps a little arrogantly, we expect Penélope Cruz, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Roger Federer, or Charlize Theron to drop their native languages (Spanish, German, Swiss German, and Afrikaans, respectively) and chat in flawless English.

But you may be surprised by the number and the names of the native English-speaking celebrities who speak another language.

Hearing William Shatner, for instance, speak fluent French would probably be about as shocking as a phaser blast. Or watching Dirk Nowitzki hold an interview in German as smooth as his jump shot —perhaps a bit surprising. Watching David Lee Roth do anything is going to be a little startling, but seeing him speak in Spanish? Go ahead and jump!

Different Paths to Bilingualism

Some celebrities are bilingual by heritage or by family. Kelly Clarkson's Greek comes from her family, as does reporter Christiane Amanpour's Farsi. Audrey Hepburn's English father and Dutch mother encouraged her to learn not just English and Dutch, but also Spanish, French and Italian. Salma Hayek's multi-cultural heritage (Lebanese and Mexican) means she speaks Spanish, Portuguese, and Arabic in addition to English. The father of Viggo Mortensen, of Lord of the Rings fame, was Danish and gave his son that language, and also moved his family to South America where Viggo learned Spanish as well. Chelsea Clinton shares a knowledge of German with her father Bill, and Johnny Depp has learned French to communicate with his wife and children, even though he confesses to speaking the language with a very bad accent.

Many celebrities have interesting stories of how they became bilingual. Kobe Bryant, for one, grew up in Italy, and dreamed for a long time of playing soccer, not basketball. Clint Eastwood also speaks Italian, which he learned while filming the classic Westerns The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly and A Fistful of Dollars with Italian director Sergio Leone. Bill Buckley, the founder of National Review, grew up in France speaking French and Spanish and only started studying English formally when he was seven.

Barack Obama picked up Indonesian while growing up in Jakarta with his mother, who had moved there when he was six. Ben Affleck is often said to have learned Spanish from his time dating Jennifer Lopez, but in reality he learned it when he lived in Mexico as a teenager. Mike Huckabee cannot speak Greek, but learned to read koine Greek (the dialect in which the New Testament is written) while studying to be a Baptist pastor. Orlando Bloom speaks French thanks largely to the language school in England which his parents ran (and continue to run). And Jon Heder (a.k.a. Napoleon Dynamite) and Mitt Romney both learned new languages while on their respective missions for the Mormon Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Heder knows Japanese and Romney, French.

Celebrities Commit to Raising Their Children Bilingually

But what is perhaps most fascinating is the number of celebrities who are raising their kids to be bilingual—even if they are not bilingual themselves! Antonio Banderas is bilingual but his wife, Melanie Griffith, is not, and both are eager to see their daughter raised to speak both Spanish and English. Tennis stars Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi are in a similar situation—Graf speaks German and English, and Agassi supports raising their two children speaking both languages as well. Madonna and British director Guy Ritchie send Madonna's daughter Lourdes to a French immersion school, and Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have sent their son Maddox to lycées (French-language schools) in New York and New Orleans. Wesley Snipes, who has acted in a number of action films, is actually learning Korean from his kids, who are growing up to speak both English and their mother's native Korean. Cuban-American actress Eva Mendes has stated publicly that her children will most certainly be raised bilingually. And perhaps most surprisingly, the comedian Cheech Marin (of Cheech and Chong fame) has shown his commitment to bilingual children's education by authoring a number of Spanish-English books, including My Name Is Cheech the School Bus Driver.

Bilingualism—Much More Than a Celebrity Trend

We often think of celebrities—particularly actors, models, and the like—as trend-followers who pay more attention to their looks than their words, but in reality a very large number see the value and importance of speaking another language. And now a growing number are taking the steps to make sure that their children grow up bilingually. Second language learning may become "trendy" due to their influence, but the benefits and the opportunities it gives exceed any trend or fad, and these celebrities surely know it.

To learn more about how you can introduce your child to a second language just as these many celebrities have, click here.

Below you can find a list of some bilingual celebrities and the languages (other than English) which they speak.

Al Gore – Spanish
Alanis Morissette – French
Antonio Banderas – Spanish
Arnold Schwarzenegger – German
Ashley Judd – French
Audrey Hepburn – Spanish, French, Dutch/Flemish, Italian
Benicio del Toro – Spanish
Bill Buckley – French and Spanish
Bill Clinton – German
Bill Richardson – Spanish and French
Bradley Cooper - French
Celine Dion - French
Charlize Theron – Afrikaans
Chelsea Clinton – German
Christiane Amanpour – Farsi (Persian)
Christopher Dodd – Spanish
Cillian Murphy – French and Irish (Gaelic)
Claudia Schiffer – French
Clint Eastwood – Italian
Colin Firth - Italian
Colin Powell – passable Yiddish
Condoleezza Rice – Russian
David Lee Roth – Spanish
Dirk Nowitzki - German
Dusty Baker – Spanish
Emma Watson – some French
Garry Kasparov – Russian, German
Gwenyth Paltrow - Spanish
Heidi Klum – German
Hugh Grant – French
Ingrid Bergman – Swedish, French, German, Italian
Jane Fonda – French
Jennifer Connelly – Italian and French
Jodie Foster – French
John Kerry – French
Johnny Depp – French
Jon Heder – Japanese
Julie Christie – French and Italian
Justin Bieber - French
Kate Bosworth – Spanish
Kelly Clarkson – Greek
Kim Cattrall – German
Kobe Bryant – Italian
Maya Angelou – French, Spanish, Italian, Arabic, and Fanti
Mike Huckabee – koine Greek (reading only)
Mitt Romney – French
Monica Bellucci – Italian, French, Spanish
Montel Williams – Russian
Montgomery Clift – French, Italian, German
Morgan Freeman – French
Mother Teresa – Albanian, Serbo-Croat, Bengali, Hindi
Natalie Portman – Hebrew, some French, German, Japanese and Spanish
Nelly Furtado – Portuguese, Hindi
Penélope Cruz – Spanish
Pope Benedict XVI – German, Italian, French, Spanish, Latin
Queen Elizabeth II – French
Renée Zellweger – German
Ricky Martin – Spanish
Roger Federer – German, French
Salma Hayek – Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese
Sandra Bullock – German
Shakira – Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and Arabic
Sidney Poitier – Russian
Sigourney Weaver – French, German
Ted Koppel – German, Russian, French
Tony Blair – French
Viggo Mortensen – Spanish, Danish, French; some Swedish and Norwegian
Will Smith – Spanish
William Shatner – French
Muzzy - Spanish, French, German, Italian, English and Chinese.

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