American presidents speaking foreign languages

fraz   Mon Mar 22, 2010 1:39 pm GMT
I believe Barrack Obama can speak Indonesian as he spent part of his childhood in that part of the world. I also recall reading that Bill Clinton is fluent in German but I can't find any audio clips of him doing so. George Bush, I believe has mangled a few words of Spanish.

Are there any other presidents who possessed a gift for languages? Or any famous Americans in general for that manner.
paul   Mon Mar 22, 2010 2:16 pm GMT
I'm pretty sure that no president in the history of the U.S spoke any foreign language.

I would take claims about barack obama, and especially george bush, with a grain of salt.
fraz   Mon Mar 22, 2010 2:42 pm GMT
Surely at some point there has been a president who could speak Spanish?
rep   Mon Mar 22, 2010 2:54 pm GMT
President of USA John F. Kennedy: 'Ich bin ein Berliner'.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ich_bin_ein_Berliner
Paul   Mon Mar 22, 2010 3:25 pm GMT
<<Surely at some point there has been a president who could speak Spanish?>>

Of course not. Why would there be?
Paul   Mon Mar 22, 2010 3:37 pm GMT
<<
President of USA John F. Kennedy: 'Ich bin ein Berliner'.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ich_bin_ein_Berliner>>

WOW! I guess that since JFK said one sentence in german, that means he speaks german!

In that same speech he also said a sentence in Latin...does that mean he speaks latin too?
george   Mon Mar 22, 2010 3:43 pm GMT
Here's a list of multilingual US Presidents:

http://www.rosettastone.com/personal/articles/language-leaders
Paul   Mon Mar 22, 2010 3:58 pm GMT
Of that entire list I believe the claims about Thomas Jefferson, John Q Adams, and Martin Van Buren.

The rest was obvious bullshit; typical exaggerated claims that are routinely made about famous people.
GG   Mon Mar 22, 2010 5:33 pm GMT
Typical American! J. F.K says one sentence in German and now everyone in America believes he can speak German! LOL
Some Truth   Mon Mar 22, 2010 6:14 pm GMT
I believe that John Quincy Adams knew more than what Rosetta Stone claims. I also believe Jimmy Carter speaks Spanish. In the past men often studied Latin and Greek and French.

I don't believe Barack Obama speaks Spanish. He can pronounce it.
I expect that he has some knowledge of Indonesian because he lived in Indonesia for several years as a child.
Nobama   Mon Mar 22, 2010 9:00 pm GMT
He doesn't know fucking Indonesian! He knows a few words, no more!
Skippy   Mon Mar 22, 2010 10:04 pm GMT
He knows a few words AT BEST.

Bush speaks Spanish well enough. I've never heard of Clinton being able to speak German.
Franco   Mon Mar 22, 2010 10:07 pm GMT
Bush's brother, who was Florida's Governor, was fluent in Spanish, but not Bush himself appart from some basic notions I think.
fraz   Wed Mar 24, 2010 1:32 pm GMT
<< I've never heard of Clinton being able to speak German>>

I've searched YouTube for Clinton speaking German but couldn't find anything. I saw clips of him casually addressing German people but he did so in English. Yet I have read on various websites that he can speak German.
fraz   Wed Mar 24, 2010 3:32 pm GMT
I've never been able to find an example of Henry Kissinger speaking German either, yet he was German born and bred and lived in the country until his late teens.