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Foreign LanguagesDespite our nation’s long history of immigration, and the fact that almost all of our ancestors were immigrants, the control of a second language among the populace is surprisingly low. Not so with our presidents. Thirty of them were at least bilingual, with some mastering six (John Adams and Teddy Roosevelt), nine (John Quincy Adams) and even ten languages (Thomas Jefferson)! While Greek and Latin were compulsory subjects for anyone looking at higher education at the time (Princeton, for instance, requires the proficiency of both languages to be considered for admission), the high rate of secondary languages among them indicates the understanding that languages offer them competitive advantages over their peers, either culturally or intellectually. In an amusing anecdote, Jefferson, in an attempt to polish his Greek, drew the ire of his good friend John Adams by writing much of his letters in Greek. The two of them probably inspired Adam’s son, John Quincy, who became a translator at the age of 14! James Garfield, whose language skills remain a matter of debate, was also a notable linguist. At 27, he was appointed as the Professor of Ancient Languages and Literature at Hiram College. Presidents Fluent Fair Poor George Washington English |
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John Adams English, Hebrew, Latin, French, Spanish, Greek, |
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Thomas Jefferson English, French, Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish |
German, Arabic, Gaelic, Welsh James Madison English, Latin, Greek, Hebrew |
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James Monroe English, French Latin |
John Quincy Adams English, French, Russian Dutch, German, Latin Greek, Italian, Spanish Andrew Jackson English |
Choctaw Martin van Buren Dutch English, German, French Latin William H. Harrison English Latin French, Choctaw John Tyler English Greek, Latin |
James Polk English Greek, Latin |
Zachary Taylor English |
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Millard Fillmore English |
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Franklin Pierce English |
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James Buchanan English, Latin, Greek |
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Abraham Lincoln English |
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Andrew Johnson English |
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Ulysses S. Grant English |
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Rutherford B. Hayes English Greek, Latin French James A. Garfield English Greek, Latin |
Chester A. Arthur English Greek, Latin |
Grover Cleveland English |
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Benjamin Harrison English |
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William McKinley English, Latin, Greek |
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Theodore Roosevelt English French German, Italian, Latin, Greek William H. Taft English |
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Woodrow Wilson English |
German, Latin, Greek Warren G. Harding English |
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Calvin Coolidge English |
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Herbert Hoover English, Mandarin, Latin |
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Franklin D. Roosevelt English, French, German |
Latin Harry Truman English |
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Dwight Eisenhower English |
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John F. Kennedy English |
Latin Lyndon Johnson English |
Spanish Richard Nixon English, Latin |
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Gerald Ford English |
Latin Jimmy Carter English Spanish |
Ronald Reagan English |
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George H.W. Bush English |
Latin Bill Clinton English German Latin George W. Bush English Spanish |
Barack Obama English |
Spanish, Indonesian |
