Famous People Who Speak Foreign Languages

By Tlb


Salma Hayek and Antonio Banderas (Photo credit: Wikipedia)


A celebrity or not, anyone can learn foreign languages. We opted to learn English and used the skill to make the world smaller by bridging language gaps. 

The following list of polyglots include not only celebrities in entertainment but also people who etched their names in politics, sports, and more. They are sorted by second language. Check it out:

Spanish

Al Gore

Antonio Banderas

Audrey Hepburn

Benicio del Toro

David Lee Roth

Dusty Baker

Gwenyth Paltrow

Kate Bosworth

Penélope Cruz

Ricky Martin

Will Smith

French

Alanis Morissette

Bradley Cooper

Celine Dion

Claudia Schiffer

Hugh Grant

Jodie Foster

John Kerry

Johnny Depp

Mitt Romney

Morgan Freeman

Tony Blair

William Shatner

German

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Bill Clinton

Dirk Nowitzki

Heidi Klum

Kim Cattrall

Renée Zellweger

Sandra Bullock

Italian

Clint Eastwood

Colin Firth

Kobe Bryant

Russian

Condoleezza Rice

Montel Williams

Sidney Poitier

Some of those appearing on the list might surprise you. We are definitely amazed. While several have a native advantage in speaking a lanuage other than english, many made the effort to go to language schools, knowing as many do how beneficial learning other tongues is.

The following lists of celebs are people who are not just knowledgeable in one single foreign language, but many foreign languages indeed! 

  • Audrey Hepburn – Spanish, French, Dutch/Flemish, Italian
  • Cillian Murphy – French and Irish (Gaelic)
  • Garry Kasparov – Russian, German
  • Ingrid Bergman – Swedish, French, German, Italian
  • Jennifer Connelly – Italian and French
  • Maya Angelou – French, Spanish, Italian, Arabic, and Fanti
  • Monica Bellucci – Italian, French, Spanish
  • Montgomery Clift – French, Italian, German
  • Mother Teresa – Albanian, Serbo-Croat, Bengali, Hindi
  • Natalie Portman – Hebrew, some French, German, Japanese and Spanish
  • Pope Benedict XVI – German, Italian, French, Spanish, Latin
  • Salma Hayek – Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese
  • Shakira – Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and Arabic
  • Ted Koppel – German, Russian, French
  • Viggo Mortensen – Spanish, Danish, French; some Swedish and Norwegian

Aren’t they amazing too? And lastly, the following list includes celebrities you may be surprised to know speak unusual languages:

  • Charlize Theron – Afrikaans
  • Christiane Amanpour – Farsi (Persian)
  • Colin Powell – passable Yiddish
  • Kelly Clarkson – Greek
  • Mike Huckabee – koine Greek (reading only)