# Does President Obama speak any foreign languages? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 10, 2010, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-president-obama-speak-any-foreign-languages/560195 "2010-11-10T17:34:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2010, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-president-obama-speak-any-foreign-languages/560195/41 "2010-11-15T23:12:36Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > According to a [CBS News](http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-502443_162-4254480-502443.html) article from 2008, Obama does not speak any foreign languages. Since he’s a college graduate I’d be surprised if he truly were monolingual. _Are_ there colleges that allow you to graduate without taking a foreign language? Mine required two courses, though I was able to test out of both one of the two classes and the also required foreign culture class because I’d taken 4 years of a language in high school. I know that my high school’s requirement of 2 years of French or Spanish for graduation is not typical, but I thought most colleges required at least a year of another language…though I suppose after just a year you might not agree that you “speak” that language despite a limited ability to converse in it. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2010, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-president-obama-speak-any-foreign-languages/560195/42 "2010-11-15T23:29:09Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > Since he’s a college graduate I’d be surprised if he truly were monolingual. _Are_ there colleges that allow you to graduate without taking a foreign language? Mine required two courses, though I was able to test out of both one of the two classes and the also required foreign culture class because I’d taken 4 years of a language in high school. I know that my high school’s requirement of 2 years of French or Spanish for graduation is not typical, but I thought most colleges required at least a year of another language…though I suppose after just a year you might not agree that you “speak” that language despite a limited ability to converse in it. A couple of college courses, especially ones done a good decade or so previously, doesn’t really qualify as speaking a foreign language IMHO. I did both French and Spanish at school. I am now 36 and struggle to throw a few words together in either. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2010, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-president-obama-speak-any-foreign-languages/560195/43 "2010-11-15T23:47:10Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > Since he’s a college graduate I’d be surprised if he truly were monolingual. _Are_ there colleges that allow you to graduate without taking a foreign language? Yes, there are. I went to an engineering school, and while there was a requirement for basically one humanities or social science class each semester (i.e., you had to take eight such courses), there was no particular requirement beyond that. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-president-obama-speak-any-foreign-languages/560195/44 "2010-11-16T00:27:21Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > Since he’s a college graduate I’d be surprised if he truly were monolingual. _Are_ there colleges that allow you to graduate without taking a foreign language? Mine required two courses, though I was able to test out of both one of the two classes and the also required foreign culture class because I’d taken 4 years of a language in high school. I know that my high school’s requirement of 2 years of French or Spanish for graduation is not typical, but I thought most colleges required at least a year of another language…though I suppose after just a year you might not agree that you “speak” that language despite a limited ability to converse in it. According to the article, the claim that Obama doesn’t speak a foreign language comes from Obama himself. Now I see there is a cite that says Obama can speak Indonesian at a conversational level, so maybe it’s coming back to him as he uses it more. Maybe he does underestimate his own ability to speak other languages, but if he claims to be embarrassed at not being able to speak anything other than English, it’s hard to dispute him. ---
**Author:** ![paperbackwriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@paperbackwriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/paperbackwriter)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-president-obama-speak-any-foreign-languages/560195/45 "2010-11-16T03:02:47Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > _Are_ there colleges that allow you to graduate without taking a foreign language? Blanket foreign language requirements are slowly dying out. My college was founded in 1972 and never has had any requirement. A lot of colleges and universities that do have such requirements enforce them on a major-by-major basis. Even more are accepting high-school language classes with no further testing. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-president-obama-speak-any-foreign-languages/560195/46 "2010-11-16T03:18:28Z")
> [@paperbackwriter](#): > > Blanket foreign language requirements are slowly dying out. My college was founded in 1972 and never has had any requirement. A lot of colleges and universities that do have such requirements enforce them on a major-by-major basis. Even more are accepting high-school language classes with no further testing. Is your school a university? National or regional accreditation? For-profit? Public/private? This is the first I’ve heard about foreign language requirements “dying out”. I can’t ever imagine any liberal arts program without a foreign language requirement. Things like engineering, I guess, maybe, but I don’t even feel right about that. ---
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-president-obama-speak-any-foreign-languages/560195/47 "2010-11-16T03:36:18Z")
I can’t imagine a school calling itself a “liberal arts college” and not requiring at least some study of some foreign language. I also can’t imagine that an engineering or other technical college _would_ require it. It’s part of a complete breakf…er…well-rounded education, one that a liberal arts college strives to give, and a technical college couldn’t care less about. Studying a foreign language is more than just being able to understand more people/texts - it also gives you a better understanding of just how languages in general (including your native one) work. ---
**Author:** ![paperbackwriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@paperbackwriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/paperbackwriter)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-president-obama-speak-any-foreign-languages/560195/48 "2010-11-16T05:02:01Z")
Hampshire College, a four year, fully accredited liberal arts college. The only reason that a foreign language requirement is an assumed part of a liberal arts curriculum is because it is a relic of a time (pre-WWII) when only the elites went to colleges. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-president-obama-speak-any-foreign-languages/560195/49 "2010-11-16T06:02:36Z")
Language trivia: England’s Queen Elizabeth I spoke seven languages: English, French, Greek, Hebrew, Latin, Scottish, and Welsh. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2010, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-president-obama-speak-any-foreign-languages/560195/50 "2010-11-18T16:52:25Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Language trivia: England’s Queen Elizabeth I spoke seven languages: English, French, Greek, Hebrew, Latin, Scottish, and Welsh. By “Scottish,” do you mean lowland Scots, or Gaelic? ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2010, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-president-obama-speak-any-foreign-languages/560195/51 "2010-11-19T02:12:21Z")
I Googled on “colleges,” “no foreign language requirement,” and “graduation” and found a bunch of colleges listed which don’t require any languages for graduation. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2010, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-president-obama-speak-any-foreign-languages/560195/52 "2010-11-19T02:15:20Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > I Googled on “colleges,” “no foreign language requirement,” and “graduation” and found a bunch of colleges listed which don’t require any languages for graduation. Well, wtf was that supposed to prove? ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2010, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-president-obama-speak-any-foreign-languages/560195/53 "2010-11-19T02:21:44Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > Well, wtf was that supposed to prove? He was responding to **elfkin477** ’s query upthread, I presume. I graduated from Oberlin College, which by any measure is in the top rank of American small liberal-arts colleges, and it had no foreign language requirement at the time (I took four years of high school Spanish but have since forgotten most of it). Queen Elizabeth II is so fluent in French that she doesn’t use a translator when dealing with visiting French VIPs. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-president-obama-speak-any-foreign-languages/560195.md?page=2)