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Charlize Theron learned to speak English from watching TV. Africkaans is indeed her first language.

Have you seen Bradley Cooper speaking French? I mean, he's still kind of douche-y, but in a really sexy, there's always time to hate myself in the morning kind of way.

Casey Affleck is NOT BILINGUAL, at least not in Spanish. He butchered his way through the interview, and I give him props for being a sport. But bilingual he is not.

Viggo, however, IS BILINGUAL, he speaks Argentinian Spanish. Check it out around 0:46

http://youtu.be/_nxRvt5Rjx8

...knowing a second language is supposed to be an achievement? Maybe it's because I am from Europe but this is pretty much the norm in my country. Seriously I am still kinda surprised when I meet someone who speaks only one language. It's just so weird.

Good Lord, there are so many JGL/French dirty jokes running through my head right now, I can't even begin to sort them out...

Bradley Cooper is pretty impressive in French, but JGL is not. He's a bit slow and his accent is shaky. More practice!

Viggo Mortensen is actually speaking Danish and not Dutch. His father is from Denmark.

It's because you're from Europe, Minto. It's a matter of distance. If I could take an hour's train ride to somewhere they spoke a different language, I'm sure I'd be bilingual too.
Yeah that's what I thought as well before visiting the USA but when it was there it was crazy. A real multicultural society. You don't even need to a hour's ride. It's full of people talking different languages everywhere.

Yeah that's what I thought as well before visiting the USA but when it was there it was crazy. A real multicultural society. You don't even need to a hour's ride. It's full of people talking different languages everywhere.

Posted by: Minto at June 15, 2011 2:28 AM

Yes, but it isn't typically terribly necessary to speak anything else. It depends on where you are, yes, and it's changing, but it is still not culturally necessary on the whole to become multilingual. Beneficial, yes. Necessary soon, probably.

Regardless, Gwyneth's Spanish was rough. Not Casey Affleck rough, but rough just the same.

Yeah, I'm with Minto. Learning a language doesn't happen only because people live nearby other countries-it's because they want to or have to. My friends in Finland told me they started learning English when they were in primary schools, but then they had to learn AT LEAST one other language (Swedish was commonly chosen) before they finished compulsory education.

On the other hand, I do think it's an accomplishment to be bilingual. Even though it's not exactly a feat to be lauded when you're forced to learn a second language, successfully speaking it, getting your point across, those aren't necessarily easy. And by the way, yeah, Casey Affleck knows Spanish words, but he is baaaarely getting his point across.

And while I'm in full-blown Mr. Crankypants mode, "Théron?" Southern French (Occitan, actually), closely related to Catalan. But yeah, she was born in South Africa and lived there until she was 16 on a family farm outside of Johannesburg. Got a modeling contract and went to Milan, then to New York, where she stayed to study ballet once the modeling contract ended (around 18 or 19 if memory serves). The pronunciation of her surname is one she modified herself when she moved here, and it sounds way different in South Africa.

I live in a country with 11 official languages, I only speak 7. Even though English is not my first language I have to speak it at home because none of the people I live with have a language in common outside of English.

If speaking a language that's not your native tongue counts as bilingualism, I'm now officially awesome. And I always thought I had "only" learned those foreign languages in school :p

Hmmmm Viggo.... Also, I love Kim Cattrall even more now. Not only is she Scouse, but her German is really good.

Yeah. I too must say that Casey Affleck's Spanish sucks. On the other hand Paltrow's was rather good. I only picked up on a few mistakes, and she has the Spain Spanish accent down rather well.

I live in a bilingual country, and I'd say the English people who speak French are far outnumbered by the French people who speak English. Politics aside, English is a dominant language, so if you grow up in a country where it is the primary language, yes, I'd say it IS an accomplishment to be bi- or multilingual.

I'm certainly no expert on French, but I'd say Jodie Foster has an excellent accent and clearly is quite comfortable conversing in French. She almost gave up acting to pursue an MA in French Lit. True story, I wouldn't lie to you.

Viggo I think speaks English, Danish, Spanish, French and is approaching fluency in Italian as well.

Another list of those actors who speak more than two languages, please and thank you.

VIGGO.

I only realised that people find being bilingual impressive when I moved to the UK. I've lived in countries where most people spoke AT LEAST 2 languages fluently. Hell, my grandmother spoke 4 and she was illiterate. All my siblings speak at least 5. I have a hard time being impressed by 2.

Sarah Chalke. That is blonde doctor's name. She also speaks French.
I have to say being bilingual is sexy. I speak German (better when I lived there, you really have to keep it up.) I don't think speaking German is sexy.

And they said my CTESL was useless:

As a rule, if you learn to speak a language before puberty, you will have a native accent. If you learn it later, you won't. It will take a long time and/or extra effort to sound like a native speaker.

For fluency specifically in English, it will be the smallest words that will give you trouble the longest, even if you are completely fluent, i.e. prepositions and articles.

Even if you learn a language at a very young age, you will lose it if you don't use it, just like all that French and German I can't remember. It's also good for children cognitively to learn more than one language.

You can also cut these people some slack because one's comprehension always outstrips one's production. Just like there are words you understand but never use, these folks are listening in a foreign language and that is pretty cool too.

Any questions about language acquisition? I love this stuff.

Gah, I want to watch the Firth & JGL videos. Damn my company's media filters!

I too would love to see a list of multilingual celebs. I know Viggo would have to be at the top.

Posted by: Mrs. Julien at June 15, 2011 9:44 AM

Interested I am. *Doing it I also am.

*Note: Referring, of course, to acquiring a language and not, unfortunately, to bumpin' uglies.

I'm one of those that does not speak another language...though at one time when I was between 5 and 7, I was almost speaking three. English, Dutch, and Spanish. I'm American, but my mother is Hispanic and fluent in Spanish, and we lived in Holland at the time. But some morons decided to call CPS on my parents, and I guessed that scared them (or something...I'm not really sure what happened) and just kept talking to us in English. Which is weird, 'cause don't the Dutch speak like...5 different languages?

Anyway, I've always wanted to learn another language, but not Spanish. But I want to learn it properly, not just carry around an English-to-whatever dictionary.

I'm extremely disappointed in Americans who do not want to learn another language. It's not that they can't, it's that they don't want to. It's almost like they think they feel entitled not to.

My dad may get orders to Italy (where, I don't care how old I am, I'm going with him), so then I'd have to learn Italian.

Americans don't learn another language because they don't have to. Some learn to make it easier to work in some jobs if they often come into contact with people who don't speak English, but for the most part, you can get along fine in America speaking only English. Since Americans in general don't seem to be really big on learning, most make an effort to learn only exactly what they need to, and no more.

And for now, the language of business worldwide is English.

@Mrs Julien:

Huzzah! A fellow cunning linguist!

As folks have already pointed out, there are several factors that go into why Americans often don't learn a second language.

Some of it (a huge part?) is self-centeredness. We don't have to. So we don't. Enough people in other parts of the world speak our language, so we don't feel like we need to learn theirs.

But also, as a nation of immigrants, part of becoming American was learning English, and many immigrant parents wouldn't teach their children the language of their original country as a way to make their kids "more" American. So, having this singular focus on one language is part of our heritage.

Since we are such a large (physically) country, travel rarely involves needing to speak another language--unless you travel outside of the US, in which case, see my first point.

Also? I would argue we only pay lip service to valuing education. Our schools are lucky to offer arts education--plenty of them don't. If we can't even afford that, then clearly we're not going to put money into foreign language programs at the elementary level, which is where we would really need to start language education if we actually wanted our kids to learn at least one other language.

So, then you end up with people like me: two years of French in middle school, 3 in high school, and 1 year in college and I can't speak, write, or understand the language for shit. Also? My accent is atrocious. I once had a French foreign exchange student translate my terrible French into something comprehensible for his fellow exchange student.

So yes, shockingly, America does a disservice to its people by not valuing and teaching foreign languages to its children. And we continued to be viewed as self-involved boors (bores too, for that matter). Go figure.

I'm shocked, Cotton.

Penelope Cruz speaks Spanish, French, Italian and English.

Mrs. Julien, there was so much that was wrong about Dances With Wolves...one thing that *really* irked me was Mary McDonnell's layered haircut. Really, she couldn't get a period-appropriate haircut for a blockbuster movie?? I just stared at the screen and said,"This is bullcrap."

I am also interested in language acquisition and neuroplasticity, and particularly the development of perfect musical pitch in children who speak tonal languages such as Mandarin. So continue on with your thoughts about language, please.

Also, I love Mrs Julien.
I took language acquisition in college so I could better understand why my sister and I could speak English with no accent, but my parents (who spoke multiple languages) struggeled with the accents so much. Fascinating stuff, our brains.
And talk about use or lose it, I came out of grammar school FLUENT in Spanish (I dreamed in Spanish, and that was awesome), but now I can barely string four words together...

Now I see how Sandra Bullock tolerated her ex husband's Nazi fetish. I can only imagine their foreplay. Yeuck

Lurkette's use of the word neuroplasticity gave me such a frisson of excitement! That thing about perfect pitch is FASCINATING! Could we get more words about that?

I never had issues speaking new languages, even down to inflection, pronunciation, and speed, but writing? Forget it. I aced my projects when I had to lecture the class, but I had to fly by the seat of my pants on written exams. I only know a little of a few languages, but I wish I could sit down and learn a full language!

There is a free Radio Lab podcast about perfect pitch and tonal languages (Radio Lab is a NPR show). Apparently, the idea about perfect pitch is that if you are exposed to tone differences at the right stage of brain development, you are more likely to develop perfect pitch, and if your people use tones in their language, babies must quickly differentiate between words to identify "Mommy".

There's a lot of controversy right now about whether perfect pitch is learned or inherited. As a musician I've developed a certain amount of perfect pitch over the years (actually, I have one pitch memorized and from that all others can be determined with a little work), and there's a course that promises to teach you perfect pitch. I know a professional musician who comes from a family of 3 adopted children who all have perfect pitch--the odds of that happening are astronomical, so it begs the question of environment causing the phenomenon.

I'm a huge believer in neuroplasticity from my work teaching little kids music via the Suzuki method. Exposure + desire = what we call "talent"...the Suzuki method says there's no such thing as talent. I think certain people are more physically adept, so they exhibit greater prowess on their instrument, but what I see from teaching tends to reinforce that Suzuki observation. All anecdata for Suzuki.

Lots of research being done into neuroplasticity now because the scanning technology for the brain has really advanced.

there is also a video with Bale talking French in youtube during Terminator promotion and Ashley Jude and Kevin Kline who speak very well french

I started learning English and Italian when I was 8 - and now I consider my English very good and Italian terrible. The difference - I was surrounded by English everywhere - music, tv, movies, books. Italian - only from tourists visiting our seaside. And I think this is one of the factors contributing to Americans' problems with learning foreign languages. You are just not exposed enough to other languages to acquire them by osmosis or forced to use them due to circumstances.
The most important factor for 2nd language acquisition is full immersion at a young age - preferably kindergarten and then constant use throughout the adult life. Easier said than done.

Yes, the bilingual-ness of these actors is simply ' the hot'. Truly, I wish I knew a different language. Then again, I struggle a bit with the wordsmithery in this native tongue as it is [laugh]. If nothing else, maybe I can buy a program and have it play while I sleep. It's late in the game for me but maybe I can pick up some phrases via subliminal suggestion.

And not to hijack or totally offend, but I've a distinct opinion about those who live her and seemingly don't bother to learn much at all about English. I live in So CA and between Mexican, Cambodian, Thai, Vietnamese, Korean and Central American... there seems to be a definative lack of "try".

Thanks Lurkette!

Sandra Bullock was born in Germany and she grew up speaking both German and English. I think her mother still lives there. So her accent is the one she developed naturally.

Actors are relevant?

Sandra Bullock was born in Virginia, actually. Her mother was a German opera singer and Sandra and her sister lived in Europe as kids. And her mom died maybe 10 years ago.

Leonardo di Caprio speaks German (with a strong accent)...his mother is from Germany:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6u6G1UaQ48&feature=related

And Bruce Willis was actually born in Germany (German mother, his father was/is an American soldier). His German is awful though....

On a side note, I wonder how many American-born black people with American-born parents can speak more than one language (not counting those of Hispanic origin). I imagine a lot of us were never exposed to the opportunity to learn through school or travelling abroad.

Sorry for the long post. And the whining.

Posted by: Elle at June 15, 2011 10:30 PM

The number might surprise you Elle, I was born and raised in Miami Florida, I can speak just enough Spanish to get through the day. I remember in elementary school our Spanish teacher taking us to a Spanish restaurant (King YaYo) I don’t even know if they are still in business. It was an experience I’ll always remember and enjoy. Now my high school had a lot of Haitians and Cubans, most of the Haitians could speak Spanish and French fluently. I lived in an area of Miami called Little Haiti, you could walk down the street and smell and hear a whole different culture from the food and the music. Keep in mind my high school was in a very depressed neighborhood. Now just think, my story is just one of many. Multiply my experience by all of the American born black kids that went to school with me. There are many American born black people than can speak more than one language. Economics can limit many things, but learning another language should not be one of them.

I had a rommmate in college who spoke and wrote 7 different dialects of Chinese, including Cantonese and Mandarin. She was also highly fluent in English. It was nothing short of impressive. Me? I speak English and marginal amounts of Italian and Spanish. If you know either Italian, Spanish (Not Mexican Spanish), or French, you can typically learn the other two languages easily.

Julie's right. Michael Vartan grew up in France, served his mandatory military service there, and moved to America after.

Oh and one final point about America having very little language diversity, it's not actually true. There are highly specific regional dialects that can almost be termed as their own independent language. I'm specifically thinking of things like Creole. Ever met a real Creole person? Yeah.

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"On a side note, I wonder how many American-born black people with American-born parents can speak more than one language (not counting those of Hispanic origin). I imagine a lot of us were never exposed to the opportunity to learn through school or travelling abroad."

Certainly tens of thousands are fluent, with many more knowing a language passably for at least some short time after graduation. I couldn't get through (public) school without learning at least Latin, and most skipped half the Latin, but then had to take another modern language. Speaking of people older than me, my mother, who went to mostly integrated schools, learned French, while her sister took Russian. My father took French in segregated schools, as did my maternal grandfather. My grandmothers both learned Latin in their (obviously) segregated schools. Many generations of women, and I suppose men too, on my mother's side have learned Latin.
As far as private schools go, my eldest sister studied no languages at hers, while her daughter is learning Japanese and her parochial elementary school.
Of course, my parents can now not speak French at all, but they can read it decently. My aunt's lost all the Russian, but converses daily in ASL, which both my sister and I knew rather well in our youth. Concerning college education, my sister has studied abroad in France, is perfectly fluent, and in a few weeks I am going to go to do the same. We have traveled the continent rather extensively. My college plans at the moment will end with me speaking four languages besides my own not including the Latin and ASL which I am slowly forgetting, (Chinese, Uyghur, French, and Russian), probably necessary, as even the school up the street requires students in my major to study two there, and French wouldn't count for me .

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