"If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart." - Nelson Mandela
I heard him speak french in his later years ( which means it was not as good as it might have been when he was living there in his youth ) and it was almost perfect.
Kobe’s Italian was wonderful. In some interviews you can tell he struggled to remember a couple of words here and there since he’d been gone from Italy for a long time. Still his accent was great and clearly from the area where he used to live.
Sono tedesco e sto cercando di imparare l'italiano da 10 anni. Posso avere buone conversazioni, ma non raggiungerà mai il livello di Kobe Bryant. Sono rimasto così impressionato dalle sue abilità.
I'm not Italian, but I took it in school and I was pleasantly surprised at Kobe's Italian. I haven't practiced in a long time so my speaking is not as good as it used to be, but I can fully understand and read it still. It also helps that I speak the other romance languages (minus Romanian).
not only that, but he used the typical italian melody perfectly, and the hand gestures too. i also remember him saying "suck a dick" in croatian, in an nba match. i was so proud of my boy
I am German and Sandra Bullock speaks amazing German, she has a bit of an accent, but the grammar and vocabulary are great. For someone who doesn't speak German in everyday life, she speaks outstanding German.
I second this. She is absolutely fluent and has has next to no accent at all. The commentator should really check herself when commenting on fluency and accents as she obviously speaks only American. Viggo, of course, is the king of languages.
She was raised in Germany for the first 12 years of her life to an American Father & German Mother & is a native German speaker. English is her second language.
Sandra Bullock mother was german… and she grew up at Germany several years and singing in a chorus… her mother was an opera singer… is natural she speaks german
.Als jemand der englischsprachig aufwuchs kann ich gerade diese Argumente nicht teilen.Da ich doch schon etliche Jahre in österreich lebe verwende ich zumeist deutsch. Tja was dazu führt daß der Akzent in meiner Muttersprache wesentlich stärker ist als jener von Bullock in deutsch. Ich würde jedem empfehlen Mal daran zu denken eine Sprache so gut wie nie zu verwenden. es dann für so selbstverständlich zu halten das die Fähigkeiten noch da sind halte ich für einen typischen Irrtum jener die ausschließlich ihre Muttersprache kennen. Meinen eigenen Akzent in der Sprache in der ich aufgewachsen bin würde ich beispielsweise in der grössenordnung von Donna Summer's deutsch sehen. jede Sprache die man nicht 24/7 verwendet "verlernt" man zumindest ein bisschen
Yeah. As a Czech, I envy her pronunciation and her intonation in sentences. I can hear she's great but can't replicate that despite having taken German classes for 9 years in school.
One of my favorites was Charlize Theron. The interviewer was Belgian speaking Flemish and she was replying in Afrikaans. It was amazing to see how easily they understood each other
Honestly I watched her as a kid on french TV, I'm 29 now and this is the moment I'm learning she's not French. I honestly believed she's a french actress who made it in Hollywood
Indeed, that's what I wanted to say. Even though I'm not fluent in French, I can hear the perfect accent and pronunciation. It is a measure to listen to her
8:21 No. When you grow up in Austria, your native language is german. Period. English is just a very popular second language that most Europeans learn at school, amongst - most of the time - at least another language like spanish, french, italian,...
They probably mean for Waltz in particular his native languages are German and English. German because of where he grew up, English for some other reason.
True, I'm Italian and I have studied very well English at school, in London and in USA...it is really more than just my second language...but at secondary school I had to learn German fand it was hard to be honest...I have almost forgotten it because I don't have the chance to practice...most of my friends can speak French very well and I envy them
I came to say this. Viggo is a honorary Argentinian; for more information a devoted (and long-suffering, given their meagre results) fan of the San Lorenzo football club. He even managed to include the colors of the club, red and blue, in Aragorn's attire for his coronation scene!
Eddie Izzard does stand-up in English, French, German, and Spanish....and he is now learning Russian and Arabic. Languages are his hobby. I am surprised he is not included in this.
I speak most european languages, including dead ones like old greek, latin, gothic, old english and gammelnorsk. The latter comes in especially handy should they ever discover some vikings survived hidingin the marshes, thinking the raids were still going on. My japanese, chinese and malay have become a bit rusty
I think it’s really cool when celebrities do interviews in multiple languages. I heard from Sean Ferrer (Audrey Hepburn’s son) that his father Mel Ferrer spoke six languages and his daughter Emma speaks four languages
Being multilingual is pretty common among Indians as we speak a lot of languages and when we interact with each other, we tend to learn languages even without intending to.
@@gigihanmandarinyeah, I forgot he was Australian at first, so I'm like Indonesian is so random to be commonly taught in schools, but I'm a geography buff so when I thought about it more I'm like oh wait it's like right there so it makes sense now 😂😂😂 for context, I'm from the States
@PEACEONEARTH1964 I wanna learn Hebrew so badly. I took one semester of it in university, but my professor sucked so I retained almost nothing. But, I do speak English (obviously), French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and am trying to learn ASL. I've always been fascinated with languages so whenever I come across someone who's from a different country or when I travel to one, I try my best to learn that language. For example, my sister studied un Germany for a year, so when I visited her for a week I tried to learn and speak as much as I could, but it wasn't great in my opinion; my German I mean. I like the country.
Audrey Hepburn originally grew up in the Netherlands, before being evacuated to England at the outbreak of the second world war. Her mother was a Dutch Aristocrat (Countess). Her language skills in the Netherlands were above average, as she was fluent in Dutch, Flemish, German, French, Italian, Spanish, English, as well as some Indonesian, Russian and Mandarin. As is typical in the Netherlands, Hepburn never used her language skills as a "circus stunt," but switched from language to language as she felt necessary, in order to make the person(s) with whom she spoke feel more comfortable.
Audrey Hepburn knew Indonesian?? I'm Indonesian, I gotta look this up. I mean the Dutch were in Indonesia for 350 years, and our founding fathers were educated there so she probably met 1-2 when she grew up there.
Lmao u r just stating these facts from where? I have never heard her speak Chinese, Russian or Indonesian. There is no video on RUclips for that. I am not going to believe your lies without evidence. These actors just do 1/2 commercial like Japanese or something and fans consider them fluent 🙄
Actually she lived in Britain before WWII and was brought to the Netherlands in 1940 by her mother who hoped that the Dutch neutrality would be respected. It wasn't and she spent the whole war in the Netherlands (source: Wikipedia, and Audrey herself)
Hats down to the polyglots! I love watching Novak Djokovic playing different tournaments around the world and every time he has a post-match interview he speaks the language of that country, so impressive!
What about Daniel Brühl? He speaks German, Spanish, English, French and Catalan. Not only for interviews. He had done movies in German, English, Spanish and French
Since ya'll talked about Sandra Bullock and said you're no experts but she sounds pretty good: Yes, she does. I'm German and I was shocked when I found out a few years ago and saw her talking at the Bambi Awards, her German is almost flawless still
I think this is more impressive for Americans. For Europeans, it is normal to learn more languages in school. I am from the Netherlands and in high school we are obligated to study 4(!) languages: English, German, French, Dutch.
In Spain we learn just 2... English from elementary school, and from junior high school we have to choose a second one. The options in the area where I'm from were German and French, but I know that some other options are Portuguese and Italian. It is also required at universities (at least at the two where I studied) to have a certified B1 level in any European language in order to graduate from your bachelor degree, and a B2 for the Master degree.
I speak two and a half: Spanish, Catalan and a little bit of English. It's mandatory in Spain a second language to graduate in an University. But my brother speaks German too. I think in Europe everybody speak at least a second language.
11 месяцев назад
Catalan here. Everyone you find on the streets here speaks at least two languages fluently. Most three. I'm quite fluent in Catalan, Spanish, English and French. And can understand and make people understand me in a few other Romance languages. And can ask the basics (food, directions, a hotel room, explain I'm vegetarian...) in German and Swahili.
As an American, it definitely is impressive. Typically the public school curriculum offering foreign languages doesn't happen until High School (last 4 years before college). I think to begin much earlier would be better. I don't know why we don't, I think it would be far better because along with the language, you learn about customs and cultures, it's a great way to open up kids' minds and spark their interest in other places and people. I'd be the first to say our educational system here is nothing to shout about. Starting with attracting (paying) teachers a *good* salary and treating them with the respect they deserve. Went off on a tangent there, whoops.
I always tell people who make fun of latinos speaking broken English that they speak one more language than we do. I'm studying Spanish now, took two years in HS, and plan to move to Mexico.
@ Pamela Reyes - bless you. It's true what you say. Yo aprendo español y si - los hispanohablantes son simplemente THE BEST. No se ríen, nunca te dicen que lo hables incorrectamente - al contrario: te aseguran que lo hagas bien. Por eso me encanta hablar en vuestro idioma. Aunque no lo hago super bien.
@@awbinn3377 me alegra mucho saber que es así como te sientes, y esto sucede porque sabemos lo que es ser bilingüe y que eso significa inteligencia, independientemente de si hables o no con acento ❤️
Indonesian here. Chris Hemsworth's Indonesian has a very heavy Anglo accent. And it seems like he only remembers phrases rather than being able to hold conversations with the language. But kudos to him for knowing those phrases.
Ii never judge someone speaking to me in English when it's clear it's their 2nd language, I'm just very impressed they took the time and effort to learn something difficult. Too many people here are judging these celebrities on their accents and tonal sounds, give them credit not criticism.
CR. English is one of the most DIFFICULT languages to learn. So much so, that many Americans don't speak nor understand the language very well. Feel free to ask any American English teachers (I teach English as a Second Language).
@@scorpio6481 from what I heard from my teachers in school and my own experience - english is the most easiest to learn. Spelling on the other hand - not so much. It's not phonetic (sounds often do not match the letters, like you have to learn 2 separate languages), that's what makes it dificult. And my grammar is probably is not good :). But it's easier to practis english because of it's exposure and prevalence.
@@FlowerGirlMy Na bro, even tho english is taught in schools for years in most countries, majority of ppl just learn the basics if they don't do an effort to learn after their school time is over, just like with spanish in America; spanish is taught in schools every year but that doesn't mean that everyone that attended spanish classes learn the whole language, that's ignorant to assume that everyone that learn english in schools in other countries knows how to speak and understands english, me myself just know english from youtube not from the classes that my school in my country have. So putting that into consideration it is actually very impressive to be fluent in english, actually to be fluent and to know any language is impressive.
@@Clara-sj2qh well, when you are from little country, you do not have much choice, you have to learn other languages. And personal efort - can't do anything without it. But I suppose that americans don't really need other languages. English is the most common everywhere (UK, America, Australia, business, traveling...). But the problem I see, is that americans are so self centered and don't know much about the word beyond USA, that they think that people everywhere know only one language.
English is not easy to learn when you are not a native speaker. For example, the letter *i* can be pronounced in at least two different way "surprisingly", without having rules. You just have to know it. What makes it a little bit easier, is the world is bombarded with English-speaking cultural things (music, movies, etc.).
Vigo's Spanish is as good as his English. He speaks with a flawless Argentine accent and is completely fluent, but his language skill is so good, he can do other accents too. I once saw a play with him where he played a Spanish man from Madrid and it was spot on.
His Danish (unsurprisingly) is quite on point as well. If you want to check out other Scand's that are impressive check out Nicolaj Coster-Waldau and Joel Kinnaman. Their English is flawless but so are the other languages they can switch to
Kobe sounds so fluid speaking Italian. You can tell he’s quite fluent, he doesn’t pause or stutter to find the right word. I only speak one language, so they are all impressive to me.
In Europe, speaking Multiple languages is common My wife is Portuguese, the romance languages come easily off her tongue. Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian and then English and even Aussie Slang (not really a Language) It is very helpful when travelling that is for sure.
Most latin languages are easy for us, Portuguese, to assimilate because our language usually has all the sounds existent in the others. English is mandatory at school and we also have French and German as options in high school, some schools also have Spanish :)
I think Aussie slang is a language 😂😂😂😂😂, it’s amazing when people can learn other languages, at 62 I’m learning Mandarin and even though it’s hard it is so worth it, I hope to add a few more languages to flex my brain
I have endless respect for those who speak multiple languages. It is something I would love to do but even picking up Spanish has been very difficult for me. Seems like there is a real natural talent that some have that allow them to speak multiple languages and it is something I do not have but greatly admire!
My third language teacher says there are 4 major european languages that are interconnected i.e. if you master one, the other 3 will be a piece of cake. French and spanish being 2 of the 4. Learning a language is hard. But its made easier if you speak it. Yes, and water is wet. Point being you need to be in an environment where you can nurture that...whatever it is. Speaking with native speakers is a great way to master a new language.
@@asmrlova For me, the Italian, French and Portuguese languages are easier because, after all, they are Romance languages similar to my mother tongue, which is Spanish. English was a language that cost me a lot of work to learn but finally I think I'm finally getting over it 😅 but I've heard that many English speakers have a hard time mastering Romance languages such as Spanish, French, Italian, among others
Don’t give up, Kris. I taught Spanish at a university for 25 years and never met a student who couldn’t learn it. It takes time, love, and access to interesting content. And don’t worry about ‘perfection’. Even native speakers don’t handle their own languages perfectly.
When living in a multi Cultural country , for example a Malay were taught English at school. Needs to learn Arabic to be understanding Islam. Had to learnt Chinese Cantonese as the neighbour grandmother from China speak only Cantonese. My school friends are Javanese. So do my grandparents. Like it or not, you must master the language. Most of my friends are Chinese. My neighbour were Anzac soldiers. Every year those neighbour Anzac family change. One day, we got a very nice Scottish family . The next year we got English who kept by themselves. Then we got Aussies that spoke in a funny accents that it's hard to understand. That is in Singapore. The first day I went schooling, I studied Mandarin. There's no Malay class ! My younger brother is in Chinese kindergarden and need to write Mandarin homeworks. We live in a Chinese dominant are with odd Indians scattered. In later years I work in a Japanese firms where their technicians and Engineers are Japanese. Most of them are hopeless in English😁 So, I need to learnt it . Then I went to Japan for a while to visit my relatives who married a Japanese. Most of those Japanese waiters don't speak English at all. So knowing a bit of Japanese does help.
Not always. In middle and high school it's mandatory to take a foreign language up to a certain point. And a lot of people do choose to continue learning them. Plus, in America there's so many immigrants, so many people here are at least bilingual. I also live in the state of New York, so I come across non-Americans all the time.
Switzerland requires everyone to speak German, French Italian, Swiss and one other language I believe, but I can't recall. I believe Belgium also requires a few languages. When one lives next to countries that speak different languages, one must speak more than one's native language. The US is so big that it's not absolutely necessary especially if one never leaves the country although learning other languages helps learn about other cultures.
A fluent non-native English speaker in the US is often misconstrued as having broken English due to their accent, while an American speaking another language at a basic level with a thick accent may be perceived as fluent. WTF?!
For real though. French is my first language and when Serena was speaking French I was like “OMG she makes no sense” 😂😂 and these Americans were like “OMG she is fluent in French” 💀
@@theafrocain9203 yeah people use the word “fluent” wayyyyy too liberally. “Fluent” is only reserved for cases where one’s proficiency in the language is indistinguishable from the native speakers.
Yeah that is what I was thinking. Will Smith's Spanish not so good and Serena William's Italian…she definitely mixed the Spanish with the Italia. At least she thought she was speaking Italia.
Well, to be fair, every language has an accent that is considered proper when speaking it- American English too. As a bilingual person I see Americans just accepting the English with a bad accent and not correcting the speaker, but French, Italian and Spanish speakers correcting the hell out of Americans.
Honorable mention: Eddie and Alex Van Halen, Dutch. They were both born in Amsterdam, and moved to Pasadena, California in 1962. There are several videos knocking around RUclips of the brothers conducting interviews in Dutch.
I understand Christop Waltz switching languages mid conversation bc some ideas and concepts are better iterated in certain languages. There are things in Spanish that express a more accurate meaning than in English or Spanish and vice versa
The more languages you know, the more "better" phrases you find through different languages. Love doing it with my sister but it gets hard when speaking to a monolingual person and you can only think of the better word in the other language instead of the correct phrase in the language you are currently using 🙈
I do it with english and my native egyptian arabic. Any language can express any meaning but sometimes what's expressable by a word in a language is done by a sentence or more in the other. If you know more than one language (semi-)fluently code switching makes it easier you can just pick the easiest way to express the intended meaning from each language you know.
Emma Thompson knows some Italian as well and I’m sure she’ll improve it, since she now owns a house in Venice! She and her husband did a small segment for the “enjoy, respect Venezia” initiative, that is intended to target unruly tourists.
Mun Kayoung, a South Korean actress can speak Korean, English and German fluently. And also Jackon Wang, can speak Chinese, Korean and English very well.👍👍
Tom Hiddleston's greek is actually ancient Greek, and it's just a couple of sentences here and there in interviews. As a Greek speaker, can't really say that it counts....
Maybe it’s just the fascination that (from this one clip on this video) he seems to be able to read it at least and it seems extra good because of the letters being different to those used in English?
I love watching these kinds of videos but they're often the same celebrities and the same interviews over and over again. I was pleased to see Audrey Hepburn and Kobe Bryant included in this one and was surprised to see Guy Ritchie! That's one I've never heard of.
Ritchie's conjugation was terrible but he still managed to get his point across, which is pretty impressive for someone learning a language that is not one of the main romantics.
@@stevenwilson879 I learned French in school and during the pandemic, I learned (and am continuing to learn) Dutch. I'm certainly not conversational, but it's good for the brain!
Tom Hiddleston also reads and speaks Latin, which is likely key to his abilities in Romance languages. He became fluent in ancient Greek as a Classics major, hence can speak modern Greek easily.
@@ICantBelieveItsNotJesus It's actually a norteño accent that's mostly heard in people from the states of Nuevo Leon, Coahuila, etc. The rest of Mexico says that it sounds too brusque because the southern accents have a much smoother and softer tone almost like low singing.
Most people in the world speak two or more languages (their regional language, the national language, maybe another regional language, English, etc), but Americans get so surprised when one of them can say a few words in other language. Anyway, Jodie Foster's French is impeccable, and Viggo Mortensen speaks Spanish with a perfect Argentinian accent; Paltrow's Spanish is also good, with an accent from Spain. Chalamet's French and Nyongo's Spanish are competent with few mistakes. The rest can manage, although making mistakes and having strong accents. Cena's and Zuckerberg's mandarin is hard to understand due to not pronouncing the tones right. In any case, it is good to see they're all trying their best to learn other languages.
His Spanish is flawless. I think he has an University degree. He did an interview in a Spanish channel talking about how years ago he decided to tell people he had Galician roots to try to integrate in a Madrid neighborhood.
My father was Chinese, his parents were from mainland China. He was born in Sulu, Philippines surrounded by Muslim 90%, he can speak 100% Muslim and Visayan dialect 10%. Went to English school. And met my mother in Manila who can't speak Tagalog because she can only speak her own dialect from one of the provinces where Mayon volcano located called Bicol. So my father has to learn that dialect to communicate with my mother. So growing up i can hear my father speaking my mother's dialect and soon Tagalog. Amazing.
As a woman WHO has a husband FROM PUERTO Rico..and being from a Hispanic background myself...I'm EXTREMELY impressed by WILL AND Ben's Spanish speaking abilities....DIOS TE BENDIGA..
His demeanor is appealing too; he's humble about his ability and stays calm, unlike a lot of English speakers who are so proud and overly excited to torture people's ears with their mangled Spanish.
If fluency is in the ear of the beholder, no foreigner is fluent in French. I think my French is excellent but they always ask me to speak English because "I 'butcher' the language". While simply learning the very basics in an Asian language earns you a genuine respect for your efforts.
Johnny Depp speaks fluent French. He learned it so he could talk to Vanessa Paradis' parents. Both of his children also are fluent in French and his daughter, Lily Rose, has acted in French movies and done interviews in French.
No, he really doesn't. His French is not that great. I've watched him in many interviews to determine see if he was or not. His accent is great though. He can manage to put to get just a handful of words at most and that's it, which is shocking considering he lived with a French woman in France for so long.
Depends on when. Earlier on it was better. You have to use a language to keep it. Nowadays it's ok at best, but then again, his english tends to be okay at best too, when you have to understand him from his drunken, drug-fueled gargles.
The great thing about the romance languages are that they share a lot of similarities due to their common Latin roots. I remember in my freshman year of high school I was taking Latin, Spanish, and Languages Arts/English at the same time. My Latin class wasn't a super serious class (it was mostly juniors and seniors, and it was the last year they offered it at my school), but I tried to pick up as much as I could. The vocabulary I learned in one class could be used to my advantage in another class, and I just truly think it's really cool. I hope one day I can actually get myself to sit down and actually properly learn one of them. Truly kudos to all the people who can speak multiple languages.
When I was a student our French teacher told us that when you learn one European language it's far easier to learn others. There are commonalities between Italian, French, Spanish, but the further north you go the more difficult it can become. She believed that the best way to learn was to start with French and then work your way north through the countries. It makes sense because so many languages in a region have connections going back thousands of years and through migration they became closer. I assume it's the same for many regions of Africa, and also for the Baltic states.
Thanks for the video. I kind of lost my passion for learning languages as I can speak three languages fluently. Right now, I am pushing for my love to learn and speak more. Spanish, here I come!
The great Kirk Douglas spoke an amazing French, so well in fact he was even able to joke and crack-up a intellectual bunch of French essayists and writers.
I don't know any Chinese words, but after hearing some "fluent" Spanish, Italian and Greek, I'm about ready to become a self-proclaimed galactic translator 😁😁
Many celebrities are actually talented in many ways…they can act, sing, dance, play instruments, are awesome artists…so it’s not surprising so many speak more than just English. It’s actually pretty easy to learn another language when you are young… I speak 5 myself…English, French, Czech, Spanish and Gaelic…
I love how in the US it's a big thing if you speak one foreign language conversationally XD As was mentioned by one of the celebs, in most countries people learn 1 or 2 foreign languages by default, so actually speaking only one's native language is something unexpected... And for the people who are literally paid to learn to portray other people... Well :D
Keep in mind, in many other parts of the world, spending time in a country with a primary language different than your own is much easier than in the U.S. Someone living in St. Louis, Missouri, has to travel almost 2,000 km to reach Mexico, the nearest foreign country. When I lived in Germany (near Dusseldorf), the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg were all less than 200 km away, and France was about 300 km. Also unlike many other countries, immigrants to the U.S. tend to assimilate faster and abandon their native languages, perhaps in part because anyone born in the U.S. is automatically a citizen, lessening the impulse to hold onto the native tongue. My older daughter speaks Mandarin, German, and French in addition to English, but she has the benefit of a German father whose family lives in Paris, so she's had extensive exposure to French and German since birth, including a German tutor and regular trips to Europe. Not exactly typical. She studied Mandarin for nine years because she likes it, but since leaving school, her proficiency has slipped-use it or lose it! I'm studying Italian again, but it's tough-there's no easy way to immerse myself in it.
@@JanetMax I get ur point, but I don't really get ur point. Many Russians under the age of 45-50 are at least bilingual and their country is almost twice the size of US, so...
@@JanetMax this is a typical excuse a usa citizen would give to normalize usa’s notorious lack of interest in the rest of the world. I am brazilian, my country is practically as big as yours, yet, we usually learn different languages here. mostly european. and we have 154 languages of our own. I imagine you don’t even know which are the two official languages here. no, spanish is not one of them.
@@sateremawe well you seem nice. I confess to not knowing the second of Brazil’s two official languages. I thought most Brazilians spoke Portuguese, but I wasn’t aware of a second official language, nor could I find one identified when I searched online. I wasn’t trying to explain completely why there is a low level of multilingualism among Americans, I was just offering a perspective on a contributing factor. My response was clear about the value my own family places on it. I don’t think it’s a good thing, but the reality is that for many Americans, lack of interest in the rest of the world is result of not feeling a need to know, or being so focused on their own survival they don’t have the bandwidth to look farther out. I’ve wanted to travel to Brazil, but if you are typical Brazilian, perhaps it’s better I avoid a place where there is such hostility to Americans.
@@JanetMax hostility towards colonial mentality we have, indeed. specially when colonial minded people are unaware of it and think they are somehow special and kind. but don’t worry, most of us are too ironic and too happy to throw rage towards gringos. so, feel welcome to come here :) and bring money.
Well we also have different accents you won't expect an Australian to start speaking with an American accent when in the US. But yes French-canadian is a a bit of a challenge for other French speakers 😅
I don't get your comment, his accent wasn't canadian in my opinion. plus I don't get that french cannot speak canadian french, most difference is the accent, like you can differentiate british to irish.
As an English speaker (native language is a Celtic language though) I know even though Scandinavian languages are Germanic a few of them are hard for English speaker to pick up like Icelandic. And anyone who can learn the Finnish language will always hold my respect
Kudos to these celebrities for showing the world that speaking several languages is an added plus. Unlike some "pea brain folks" from you know where who chastised others for conversing in another vernacular other than English.
Oye, that's not fair. It's mostly Anglo-Saxon Americans who do that kind of thing. But if you want to get by in the US, you need to at least have passing English. It's getting easier but it's still pretty hard to find places that speak anything but English, especially as you get farther from the borders and metro areas. My parents actually refused to teach me Spanish (3rd gen) because they wanted me to be fluent in English without an accent. Except there are still words I'm finding that I don't know the English word for at 30yo, and the majority of English I heard was accented so when I'm upset it comes out in full force.
Malaysian here so I can understand most of Bahasa Indonesia. Can confirm that Chris Hemsworth spoke the sentences perfectly! So impressive because it’s not a language that I would expect a Westerner to know.
He was just speaking common phrases though. Not exactly fluent as this video title suggests. I dont speak Malay but I know common phrases like "siapa nama kamu", "apa kabar", "selamat pagi" just because Ive worked in Singapore. Im from the States.
@@cesarebachelli Agreed. Chris just said "Bagaimana cuaca hari ini?" meaning how's the weather today. After that he spoke in english all the way. I suspect he knows just a few basic phrases in Malay/Indonesian. Defintely can't hold basic conversation in that language either.
Danny DeVitto doing different languages for the Lorax movie is better than nothing. I'm not offending anyone who has to watch a film in their native language.
Yes, Serena's Italian is "a little" do not doubt. My french, German and Mandarin are like that, so i will know. You are all good and smiles until someone asks a complex question or person you speak to speeds up😬 Colin Firth on the other hand "bellissimo 👏🏼 bravo"
Let's be honest, Americans are always amazed when someone speaks more than one language. Most of the rest of the world are amazed when someone can only speak one language. Regarding Colin Firth and Kobe Bryant, it is actually impossible to speak Italian without using your hands. I once saw an interview with Viggo Mortensen on French television in which the interviewer asked how he had learned to speak Canadian French, he answered by saying it was because he had lived in Vermont right over the border from Montreal. He was wearing a Montréal Canadiens hockey sweater at the time.
Lets be honest, this comment is ignorant and stupid considering most Americans know multilingual people and it doesn't phase us considering a huge portion of the country (about a quarter) speak another language other than English. So yah, good to know you decided to research before commenting.
@@Blaze6432 No other country produces videos based on the concept of celebrities that can speak another language. Speaking more than one language is completely normal and unsurprising pretty much everywhere. Having worked a fair bit in the US, I would also say that immigrants or their children speaking their native language plus English (which is where your one in four comes from) is not rare, but neither is it highly regarded, as witnessed by the fact that the ability is usually gone by the 2nd generation. What is rare, however, is when a native English speaking American becomes fluent in a different language.
@@deaganachomarunacathasaigh4344 Yah that statistic was drawn from where? Oh its just idiots like you who make numbers up. Many of not most of the EU countries have rather large monolingual populations. How many in Spain, Italy, France, Russia, Romania can actually speak another language fluently? You probably dont know the answer.
Typical… Americans surprised that people speak more than just English. Meanwhile, the rest of the world is learning a third or fourth language. I grew up in one country speaking 3 languages. Then learned 2 more. It’s pretty normal for people in my culture to know more than 2 languages well.
Well to be honest, there hasn't ever been a real need to push the learning of additional languages in the US because people tend to conform to the usage of English when dealing with Americans.
I really admire people who´s speank other languages, because it is not easy. I am Brasilian and I´m learning english, french, italian e german and I have to say that is not easy to learn a new language, but is so good.
1. Jodie Foster speaks actually pretty good Italian even though she says she has a horrible french accent in it, (she doesn't) 2. Kobe not only spoke Italian but emoted it too (hands gestures etc...) 3. Viggo Mortensen's Italian has a Spanish accent. Lesser known actors Andrew Divoff and Claudia Christian also speak pretty good Italian. (spoke to them myself) Andrew speaks about half a dozen languages and I'm sure Claudia speaks at least Spanish or French if not both. As a matter of fact you're likely to find more polyglots amongst lesser known actors than amongst the really famous ones.
As an American seeing multiple comments about "Americans are too self-centered/arrogant to learn another language and go outside their comfort zone," I feel I need to say this. 1. If you think that's true of all Americans or even true at all, that's ignorant. 2. In the States, we are also required to learn a foreign language, and you (typically) get a few options to choose from; the main ones I happen to see are: Spanish, French, Italian, and German. And, in some schools, Mandarin. Although it's only required up to a certain point (at least where I live), we can choose to continue on with whatever language we chose to take. In fact, I know someone that chose to take two. 3. Many people I know choose to learn at least some basic sentences, greetings, and phrases when going abroad no matter the country. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
@@leob4403 Many English also speaks dutch, African languages,French, Welsh and some Nordic languages because of the borders, family ties, Colonies etc...
Have you ever travelled to Europe? Most do not. They take English classes in school, but still I had to use the scant French I learned in school while I was in France. Italy was the same.
I think the list's implication is American celebrities (or dual citizenship) otherwise most celebrities in the world would included lol. So Jackson Wang as someone from Hong Kong wouldn't count even though he sometimes promotes in the United States.
And this is why Sarena is the GOAT. She learned French in advance of her French grand slam win. Which she did eventually win. By then a fluent French speaker. Amazing.
I would imagine Viggo also being able to speak or at least understand Norwegian. Our two languages are so similar that even instructions usually comes in a combined Norwegian and Danish explanation 😅 I understood what he said in the first clip because it was danish without having learned danish. 😊 Norwegian, Danish and Swedish are very similar.
@@EterPuralis oh, really 😮 I even know how to count in danish 🤣 At least you understand Norwegian 😁 I had several lab partners at uni who were swedish and there was no language problems 😊 Didn't you guys have Cartoon network when being young with it being swedish for a while, then changing to Norwegian, then Danish and Finnish? We couldn't change the language and just had to watch whatever language was on 😅 (in the 90's at least) 😛
@@EterPuralis oh, I'm sorry to hear that 😔❤️ We weren't that rich either, mom was an education below nurse and father was a mason, and later worked in a store selling rocks for parking yards ect. I think we were below average in Norway, not getting expensive stuff like friends (like getting knockoff/lookalike toys instead of the popular toys). But we always had Cartoon network 🙈 Maybe they prioritised it 🤔
I think the trick with the Scandinavian languages as it was explained to me (or More exactly nordisk languages without Finnish) is that it is like a triangle how well those are mutually intelligible. Somehow it seems between two of the languages one way is easier then the other way round. Also good to know, while Danish is said to be rather uniform, Norwegian can be a completely different dialect just around the next corner of the Fjord. As a native German speaker i find it always interesting to see where there are for example similarities with German, English, Dutch, Frisian etc. and which was influenced in which direction.
Language is the golden key to the culture of the people where you go and visit, also good for business if you are dealing international. Which is very normal for us over here in europe. For us it is sad if you only are able to talk one? language.
When I lived in Denmark I was always impressed and surprised at how well 90% of the population speaks English. I married a guy from Denmark and all he had was a high school education in English and he spoke it just as good as I do and I was born in Florida. Most people there speak very very fluent English with a "stereotypically" British accent. I started taking Spanish in kindergarten all the way through high school and my Spanish is just barely passable. I wonder what they are doing different there that makes them so fluent and Americans so not fluent
I speak Norwegian, which is/was essentially Danish, but the Danes have shifted their pronunciations so hard in their modern dialect that I'll sometimes ask Danish people to speak to me in English instead. I can read it perfectly fine, but we joke that they have a potato stuck in their throats. The kids here start learning English in preschool and are exposed to English on TV and movies from an early age.
@@maggieb4736 That's part of it, of course. In Norway they start English in first grade. But also, they import a lot of TV from English- and German-speaking countries, and it's all subtitled, not dubbed. In that way, what the kids learn in school is reinforced by watching TV made for native speakers of English from the U.S., Canada, UK, Australia, etc. (This is a great thing for foreign tourists, because there's always some English-language TV on in your hotel room)
I understood Lupita's Swahili perfectly, only a little of her Spanish and her English is no problem at all. Beginner speaker of Hindi, Amharic and Yoruba. Can say hello in around 38 languages currently 😁
11 месяцев назад
Hell, because she just said a very well known proverb, «haraka, haraka, haina baraka». But she did it with a very strong accent, the R's are 100% non native, her parents are clearly Luo, not Swahili speakers.
Yes she is Luo, who are not known to be the strongest Swahili speakers in Kenya, but they definitely can (been to Kenya three times and count it as a second home). Swahili is a lingua franca, so there are really no true native speakers. @
11 месяцев назад
@@quierodesign3958 quite a lot of native speakers if you visit the coast. Mvita (Mombasa) or Lamu, for example.
"If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart." - Nelson Mandela
True...because you build a bridge and break the barriers...
Does that apply to native English speakers?
Not interested in talking to men at all - so how do you like them apples.
These words are real brother , I agree 100% on this 🙏🏾
Such a nice quote🏆
Major oversight: SIR CHRISTOPHER LEE, who spoke French, Italian, German, Spanish, and of course English---all fluently.
And the greatest of them all, Sir Peter Ustinov.
I believe Christopher Lee could speak 12 languages. He was incredibly talented.
Christopher Lee was a real-life James Bond
@@taand4725 Precisely..
I believe Sir Christopher spoke Tolkein Elvish and Dwarvish too
How has Christopher Lee not made this list! He spoke: Italian, German, French, Spanish, Russian, Greek and Swedish
that's what i was thinking i knew he spoke a few but not that many
@@samanthareed7962 he also spoke Latin
@@Swissswoosher thanks for that you learn something new every day, cheers
I heard him speak french in his later years ( which means it was not as good as it might have been when he was living there in his youth ) and it was almost perfect.
Greek? I'm of Greek heritage and it's rare for non-Greeks to learn as the syllables must be stressed in emphasis.
Kobe’s Italian was wonderful. In some interviews you can tell he struggled to remember a couple of words here and there since he’d been gone from Italy for a long time. Still his accent was great and clearly from the area where he used to live.
True...I'm Italian and I agree
Also he was around 13 when his family moved back to the US, so his Italian vocabulary wasn’t fully developed.
Sono tedesco e sto cercando di imparare l'italiano da 10 anni. Posso avere buone conversazioni, ma non raggiungerà mai il livello di Kobe Bryant. Sono rimasto così impressionato dalle sue abilità.
I'm not Italian, but I took it in school and I was pleasantly surprised at Kobe's Italian. I haven't practiced in a long time so my speaking is not as good as it used to be, but I can fully understand and read it still. It also helps that I speak the other romance languages (minus Romanian).
not only that, but he used the typical italian melody perfectly, and the hand gestures too. i also remember him saying "suck a dick" in croatian, in an nba match. i was so proud of my boy
I am German and Sandra Bullock speaks amazing German, she has a bit of an accent, but the grammar and vocabulary are great. For someone who doesn't speak German in everyday life, she speaks outstanding German.
I second this.
She is absolutely fluent and has has next to no accent at all.
The commentator should really check herself when commenting on fluency and accents as she obviously speaks only American.
Viggo, of course, is the king of languages.
She was raised in Germany for the first 12 years of her life to an American Father & German Mother & is a native German speaker. English is her second language.
Sandra Bullock mother was german… and she grew up at Germany several years and singing in a chorus… her mother was an opera singer… is natural she speaks german
.Als jemand der englischsprachig aufwuchs kann ich gerade diese Argumente nicht teilen.Da ich doch schon etliche Jahre in österreich lebe verwende ich zumeist deutsch. Tja was dazu führt daß der Akzent in meiner Muttersprache wesentlich stärker ist als jener von Bullock in deutsch. Ich würde jedem empfehlen Mal daran zu denken eine Sprache so gut wie nie zu verwenden. es dann für so selbstverständlich zu halten das die Fähigkeiten noch da sind halte ich für einen typischen Irrtum jener die ausschließlich ihre Muttersprache kennen.
Meinen eigenen Akzent in der Sprache in der ich aufgewachsen bin würde ich beispielsweise in der grössenordnung von Donna Summer's deutsch sehen. jede Sprache die man nicht 24/7 verwendet "verlernt" man zumindest ein bisschen
Yeah. As a Czech, I envy her pronunciation and her intonation in sentences. I can hear she's great but can't replicate that despite having taken German classes for 9 years in school.
One of my favorites was Charlize Theron. The interviewer was Belgian speaking Flemish and she was replying in Afrikaans. It was amazing to see how easily they understood each other
I have witnessed this exact situation- a South African friend of mine speaking with the mother of a Belgian friend of mine.
The languages are similar.
Its pronounced gibberish
@@zigman3105 Ooooh, tell me you're jealous without telling me you're jealous, lol
I was told that Dutch is also similar to Afrikaans.
Jodie Foster speaks perfect French and has shown it in many interviews on French national TV. A joy to watch!
She also speaks a very good Italian, in her youth she was in a couple of Italian movies
she is so good that for the last 35 years at least she's dubbing her own voice in the french versions of her movies
Honestly I watched her as a kid on french TV, I'm 29 now and this is the moment I'm learning she's not French. I honestly believed she's a french actress who made it in Hollywood
@@flamethrow868 She is born and raised in Los Angeles.
Indeed, that's what I wanted to say. Even though I'm not fluent in French, I can hear the perfect accent and pronunciation. It is a measure to listen to her
8:21 No. When you grow up in Austria, your native language is german. Period. English is just a very popular second language that most Europeans learn at school, amongst - most of the time - at least another language like spanish, french, italian,...
Yeah, that was kinda dumb.
Yes, Austrians speak German. Was soll damit?
@@allanprimeau7864 Sie sagen im Video, dass die Muttersprache von Österreichern Englisch ist... Das soll damit.
They probably mean for Waltz in particular his native languages are German and English. German because of where he grew up, English for some other reason.
True, I'm Italian and I have studied very well English at school, in London and in USA...it is really more than just my second language...but at secondary school I had to learn German fand it was hard to be honest...I have almost forgotten it because I don't have the chance to practice...most of my friends can speak French very well and I envy them
I love how Gwyneth Paltrow speaks Spanish with a strong Spain accent while Viggo Mortensen does it with a strong Argentine accent.
I came to say this. Viggo is a honorary Argentinian; for more information a devoted (and long-suffering, given their meagre results) fan of the San Lorenzo football club. He even managed to include the colors of the club, red and blue, in Aragorn's attire for his coronation scene!
She speaks portuguese too
He also speaks Elvish
@@AuroraSkylark😂😂😂😂😂😂
Argentinian Spanish is quite close to Spain’s variety.
Eddie Izzard does stand-up in English, French, German, and Spanish....and he is now learning Russian and Arabic. Languages are his hobby. I am surprised he is not included in this.
He’s just absolutely fantastic.
When not training for marathons.....or acting. Izzard is brilliant and a very, very nice person.
@@AlaskanGeezer he is brilliant, ❤️
I speak most european languages, including dead ones like old greek, latin, gothic, old english and gammelnorsk. The latter comes in especially handy should they ever discover some vikings survived hidingin the marshes, thinking the raids were still going on. My japanese, chinese and malay have become a bit rusty
...et le singe est sur la branche!
I think it’s really cool when celebrities do interviews in multiple languages. I heard from Sean Ferrer (Audrey Hepburn’s son) that his father Mel Ferrer spoke six languages and his daughter Emma speaks four languages
Being multilingual is pretty common among Indians as we speak a lot of languages and when we interact with each other, we tend to learn languages even without intending to.
Chris Hemsworth (Thor) speaks pretty good Indonesian too. He is an Aussie and they learn that in school, since Indonesia is Australia's neighbour.
@@gigihanmandarinyeah, I forgot he was Australian at first, so I'm like Indonesian is so random to be commonly taught in schools, but I'm a geography buff so when I thought about it more I'm like oh wait it's like right there so it makes sense now 😂😂😂 for context, I'm from the States
Respect for the polyglots , languages conect people
I speak 4 🙏
that's true querido amigo
Portuguese, Spanish, Hebrew and English in my case
4 here as well, although I'm relearning 2 due to Epilepsy.
@PEACEONEARTH1964 I wanna learn Hebrew so badly. I took one semester of it in university, but my professor sucked so I retained almost nothing. But, I do speak English (obviously), French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and am trying to learn ASL. I've always been fascinated with languages so whenever I come across someone who's from a different country or when I travel to one, I try my best to learn that language. For example, my sister studied un Germany for a year, so when I visited her for a week I tried to learn and speak as much as I could, but it wasn't great in my opinion; my German I mean. I like the country.
Audrey Hepburn originally grew up in the Netherlands, before being evacuated to England at the outbreak of the second world war. Her mother was a Dutch Aristocrat (Countess). Her language skills in the Netherlands were above average, as she was fluent in Dutch, Flemish, German, French, Italian, Spanish, English, as well as some Indonesian, Russian and Mandarin. As is typical in the Netherlands, Hepburn never used her language skills as a "circus stunt," but switched from language to language as she felt necessary, in order to make the person(s) with whom she spoke feel more comfortable.
Audrey Hepburn knew Indonesian?? I'm Indonesian, I gotta look this up. I mean the Dutch were in Indonesia for 350 years, and our founding fathers were educated there so she probably met 1-2 when she grew up there.
Lmao u r just stating these facts from where? I have never heard her speak Chinese, Russian or Indonesian. There is no video on RUclips for that. I am not going to believe your lies without evidence. These actors just do 1/2 commercial like Japanese or something and fans consider them fluent 🙄
😅
She spoke 6 languages, English, German, Italian, French, Dutch and Portugese. That is impressive enough, it is not necessary to dream up even more.
Actually she lived in Britain before WWII and was brought to the Netherlands in 1940 by her mother who hoped that the Dutch neutrality would be respected. It wasn't and she spent the whole war in the Netherlands (source: Wikipedia, and Audrey herself)
Hats down to the polyglots! I love watching Novak Djokovic playing different tournaments around the world and every time he has a post-match interview he speaks the language of that country, so impressive!
What about Daniel Brühl? He speaks German, Spanish, English, French and Catalan. Not only for interviews. He had done movies in German, English, Spanish and French
I was thinking of him too! The man is an excelent actor and a joy to hear him in all the languages he speaks!
He also speaks Portuguese
That is absolutely true. Missing Daniel Brühl is a real oversight. That man is a talented actor and polyglot.
Since ya'll talked about Sandra Bullock and said you're no experts but she sounds pretty good: Yes, she does. I'm German and I was shocked when I found out a few years ago and saw her talking at the Bambi Awards, her German is almost flawless still
I think this is more impressive for Americans. For Europeans, it is normal to learn more languages in school. I am from the Netherlands and in high school we are obligated to study 4(!) languages: English, German, French, Dutch.
In Denmark we only have to study three 😉
In Spain we learn just 2... English from elementary school, and from junior high school we have to choose a second one. The options in the area where I'm from were German and French, but I know that some other options are Portuguese and Italian. It is also required at universities (at least at the two where I studied) to have a certified B1 level in any European language in order to graduate from your bachelor degree, and a B2 for the Master degree.
I speak two and a half: Spanish, Catalan and a little bit of English. It's mandatory in Spain a second language to graduate in an University. But my brother speaks German too. I think in Europe everybody speak at least a second language.
Catalan here. Everyone you find on the streets here speaks at least two languages fluently. Most three. I'm quite fluent in Catalan, Spanish, English and French. And can understand and make people understand me in a few other Romance languages. And can ask the basics (food, directions, a hotel room, explain I'm vegetarian...) in German and Swahili.
As an American, it definitely is impressive. Typically the public school curriculum offering foreign languages doesn't happen until High School (last 4 years before college). I think to begin much earlier would be better. I don't know why we don't, I think it would be far better because along with the language, you learn about customs and cultures, it's a great way to open up kids' minds and spark their interest in other places and people. I'd be the first to say our educational system here is nothing to shout about. Starting with attracting (paying) teachers a *good* salary and treating them with the respect they deserve. Went off on a tangent there, whoops.
And it is funny how us latinos don't make fun of people accent speaking spanish, we love the effort they make by communicating in our language ❤️
I always tell people who make fun of latinos speaking broken English that they speak one more language than we do. I'm studying Spanish now, took two years in HS, and plan to move to Mexico.
Oh, how much i want to be fluent in Spanish. We have spanish words in our dialect but the grammar, its just so hard to learn.
🇵🇭
@ Pamela Reyes - bless you. It's true what you say. Yo aprendo español y si - los hispanohablantes son simplemente THE BEST. No se ríen, nunca te dicen que lo hables incorrectamente - al contrario: te aseguran que lo hagas bien. Por eso me encanta hablar en vuestro idioma. Aunque no lo hago super bien.
@@awbinn3377 me alegra mucho saber que es así como te sientes, y esto sucede porque sabemos lo que es ser bilingüe y que eso significa inteligencia, independientemente de si hables o no con acento ❤️
Nah Latinos don’t care about me trying to speak it.
Jodi Foster really impressed the French when she did interviews in their language.
She is fluent in Chinese, Mandarin, too...
She was educated in the French Lycee in La as a child
Sandra Bullock has got the loveliest northern Bavarian („Franken“) twang, which to many Germans is what the Welsh accent is to the British.
Like southern American accents sound to northern America?
@Candace Oppenheimer like a Boston accent to anyone from the US
Audrey Hepburn was just amazing and beautiful in every aspect.
My sentiments exactly. A stunningly beautiful woman.
Mortensen speaks Spanish as if he was born in Argentina. It is nice to hear.
Indonesian here. Chris Hemsworth's Indonesian has a very heavy Anglo accent. And it seems like he only remembers phrases rather than being able to hold conversations with the language. But kudos to him for knowing those phrases.
Agreed. He knows some phrases, but I don’t think he is able to hold a conversation..
He said as much at the time. He just repeated phrases that he remembered from school.
Ii never judge someone speaking to me in English when it's clear it's their 2nd language,
I'm just very impressed they took the time and effort to learn something difficult. Too many people here are judging these celebrities on their accents and tonal sounds, give them credit not criticism.
CR. English is one of the most DIFFICULT languages to learn. So much so, that many Americans don't speak nor understand the language very well. Feel free to ask any American English teachers (I teach English as a Second Language).
@@scorpio6481 from what I heard from my teachers in school and my own experience - english is the most easiest to learn. Spelling on the other hand - not so much. It's not phonetic (sounds often do not match the letters, like you have to learn 2 separate languages), that's what makes it dificult. And my grammar is probably is not good :). But it's easier to practis english because of it's exposure and prevalence.
@@FlowerGirlMy Na bro, even tho english is taught in schools for years in most countries, majority of ppl just learn the basics if they don't do an effort to learn after their school time is over, just like with spanish in America; spanish is taught in schools every year but that doesn't mean that everyone that attended spanish classes learn the whole language, that's ignorant to assume that everyone that learn english in schools in other countries knows how to speak and understands english, me myself just know english from youtube not from the classes that my school in my country have. So putting that into consideration it is actually very impressive to be fluent in english, actually to be fluent and to know any language is impressive.
@@Clara-sj2qh well, when you are from little country, you do not have much choice, you have to learn other languages. And personal efort - can't do anything without it. But I suppose that americans don't really need other languages. English is the most common everywhere (UK, America, Australia, business, traveling...). But the problem I see, is that americans are so self centered and don't know much about the word beyond USA, that they think that people everywhere know only one language.
English is not easy to learn when you are not a native speaker. For example, the letter *i* can be pronounced in at least two different way "surprisingly", without having rules. You just have to know it. What makes it a little bit easier, is the world is bombarded with English-speaking cultural things (music, movies, etc.).
Vigo's Spanish is as good as his English. He speaks with a flawless Argentine accent and is completely fluent, but his language skill is so good, he can do other accents too. I once saw a play with him where he played a Spanish man from Madrid and it was spot on.
He has said that he often feels more comfortable in Spanish than he does in English.
He has said that he believes that he can express himself better in Spanish because he lived most of his childhood in Argentina.
His Danish (unsurprisingly) is quite on point as well.
If you want to check out other Scand's that are impressive check out Nicolaj Coster-Waldau and Joel Kinnaman. Their English is flawless but so are the other languages they can switch to
Kobe sounds so fluid speaking Italian. You can tell he’s quite fluent, he doesn’t pause or stutter to find the right word. I only speak one language, so they are all impressive to me.
In Europe, speaking Multiple languages is common
My wife is Portuguese, the romance languages come easily off her tongue.
Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian and then English and even Aussie Slang (not really a Language)
It is very helpful when travelling that is for sure.
Most latin languages are easy for us, Portuguese, to assimilate because our language usually has all the sounds existent in the others. English is mandatory at school and we also have French and German as options in high school, some schools also have Spanish :)
Not in UK. We're rubbish
I think Aussie slang is a language 😂😂😂😂😂, it’s amazing when people can learn other languages, at 62 I’m learning Mandarin and even though it’s hard it is so worth it, I hope to add a few more languages to flex my brain
I have endless respect for those who speak multiple languages. It is something I would love to do but even picking up Spanish has been very difficult for me. Seems like there is a real natural talent that some have that allow them to speak multiple languages and it is something I do not have but greatly admire!
My third language teacher says there are 4 major european languages that are interconnected i.e. if you master one, the other 3 will be a piece of cake. French and spanish being 2 of the 4. Learning a language is hard. But its made easier if you speak it. Yes, and water is wet. Point being you need to be in an environment where you can nurture that...whatever it is. Speaking with native speakers is a great way to master a new language.
@@asmrlova For me, the Italian, French and Portuguese languages are easier because, after all, they are Romance languages similar to my mother tongue, which is Spanish. English was a language that cost me a lot of work to learn but finally I think I'm finally getting over it 😅 but I've heard that many English speakers have a hard time mastering Romance languages such as Spanish, French, Italian, among others
You need to start young
Don’t give up, Kris. I taught Spanish at a university for 25 years and never met a student who couldn’t learn it. It takes time, love, and access to interesting content. And don’t worry about ‘perfection’. Even native speakers don’t handle their own languages perfectly.
Same here
When living in a multi Cultural country , for example a Malay were taught English at school. Needs to learn Arabic to be understanding Islam. Had to learnt Chinese Cantonese as the neighbour grandmother from China speak only Cantonese. My school friends are Javanese. So do my grandparents. Like it or not, you must master the language. Most of my friends are Chinese. My neighbour were Anzac soldiers. Every year those neighbour Anzac family change. One day, we got a very nice Scottish family . The next year we got English who kept by themselves. Then we got Aussies that spoke in a funny accents that it's hard to understand. That is in Singapore. The first day I went schooling, I studied Mandarin. There's no Malay class ! My younger brother is in Chinese kindergarden and need to write Mandarin homeworks. We live in a Chinese dominant are with odd Indians scattered.
In later years I work in a Japanese firms where their technicians and Engineers are Japanese. Most of them are hopeless in English😁
So, I need to learnt it . Then I went to Japan for a while to visit my relatives who married a Japanese. Most of those Japanese waiters don't speak English at all. So knowing a bit of Japanese does help.
Bullock´s German is totally sweet. Yes, her grammar is a bit mixed up but she knows words even native speakers sometimes don´t know.
Great respect to Viggo Mortensen. This is absolutely wonderful.
His Spanish was superb
He speaks perfect Argentinian Spanish as he lived there when he was young and goes there often.
In Europe, it is absolutely normal to speak several languages, it's only big news in the States.
Not always. In middle and high school it's mandatory to take a foreign language up to a certain point. And a lot of people do choose to continue learning them. Plus, in America there's so many immigrants, so many people here are at least bilingual. I also live in the state of New York, so I come across non-Americans all the time.
@@oliviaricker3042 That is also true, unfortunately the news are seldom about immigrants celebrated for their ability to speak multiple languages...
Not really. I speak English, French, and Spanish. I can get by in Portuguese. My family and friends can speak several languages as well
@@justbreathe_ So you are not an average American 🙂
Switzerland requires everyone to speak German, French Italian, Swiss and one other language I believe, but I can't recall. I believe Belgium also requires a few languages.
When one lives next to countries that speak different languages, one must speak more than one's native language. The US is so big that it's not absolutely necessary especially if one never leaves the country although learning other languages helps learn about other cultures.
A fluent non-native English speaker in the US is often misconstrued as having broken English due to their accent, while an American speaking another language at a basic level with a thick accent may be perceived as fluent. WTF?!
yeh that's how it goes. English speakers can do no wrong.
For real though. French is my first language and when Serena was speaking French I was like “OMG she makes no sense” 😂😂 and these Americans were like “OMG she is fluent in French” 💀
@@theafrocain9203 yeah people use the word “fluent” wayyyyy too liberally. “Fluent” is only reserved for cases where one’s proficiency in the language is indistinguishable from the native speakers.
Yeah that is what I was thinking. Will Smith's Spanish not so good and Serena William's Italian…she definitely mixed the Spanish with the Italia. At least she thought she was speaking Italia.
Well, to be fair, every language has an accent that is considered proper when speaking it- American English too. As a bilingual person I see Americans just accepting the English with a bad accent and not correcting the speaker, but French, Italian and Spanish speakers correcting the hell out of Americans.
Honorable mention: Eddie and Alex Van Halen, Dutch. They were both born in Amsterdam, and moved to Pasadena, California in 1962. There are several videos knocking around RUclips of the brothers conducting interviews in Dutch.
I understand Christop Waltz switching languages mid conversation bc some ideas and concepts are better iterated in certain languages. There are things in Spanish that express a more accurate meaning than in English or Spanish and vice versa
The more languages you know, the more "better" phrases you find through different languages. Love doing it with my sister but it gets hard when speaking to a monolingual person and you can only think of the better word in the other language instead of the correct phrase in the language you are currently using 🙈
@@linedancechicks a'in't that a fact.
Yup. I code switch to German and American sign language all the time. English can be very limiting sometimes.
I do it with english and my native egyptian arabic. Any language can express any meaning but sometimes what's expressable by a word in a language is done by a sentence or more in the other. If you know more than one language (semi-)fluently code switching makes it easier you can just pick the easiest way to express the intended meaning from each language you know.
You forgot all the swedish actors in Hollywood, they all are fluent in at least 2 languages (many of them three or four).
Lady Diana Spencer speaking in Italian is a thing of beauty. Also, an Emma Thompson interview in French is great to watch!
Emma Thompson knows some Italian as well and I’m sure she’ll improve it, since she now owns a house in Venice!
She and her husband did a small segment for the “enjoy, respect Venezia” initiative, that is intended to target unruly tourists.
Royal families at least can speak Germany or France
Jodie Foster's French is so good that you see no difference between her's and her interviewer's.
Actor Daniel Brühl is a polyglot too! He speaks fluently German, English, Spanish, French an Italian! He should be among the best of this list!
Plus she had no 'doubts' when choosing words.
Mun Kayoung, a South Korean actress can speak Korean, English and German fluently. And also Jackon Wang, can speak Chinese, Korean and English very well.👍👍
Audrey Hepburn was born and raised in Brussels which is why she speaks French and she later lived in the Netherlands.
Tom Hiddleston's greek is actually ancient Greek, and it's just a couple of sentences here and there in interviews. As a Greek speaker, can't really say that it counts....
Maybe it’s just the fascination that (from this one clip on this video) he seems to be able to read it at least and it seems extra good because of the letters being different to those used in English?
I don’t think that matters. It’s the effort that counts.
He tries harder than most people, though.
I love watching these kinds of videos but they're often the same celebrities and the same interviews over and over again. I was pleased to see Audrey Hepburn and Kobe Bryant included in this one and was surprised to see Guy Ritchie! That's one I've never heard of.
But have you learned another language?
Ritchie's conjugation was terrible but he still managed to get his point across, which is pretty impressive for someone learning a language that is not one of the main romantics.
@@stevenwilson879 I learned French in school and during the pandemic, I learned (and am continuing to learn) Dutch. I'm certainly not conversational, but it's good for the brain!
Tom Hiddleston also reads and speaks Latin, which is likely key to his abilities in Romance languages.
He became fluent in ancient Greek as a Classics major, hence can speak modern Greek easily.
Dolph Lundgren? I remember reading that he can speak 13 different languages including Japanese, Swedish, English, Russian .......
Ben Affleck is literally all the Spanish accents rolled into one
His "pero" came out as "perro" 😁😁 other than that, he was ok, good for him!
Actually, his accent is a regional accent of northern Mexico. It's unmistakable.
@@AstridinGeorgia go on...
@@ICantBelieveItsNotJesus It's actually a norteño accent that's mostly heard in people from the states of Nuevo Leon, Coahuila, etc. The rest of Mexico says that it sounds too brusque because the southern accents have a much smoother and softer tone almost like low singing.
@@AstridinGeorgia tell me more...
well at first knowing Chris hemsworth has an ability to speak Indonesia is so "Luar Biasa" (Amazing) and "Ga Nyangka" (surprisingly)
Most people in the world speak two or more languages (their regional language, the national language, maybe another regional language, English, etc), but Americans get so surprised when one of them can say a few words in other language.
Anyway, Jodie Foster's French is impeccable, and Viggo Mortensen speaks Spanish with a perfect Argentinian accent; Paltrow's Spanish is also good, with an accent from Spain. Chalamet's French and Nyongo's Spanish are competent with few mistakes. The rest can manage, although making mistakes and having strong accents. Cena's and Zuckerberg's mandarin is hard to understand due to not pronouncing the tones right. In any case, it is good to see they're all trying their best to learn other languages.
Freddie Highmore- speaks 5 languages.
His Spanish is flawless. I think he has an University degree. He did an interview in a Spanish channel talking about how years ago he decided to tell people he had Galician roots to try to integrate in a Madrid neighborhood.
My father was Chinese, his parents were from mainland China. He was born in Sulu, Philippines surrounded by Muslim 90%, he can speak 100% Muslim and Visayan dialect 10%. Went to English school. And met my mother in Manila who can't speak Tagalog because she can only speak her own dialect from one of the provinces where Mayon volcano located called Bicol. So my father has to learn that dialect to communicate with my mother. So growing up i can hear my father speaking my mother's dialect and soon Tagalog. Amazing.
There is no Muslim language. You are confusing between religion and language.
@@asonia8446 he/she meant the Sulu language probably
I thought Islam was a fcking religion not a language 😂😂😂😂
Wow he can speak Muslim? That's crazy, I'm surprised a mosque hasn't snatched him up yet.
As a woman WHO has a husband FROM PUERTO Rico..and being from a Hispanic background myself...I'm EXTREMELY impressed by WILL AND Ben's Spanish speaking abilities....DIOS TE BENDIGA..
I love how Ben's voice keeps getting to higher and higher pitch when he speaks español
So, he speaks JLo's language. ¡Qué bueno saber!
His demeanor is appealing too; he's humble about his ability and stays calm, unlike a lot of English speakers who are so proud and overly excited to torture people's ears with their mangled Spanish.
If fluency is in the ear of the beholder, no foreigner is fluent in French. I think my French is excellent but they always ask me to speak English because "I 'butcher' the language". While simply learning the very basics in an Asian language earns you a genuine respect for your efforts.
Johnny Depp speaks fluent French. He learned it so he could talk to Vanessa Paradis' parents. Both of his children also are fluent in French and his daughter, Lily Rose, has acted in French movies and done interviews in French.
No, he really doesn't. His French is not that great. I've watched him in many interviews to determine see if he was or not. His accent is great though. He can manage to put to get just a handful of words at most and that's it, which is shocking considering he lived with a French woman in France for so long.
@@wendigo1919 he speak very well French... i'm french and i assure you he speak very well... 10 time better than lot of people in this video
Depends on when. Earlier on it was better. You have to use a language to keep it. Nowadays it's ok at best, but then again, his english tends to be okay at best too, when you have to understand him from his drunken, drug-fueled gargles.
mariska hargitay is a polyglot as well she speaks English Spanish Italian French and Hungarian as well
She's used her Italian a bit on SVU.
Yes she does
The great thing about the romance languages are that they share a lot of similarities due to their common Latin roots. I remember in my freshman year of high school I was taking Latin, Spanish, and Languages Arts/English at the same time. My Latin class wasn't a super serious class (it was mostly juniors and seniors, and it was the last year they offered it at my school), but I tried to pick up as much as I could. The vocabulary I learned in one class could be used to my advantage in another class, and I just truly think it's really cool. I hope one day I can actually get myself to sit down and actually properly learn one of them. Truly kudos to all the people who can speak multiple languages.
lupita has a beautiful speaking voice.
It’s so cute seeing Ben Affleck speaking Spanish because I imagine him trying that out with JLo ❤
He's used to Mexican Spanish which is usually kinda slow and laid back. Puerto Ricans speak like there's a time limit 😆
@@cassandrareese3082 hahahhahaa
He was pretty solid. I was impressed.😎
He could 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩 𝘩𝘦𝘳 how to speak it, as she 𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘧𝘭𝘶𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘚𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘩. Her Spanish is broken as hell 🫠
When I was a student our French teacher told us that when you learn one European language it's far easier to learn others. There are commonalities between Italian, French, Spanish, but the further north you go the more difficult it can become. She believed that the best way to learn was to start with French and then work your way north through the countries. It makes sense because so many languages in a region have connections going back thousands of years and through migration they became closer. I assume it's the same for many regions of Africa, and also for the Baltic states.
*smirks in Finnish*
Gwyneth's way of speaking Español in a very Castillan accent! Majestic!
Thanks for the video. I kind of lost my passion for learning languages as I can speak three languages fluently. Right now, I am pushing for my love to learn and speak more. Spanish, here I come!
The great Kirk Douglas spoke an amazing French, so well in fact he was even able to joke and crack-up a intellectual bunch of French essayists and writers.
Same with Yul Brynner. His French was almost flawless.
Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Donnie Yen, Chow Yun-fat, & Michelle Yeoh: English.
Jackie Chan english is really bad tho
@@Mainancepatsaji Better than Jet's & Chow's. Those two wouldn't have been able to handle Chris Tucker.
I've been learning Spanish and when I heard Will Smith talk in Spanish, I was like, 'I'm so happy! I understood everything he just said!' 😂
Me too amigo mío 😂 I feel that I can visit Madrid or Mexico City with no fear 😂😂😂
Sandra Bullock speaks a verry perfect German, i love it if she speaks german, she has got a little bavarian accent.Christoph Walz is an Austrian
If Mark Zuckerberg and John Cena’s mandarin is considered fluent, I probably speak about 18 languages.
I don't know any Chinese words, but after hearing some "fluent" Spanish, Italian and Greek, I'm about ready to become a self-proclaimed galactic translator 😁😁
Mark Zuckerberg conducted the entire 30 mins video of him speaking in Mandarin in front of lot of people so where is yours?
as a mandarin speaker , john cena mandarin is good , for mark , my dog bark better than him
@@Valvraves hahah, so true
@@Valvraves lmao that expression
Many celebrities are actually talented in many ways…they can act, sing, dance, play instruments, are awesome artists…so it’s not surprising so many speak more than just English. It’s actually pretty easy to learn another language when you are young… I speak 5 myself…English, French, Czech, Spanish and Gaelic…
apart from John Cena who had put efforts to learn Mandarin.
Only one Aisan Language of Bahasa Indonesia by Our Very own Aussie Superstar is there....
I love how in the US it's a big thing if you speak one foreign language conversationally XD As was mentioned by one of the celebs, in most countries people learn 1 or 2 foreign languages by default, so actually speaking only one's native language is something unexpected... And for the people who are literally paid to learn to portray other people... Well :D
Keep in mind, in many other parts of the world, spending time in a country with a primary language different than your own is much easier than in the U.S. Someone living in St. Louis, Missouri, has to travel almost 2,000 km to reach Mexico, the nearest foreign country. When I lived in Germany (near Dusseldorf), the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg were all less than 200 km away, and France was about 300 km. Also unlike many other countries, immigrants to the U.S. tend to assimilate faster and abandon their native languages, perhaps in part because anyone born in the U.S. is automatically a citizen, lessening the impulse to hold onto the native tongue. My older daughter speaks Mandarin, German, and French in addition to English, but she has the benefit of a German father whose family lives in Paris, so she's had extensive exposure to French and German since birth, including a German tutor and regular trips to Europe. Not exactly typical. She studied Mandarin for nine years because she likes it, but since leaving school, her proficiency has slipped-use it or lose it! I'm studying Italian again, but it's tough-there's no easy way to immerse myself in it.
@@JanetMax I get ur point, but I don't really get ur point. Many Russians under the age of 45-50 are at least bilingual and their country is almost twice the size of US, so...
@@JanetMax this is a typical excuse a usa citizen would give to normalize usa’s notorious lack of interest in the rest of the world. I am brazilian, my country is practically as big as yours, yet, we usually learn different languages here. mostly european. and we have 154 languages of our own. I imagine you don’t even know which are the two official languages here. no, spanish is not one of them.
@@sateremawe well you seem nice. I confess to not knowing the second of Brazil’s two official languages. I thought most Brazilians spoke Portuguese, but I wasn’t aware of a second official language, nor could I find one identified when I searched online.
I wasn’t trying to explain completely why there is a low level of multilingualism among Americans, I was just offering a perspective on a contributing factor. My response was clear about the value my own family places on it. I don’t think it’s a good thing, but the reality is that for many Americans, lack of interest in the rest of the world is result of not feeling a need to know, or being so focused on their own survival they don’t have the bandwidth to look farther out.
I’ve wanted to travel to Brazil, but if you are typical Brazilian, perhaps it’s better I avoid a place where there is such hostility to Americans.
@@JanetMax hostility towards colonial mentality we have, indeed. specially when colonial minded people are unaware of it and think they are somehow special and kind. but don’t worry, most of us are too ironic and too happy to throw rage towards gringos. so, feel welcome to come here :) and bring money.
I was blown away by Jodie Foster's fluency in French. Who knew? She spoke in French by far the best of all the French speakers.
As a French speaker I can say she sounds more fluent than anyone else featured here including Timothee Chalamet who technically grew up bi-lingual
@@sdefonta Agree 100%
I guess that is a testimony to the effectiveness of bilingual schools.
@@remas6991 You don't need a bilingual school to learn another language. There are many possibilities nowadays...
She grew up in france
Well-put. “Why not?” is also my response to anyone inquiring, “Why are you learning [Certain Language]?”
I'm surprised they didn't have Mila Kunis standing up for JT in Russian.
It's a classic!
She's 🇺🇦 by birth. So maybe it's a bit too sensitive at the moment... God bless her.
but her russian is quite bad.
@@FlowerGirlMy it's her first language haha, she's fluent
@@ImaginaryEvil I thought Ukrainian was her native. I may be wrong. I didn’t check before writing this.
Audrey's french was astounding. A class act in every language ❤
And yes ....Sandra Bullock's german is amazing. I love her speaking in german. And she sounds so different
I like the fact that Viggo Mortensen can speak "Canadian French" when most French originating from France can't ! 😁
He's very articulate... very easy to understand.
Well we also have different accents you won't expect an Australian to start speaking with an American accent when in the US. But yes French-canadian is a a bit of a challenge for other French speakers 😅
I don't get your comment, his accent wasn't canadian in my opinion.
plus I don't get that french cannot speak canadian french, most difference is the accent, like you can differentiate british to irish.
I'm French Canadian and that definitely wasn't Québécois French. He's just obsessed with the Montreal hockey team
haha classic habs@@djk7
My wife says I speak a different language..especially when I’m drunk 😂
I love Kobe's Italian and even more I love his Italian accent when he speaks Spanish! 💕
An honorable mention goes to Ari Eldjarn, who’s well-versed in Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish… and English, of course
As an English speaker (native language is a Celtic language though) I know even though Scandinavian languages are Germanic a few of them are hard for English speaker to pick up like Icelandic. And anyone who can learn the Finnish language will always hold my respect
@@deaganachomarunacathasaigh4344 Challenge accepted! I’m eager to resume my Gaelic studies and to give Finnish a try
@@globetrekker86 I'll hold you too it. It is hard but its not Russian or Polish hard.
Finnish though, I wish you luck on that one
@@deaganachomarunacathasaigh4344 Thank you! Also, if Finnish is even vaguely easier than Russian, then I stand a chance 🙂
@@globetrekker86 Tá fáilte romhat agus go n-éirí leat
Kudos to these celebrities for showing the world that speaking several languages is an added plus. Unlike some "pea brain folks" from you know where who chastised others for conversing in another vernacular other than English.
Oye, that's not fair. It's mostly Anglo-Saxon Americans who do that kind of thing. But if you want to get by in the US, you need to at least have passing English. It's getting easier but it's still pretty hard to find places that speak anything but English, especially as you get farther from the borders and metro areas. My parents actually refused to teach me Spanish (3rd gen) because they wanted me to be fluent in English without an accent. Except there are still words I'm finding that I don't know the English word for at 30yo, and the majority of English I heard was accented so when I'm upset it comes out in full force.
Malaysian here so I can understand most of Bahasa Indonesia. Can confirm that Chris Hemsworth spoke the sentences perfectly! So impressive because it’s not a language that I would expect a Westerner to know.
He’s Australian, so not exactly a westerner.
@@JZJ7777 Australia is part of the cultural west though. They are basically an extension of the British and the US
He was just speaking common phrases though. Not exactly fluent as this video title suggests.
I dont speak Malay but I know common phrases like "siapa nama kamu", "apa kabar", "selamat pagi" just because Ive worked in Singapore. Im from the States.
@@joshanderson9391 yeah
@@cesarebachelli Agreed. Chris just said "Bagaimana cuaca hari ini?" meaning how's the weather today. After that he spoke in english all the way. I suspect he knows just a few basic phrases in Malay/Indonesian. Defintely can't hold basic conversation in that language either.
Danny DeVitto doing different languages for the Lorax movie is better than nothing. I'm not offending anyone who has to watch a film in their native language.
Yes, Serena's Italian is "a little" do not doubt. My french, German and Mandarin are like that, so i will know. You are all good and smiles until someone asks a complex question or person you speak to speeds up😬
Colin Firth on the other hand "bellissimo 👏🏼 bravo"
Let's be honest, Americans are always amazed when someone speaks more than one language. Most of the rest of the world are amazed when someone can only speak one language.
Regarding Colin Firth and Kobe Bryant, it is actually impossible to speak Italian without using your hands.
I once saw an interview with Viggo Mortensen on French television in which the interviewer asked how he had learned to speak Canadian French, he answered by saying it was because he had lived in Vermont right over the border from Montreal. He was wearing a Montréal Canadiens hockey sweater at the time.
'"Most of the rest of the world are amazed when someone can only speak one language. " Not true. lol. ✌
Lets be honest, this comment is ignorant and stupid considering most Americans know multilingual people and it doesn't phase us considering a huge portion of the country (about a quarter) speak another language other than English. So yah, good to know you decided to research before commenting.
@@Blaze6432 No other country produces videos based on the concept of celebrities that can speak another language. Speaking more than one language is completely normal and unsurprising pretty much everywhere. Having worked a fair bit in the US, I would also say that immigrants or their children speaking their native language plus English (which is where your one in four comes from) is not rare, but neither is it highly regarded, as witnessed by the fact that the ability is usually gone by the 2nd generation. What is rare, however, is when a native English speaking American becomes fluent in a different language.
Ya, in Europe a monolingual is rare enough. 99% of Europeans can speak at least 2 languages and a few others to varying degrees
@@deaganachomarunacathasaigh4344 Yah that statistic was drawn from where? Oh its just idiots like you who make numbers up. Many of not most of the EU countries have rather large monolingual populations. How many in Spain, Italy, France, Russia, Romania can actually speak another language fluently? You probably dont know the answer.
Typical… Americans surprised that people speak more than just English. Meanwhile, the rest of the world is learning a third or fourth language. I grew up in one country speaking 3 languages. Then learned 2 more. It’s pretty normal for people in my culture to know more than 2 languages well.
Well to be honest, there hasn't ever been a real need to push the learning of additional languages in the US because people tend to conform to the usage of English when dealing with Americans.
Spot on my friend
What country are you from?
Yeah. We get it. America sucks. I'm struggling but trying hard to learn Spanish and German right now but I'm proud of myself.
Good for you. Sorry we’re trying.
I really admire people who´s speank other languages, because it is not easy. I am Brasilian and I´m learning english, french, italian e german and I have to say that is not easy to learn a new language, but is so good.
1. Jodie Foster speaks actually pretty good Italian even though she says she has a horrible french accent in it, (she doesn't) 2. Kobe not only spoke Italian but emoted it too (hands gestures etc...) 3. Viggo Mortensen's Italian has a Spanish accent. Lesser known actors Andrew Divoff and Claudia Christian also speak pretty good Italian.
(spoke to them myself) Andrew speaks about half a dozen languages and I'm sure Claudia speaks at least Spanish or French if not both. As a matter of fact you're likely to find more polyglots amongst lesser known actors than amongst the really famous ones.
Jodie Foster speaks absolutely perfect French...
They forgot Elfish and Native American for Viggo when he was in LOTR and HIDALGO lol
he also speaks equestrian !! you see the relationships her has with horses!
*Elffin lol
...that's Sindarin and Quenya to you. Although I suppose he only needed Sindarin for LOTR.
Bet he picked up some Māori in NZ
To be blessed to know and to speak another language. These celebrities can open doors around the world. Without languages understood... we are dust.
As an American seeing multiple comments about "Americans are too self-centered/arrogant to learn another language and go outside their comfort zone," I feel I need to say this. 1. If you think that's true of all Americans or even true at all, that's ignorant. 2. In the States, we are also required to learn a foreign language, and you (typically) get a few options to choose from; the main ones I happen to see are: Spanish, French, Italian, and German. And, in some schools, Mandarin. Although it's only required up to a certain point (at least where I live), we can choose to continue on with whatever language we chose to take. In fact, I know someone that chose to take two. 3. Many people I know choose to learn at least some basic sentences, greetings, and phrases when going abroad no matter the country.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
Christopher Waltz, Tom Hiddleston, Colin Firth are European, most of European speaks 2-3 languages.
Except the English 😹
@@leob4403 Many English also speaks dutch, African languages,French, Welsh and some Nordic languages because of the borders, family ties, Colonies etc...
@@nelliebly6616 yeah but a much smaller percentage are bilingual than for other parts of Europe
Have you ever travelled to Europe? Most do not. They take English classes in school, but still I had to use the scant French I learned in school while I was in France. Italy was the same.
I mean you should totally mention Jackson Wang too. Guy is super multilingual
Lots of kpop stars are multilingual, it's amazing and they're totally underrated!
I think the list's implication is American celebrities (or dual citizenship) otherwise most celebrities in the world would included lol. So Jackson Wang as someone from Hong Kong wouldn't count even though he sometimes promotes in the United States.
And this is why Sarena is the GOAT. She learned French in advance of her French grand slam win. Which she did eventually win. By then a fluent French speaker. Amazing.
I am French, and while I absolutely respect her willingness to communicate, I struggle to understand her
The most impressive thing about Viggo Mortensen’s french is that he learned it almost just for a role because he liked the script so much
John Cena's Chinese is heavily accented but he still does a great job in speaking it. 正好了！(Well done!)
Bing chili🍦
I would imagine Viggo also being able to speak or at least understand Norwegian. Our two languages are so similar that even instructions usually comes in a combined Norwegian and Danish explanation 😅 I understood what he said in the first clip because it was danish without having learned danish. 😊 Norwegian, Danish and Swedish are very similar.
Maybe if you're Danish or Norwegian. Danish can be neigh on impenetrable for a Swedish person.
@@EterPuralis oh, really 😮 I even know how to count in danish 🤣 At least you understand Norwegian 😁 I had several lab partners at uni who were swedish and there was no language problems 😊
Didn't you guys have Cartoon network when being young with it being swedish for a while, then changing to Norwegian, then Danish and Finnish? We couldn't change the language and just had to watch whatever language was on 😅 (in the 90's at least) 😛
@@hege4318 How rich do you think i am 😅 no i didn't have cartoon network!
@@EterPuralis oh, I'm sorry to hear that 😔❤️ We weren't that rich either, mom was an education below nurse and father was a mason, and later worked in a store selling rocks for parking yards ect. I think we were below average in Norway, not getting expensive stuff like friends (like getting knockoff/lookalike toys instead of the popular toys). But we always had Cartoon network 🙈 Maybe they prioritised it 🤔
I think the trick with the Scandinavian languages as it was explained to me (or More exactly nordisk languages without Finnish) is that it is like a triangle how well those are mutually intelligible. Somehow it seems between two of the languages one way is easier then the other way round. Also good to know, while Danish is said to be rather uniform, Norwegian can be a completely different dialect just around the next corner of the Fjord. As a native German speaker i find it always interesting to see where there are for example similarities with German, English, Dutch, Frisian etc. and which was influenced in which direction.
Language is the golden key to the culture of the people where you go and visit, also good for business if you are dealing international. Which is very normal for us over here in europe. For us it is sad if you only are able to talk one? language.
I can tell that Vigo Montersen speaks a very decent Catalan. There is a secret: his wife is Catalan
What about Viggo Mortensen, how's his Catalan?
@@philipusher4282 B1-B2
Viggo Mortensen helped to translate Albert Camus's “The Human Crisis” for his reading at the Columbia Maison Française.
When I lived in Denmark I was always impressed and surprised at how well 90% of the population speaks English. I married a guy from Denmark and all he had was a high school education in English and he spoke it just as good as I do and I was born in Florida. Most people there speak very very fluent English with a "stereotypically" British accent. I started taking Spanish in kindergarten all the way through high school and my Spanish is just barely passable. I wonder what they are doing different there that makes them so fluent and Americans so not fluent
I speak Norwegian, which is/was essentially Danish, but the Danes have shifted their pronunciations so hard in their modern dialect that I'll sometimes ask Danish people to speak to me in English instead. I can read it perfectly fine, but we joke that they have a potato stuck in their throats. The kids here start learning English in preschool and are exposed to English on TV and movies from an early age.
They start teaching languages early.
@@maggieb4736 That's part of it, of course. In Norway they start English in first grade. But also, they import a lot of TV from English- and German-speaking countries, and it's all subtitled, not dubbed. In that way, what the kids learn in school is reinforced by watching TV made for native speakers of English from the U.S., Canada, UK, Australia, etc. (This is a great thing for foreign tourists, because there's always some English-language TV on in your hotel room)
@@pdxtran , interesting, thanks. I might try my hand at a new language this year, keep the ole brain sharp.;)
Love how the word Hiddlestone was searching for in French was “provocateur”, which has been borrowed into everyday English anyway
I understood Lupita's Swahili perfectly, only a little of her Spanish and her English is no problem at all. Beginner speaker of Hindi, Amharic and Yoruba. Can say hello in around 38 languages currently 😁
Hell, because she just said a very well known proverb, «haraka, haraka, haina baraka». But she did it with a very strong accent, the R's are 100% non native, her parents are clearly Luo, not Swahili speakers.
Yes she is Luo, who are not known to be the strongest Swahili speakers in Kenya, but they definitely can (been to Kenya three times and count it as a second home). Swahili is a lingua franca, so there are really no true native speakers. @
@@quierodesign3958 quite a lot of native speakers if you visit the coast. Mvita (Mombasa) or Lamu, for example.