23 December 2022 — 0715 mst

Volodymyr Zelensky’s address to Congress
demonstrates the value of learning languages

By James Conner

Ukrainian President Zelensky addressed a joint session of Congress Wednesday evening, delivering his speech in competent, close to fluent, English. Had he spoken through a translator, his remarks, and their effect on his audience, would have been much less dramatic. He is fluent in Russian, his native tongue, and Ukrainian.

Wearing an army green tunic that reminded me of a Star Trek uniform, Zelensky referred to transformative moments in American history to make his case that world freedom, not just Ukraine’s, was at risk. He was shrewd, convincing, likable, and gracious.

I used the New York Times’ transcription of his address to determine the reading ease of his remarks. His Flesch-Kincaid scores were comparable to those for recent inaugural and state of the union speeches by Bush 43, Obama, and Biden.

To calculate the Flesch-Kincaid scores, I used the free, open source application Flesh. Had the transcription been broken into more paragraphs, the grade level score probably would have been slightly lower.

Few modern American presidents have been as skilled with languages as Zelensky. Source for list below.

• Teddy Roosevelt spoke French and German, but not well.
• Woodrow Wilson studied German, but was not fluent.
• Herbert Hoover once translated a book from Latin to English. He learned some Mandarin while spending a year in China.
• Franklin Roosevelt, fluent in German and French, was our last multilingual president.
• Jimmy Carter is fluent in Spanish.
• George W. Bush speaks serviceable conversational Spanish. His brother, Jeb, who is married to a Mexican woman, is fluent in Spanish.
• Obama speaks enough Indonesian to get by.
• John Kerry, who lost the 2004 presidential election to George W., is fluent in French and highly competent in several languages.

FDR as a young man spent years in Europe, learning French and German, and learning the landscape by bicycling through Europe. That knowledge served him well during World War II. He could understand Hitler’s speeches in real time without a translator.

According to Translators Without Borders, 350–430 languages are spoken in the United States, “…making it one of the most linguistically diverse countries in the world. While there is not an official language at the federal level, many states have adopted English and other indigenous languages as official.”

English is spoken at home by approximately 240 million Americans. Approximately 42 million Americans speak Spanish at home. Here, from the Census Bureau, are the languages most commonly spoken in the United States.

English is the de facto official language of the U.S., and of several states. A law making English the official language of the nation would be a good idea, and would not be incompatible with providing governmental services in other languages, something already being done. Official English should not be confused with English Only, which would preclude government services in other languages.

Americans need to do better with languages. All American secondary students probably should study Spanish. Languages should not be offered only to students on a college preparatory course. Automobile mechanics have just as much use for, say, Spanish as future members of the foreign service.