Mitt Romney’s Discreet French

Should Republican Mitt Romney be elected on Tuesday night, he will become the first United States president to be able to converse in French since Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who resided at the White House from 1933 to 1945.

Romney, however, does not flaunt his knowledge of the language he learned in 1966, when he spent two and a half years as a Mormon missionary in France, and which he still speaks very well today. Indeed, for some years now, French, though spoken by four of the first six presidents of the United States, has almost become a handicap for presidential candidates.

Luc Laliberté, a history teacher at CEGEP François-Xavier Garneau (Quebec) and an observer of American politics, recalls the similar plight of Democratic candidate John Kerry, who bowed down before George W. Bush in 2004. Kerry, too, spoke French very well; his mother was born in Paris and his family still owns a sumptuous property in Saint-Briac-sur-Mer.

“When France refused to follow the United States into the Iraq war, you may remember the strong anti-French sentiment that spread among our Southern neighbors. French fries became freedom fries. Kerry was one of the first to pay for it, because some criticized his ties with France and his mastery of the language during the campaign,” he explains.

Equated to Snobbery

Mr. Laliberté adds that while a certain America is open to the world and culture, another America, that of the Southern and Midwestern states, equates French culture with a form of intellectual and cultural snobbery. “In 2009, President Obama had been the subject of mockery from right-wing commentators, because he had asked for Dijon mustard to have with his burger,” he recalls.

In Romney’s case, his “French antecedents” came back to haunt him in the race for the Republican nomination a few months ago when, in a hostile television spot, his opponent Newt Gingrich remarked, with support from visual evidence, that “just like John Kerry, he [Mitt Romney] speaks French too.”

We were then shown Kerry inviting Louisiana voters to “let the good times roll” during his campaign in 2004, and then Romney declaring “Bonjour, je m’appelle Mitt Romney,” in a video recorded while he was president of the Salt Lake City Olympic Committee for the 2002 winter games.

“Like Kerry, Romney is an educated man, but he has a very hard time handling this more refined side of his personality. He does not play it up at all, because part of his electorate does not approve of it. He has little to no interest at all in parading his knowledge of French,” Laliberté continues.

What About in Quebec?

The teacher also does not believe that Romney, if he were elected, would be a massive hit if he ever came to Quebec and were to speak to the francophones in their own language. “There is of course a likeable aspect to an American president who might be able to speak French, but Mr. Romney has stood for very right-wing ideas, particularly regarding women’s rights and abortion, ideas that are very badly received in Quebec,” he points out.

“If Barack Obama spoke French and were to address the people of Quebec in French, they would go into a frenzy. But in Mr. Romney’s case, I think it is the more right-wing platform of the Republican party that would prevail, more than the sympathetic aspect of a French speaking president,” concludes Mr. Laliberté.

French-Speaking Presidents of the U.S.

John Adams (1797-1801): The one who became the second president in the history of the United States did not used to speak French, the international diplomatic language of the eighteenth century, until his predecessor George Washington appointed him special envoy to France in 1777. That is where he learned the language.

Thomas Jefferson (1801-1809): The most multilingual of all American presidents started learning French at age nine, a language he perfected while studying in university. He also read, spoke and understood Greek, Latin, Italian and Spanish.

John Quincy Adams (1825-1829): The son of John Adams, the sixth president, learned French when he went to school in France while his father was a diplomat there.

Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909): Teddy Roosevelt spoke French very well, a language he learned at home with his parents and tutors.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1933-1945): Born to a wealthy family, the last American president to speak French had enjoyed the services of French and German governesses who taught him their respective languages from a very early age. Later, a Swiss governess enabled him to perfect his knowledge of both languages.

William Henry Harrison (1841) had learned some basic French in university, while Rutherford B. Hayes (1877-1881) had also studied it in school briefly. Neither, however, was fluent in French.