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What Languages Does Serena Williams Speak?

As one of the best and most successful tennis players of all time – male or female – Serena Williams is a superstar. With the tennis circuit taking her to all corners of the globe, it’s no wonder that Serena Williams can speak multiple languages, but what languages does Serena Williams speak, and how fluent is she?

Let’s find out!

What Languages Does Serena Williams Speak?

According to an interview with the champion herself, Serena Williams can speak a total of five languages: English, German, French, Italian, and Mandarin. She said that while her first language is English, she did learn German and French at school, but expanded her horizons as she began to travel more for work.

After leaving school, Serena chose and preferred to learn Italian and Mandarin. In an interview, she said that she wanted to focus on the languages of larger countries and ones that she frequently visits on the tennis circuit.

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When asked what she speaks the most, Serena said although they tend to speak English at home, the family also likes to speak Italian (this obviously means that Venus speaks Italian as well!)

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Here’s an interview Serena did in French to show some of her French skills:

What Languages Can Serena Williams Speak Fluently?

Although Serena Williams can speak five languages, she says she only speaks two fluently. Those are English and French. Having grown up training on a clay court in Florida, the dream of young Serena was to win the French Open. 

She said that when she won the French Open she wanted to be able to do her speech in fluent French as a mark of respect for the people and the tournament. Serena became fluent in French during her teen years while she trained to become the world-class champion she now is. 

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Can Serena Williams Speak Mandarin?

In her pursuit to become a more global citizen, Serena Williams started learning Mandarin, the second most widely spoken language in the world. There is a considerable leg of the WTA tour that happens in China and East Asia, so her interest in the culture and language was likely piqued during her time playing here. 

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As she’s stated she’s interested in learning the languages of ‘big countries’, it’s no wonder that Mandarin was high up on her list of languages to learn. Although she admits to not being fluent in Mandarin, she says she did start learning it after she left school, when she began traveling more widely for the tour and various press engagements. 

Are you interested in learning any of the languages that Serena Williams speaks? I’m currently working on French and spending a ton of time on the LingQ app (my latest language obsession, yes, it’s better than Duolingo!), which has all 5 of these languages available!

If you love organization and learning grammar topics, I haven’t found anything better than Kwiziq French and Kwiziq Spanish.

You can take a free quiz that places you on the CEFR scale from A1 to C2 and then gives you more quizzes based ONLY on what you need to work on! Here’s the Spanish Quiz and here’s the French Quiz.

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