When it came to languages, JFK and his wife, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, could not have been more different. From when she was a child, Jackie loved languages, French in particular. An ardent Francophile, she named her poodle Gaullie, after France’s Charles de Gaulle, whom she later met as First Lady. Her year of study at the Sorbonne in Paris when she was in college cemented her command of the French language.
Among the iconic moments of JFK’s presidency was the trip he and the First Lady took to Paris in 1961. Jackie was in her cultural and linguistic element. Her husband clearly was not. But his wit was as sharp as ever—he famously introduced himself at an official function as, “I am the man who accompanied Jacqueline Kennedy to Paris.”
As a Congressman from Massachusetts in the 1950s, Kennedy needed to be conversant in the politics of Southeast Asia, where the French then had a presence. Jackie, not yet his wife, translated the French research books for him.
For Jackie, her affinity for other languages helped to transform her from a reticent campaign wife to a connector. She made her first campaign speech for Jack Kennedy, then up for re-election to the U.S. Senate, in 1958. And it was not in English: it was in French, to the members of the Worcester Cercle Francais, in Worcester, Mass.
Her comment following the speech is a testament to the power of bilingualism. Delivering the speech in French was, she said, “not as frightening as it would have been in English.” (Bilingualism as a cure for shyness? It just might be so.)
The Worcester speech was the start of what became a potent arrow in the quiver of Kennedy’s presidential campaign two years later. In Milwaukee, Jackie spoke to the mostly Polish-descent audience in Polish, telling them in their heritage language that “Poland will live forever.” In New Orleans, she spoke in Cajun.
Jackie was a polyglot, speaking also some German and Italian—and speaking Spanish fluently. She taped radio ads in French, Italian and Spanish, urging the listeners to vote for her husband. She also taped a TV ad, in Spanish.
