Benjamin Rich is a British travel vlogger who posts videos to his YouTube channel, Bald and Bankrupt.
You may be wondering how many languages does Bald and Bankrupt speak?
He has traveled all over the world and regularly shows off his language skills in his videos so it’s natural to wonder what languages he can speak.
Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. This post will go into detail on what languages Benjamin Rich speaks, how fluent he is in them and how he learnt them.
Table of Contents
What Languages Does Bald and Bankrupt Speak?
Bald and Bankrupt speaks 4 languages to varying levels. Benjamin Rich speaks English, Russian, Hindi and Spanish.
He is fully fluent in some of these languages but has only reached a more basic level in others (more on this later).
English is his first language as he is originally from the United Kingdom and his YouTube videos are predominantly in English.
Does Bald and Bankrupt Speak Russian?
Yes, Bald and Bankrupt speaks Russian fluently.
On his YouTube channel, Mr Bald regularly visits post-Soviet countries including Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan and more.
He can be seen communicating in Russian in all of his videos which take place in post-Soviet countries.
He regularly chats to the locals in Russian in his videos asking them a range of questions trying to get to know them and what it’s like to live in their country.
Mr Bald can speak Russian fluently but his Russian is far from perfect.
It has been noted by native Russian speakers that he speaks with a clear British accent and often makes grammatical errors.
These minor issues have no impact on people’s ability to understand him and he has stated himself that he has never had a misunderstanding due to his poor grammar.
Mr Bald has very good Russian comprehension skills and can always understand what people say to him with ease.
He is very quick at responding which shows he can understand Russian very well.
Check out Bald and Bankrupt speaking Russian in the video below:
A native Russian speaker actually analyzed Benjamin’s Russian skills in the video below:
She notes that Benjamin’s pronunciation is not perfect and that he makes some grammatical errors. She does praise him for his good comprehension and ability to converse in the language.
Benjamin has also stated previously that he has had relationships with Russian women who didn’t speak any English and never had any problems with communication.
How Did Benjamin Rich Learn Russian?
Benjamin Rich learnt Russian by focusing on learning vocabulary and ignoring grammar.
Benjamin stated in a video that he started learning Russian back in 1992 when he was 16 years old.
He said that he didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life so signed up to a Russian evening class at a college in Portsmouth, UK.
Benjamin said that it was during this one year class that he fell in love with the Russian language and culture.
In a video where Benjamin talks about how he learnt Russian, he mentions that he was initially put off from learning Russian for many years due to the complicated grammar and case system.
He describes being ‘terrified and perplexed’ by Russian grammar at first.
He said he then made great progress in Russian when he decided not to learn Russian grammar and just learn vocabulary instead.
He also mentions taking classes and university courses in Russian and that he had much faster progress than the other people on the courses due to his vocabulary technique.
Benjamin said he is aware that he makes lots of grammatical errors but he has found that he’s never been misunderstood due to his poor grammar.
He said that learning grammar is only important if you’re taking an exam.
Check out Bald and Bankrupt talking about how he learnt Russian in the video below:
Benjamin Rich has also mentioned that he was previously married to a Belarusian woman so no doubt this helped him improve his Russian skills.
Does Bald and Bankrupt Speak Hindi?
Yes, Bald and Bankrupt does speak Hindi to a basic level.
Mr Bald traveled extensively through India back in 2018 where he produced many videos of his adventures for his YouTube channel.
In these videos, he can often be seen conversing with the locals and asking questions in Hindi.
It is known that Mr Bald used to run a hotel in India back in the 1990’s so it’s likely that he learnt most of his Hindi during this time.
Mr Bald can speak Hindi but stated in a video that he cannot read Hindi.
You can see Bald and Bankrupt speaking Hindi to some locals in Delhi in the video below:
How Did Bald and Bankrupt Learn Hindi?
Mr Bald said in a video that before his first trip to India he bought a Hindi language textbook and studied it everyday.
When he arrived in India for the first time, he found that everything he had learnt from his textbook was useless as the locals didn’t speak the language like he had learnt from the book.
He said he then threw away the textbook and learnt Hindi from the locals on the streets of India.
He soon noticed that certain words and phrases popped up a lot in his conversations.
After speaking with people all day, he would return to his hotel room and write down everything he had learnt from the locals that day.
Check out the video below where Mr Bald talks about how he learnt Hindi:
Does Bald and Bankrupt Speak Spanish?
Yes, Bald and Bankrupt does speak some Spanish.
On Instagram, Mr Bald has mentioned taking Spanish lessons several times.
Mr Bald did visit several Spanish speaking countries in 2019 and 2020 including Mexico, Cuba and Bolivia where he did speak a little bit of Spanish.
His Spanish was very limited in these videos and he wasn’t able to really hold a conversation.
You can see Mr Bald struggling to speak the language in the video below:
As you can see, Mr Bald does know some words and phrases in Spanish at this point but struggles to get his points across.
He struggles with grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary.
He notes at the end of the video that his Spanish skills are not great and not good enough to properly communicate with the locals.
It appears that these trips inspired him to learn Spanish properly and since then he has begun taking Spanish lessons to improve his Spanish.
It’s unclear how good his Spanish is now as he hasn’t produced any further videos in Spanish speaking countries as of yet.
What Are Bald and Bankrupt’s Views On Learning Languages?
It seems that Mr Bald is very keen on learning the languages of the places that he visits.
As he loves to venture off to rural towns and villages in the places he visits, without language skills he would struggle to interact with local people who don’t speak English.
Mr Bald has several videos where he talks about learning languages and how he learns them so it appears that learning new languages is important to him.
As he mentioned when discussing Russian, Mr Bald doesn’t care about speaking a language perfectly. He is aware that he makes mistakes but doesn’t mind.
He learns languages so he can talk to real people and so doesn’t mind making a few errors as long as they can understand him.
It may surprise you that Bald and Bankrupt speaks 4 languages. It surprised us too!
It’s clear that Mr Bald loves learning languages and uses them as a way to connect with people.
Thanks for reading this post which answers the question ‘how many languages does Benjamin Rich speak?’.
Mr Bald isn’t the only YouTuber that can speak several languages. Find out how many languages Steve Kaufmann speaks.
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