Jeremy Wade is a British TV presenter, author and extreme angler most well known for presenting the show ‘River Monsters’ in which he goes out searching for dangerous fish.
You may be wondering how many languages does Jeremy Wade speak?
He has traveled extensively across the globe so it’s natural to wonder if he also speaks multiple languages.
Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. This post will go into detail on what languages Jeremy Wade speaks, how fluent he is in them and how he learned them.
Table of Contents
What Languages Does Jeremy Wade Speak?
Jeremy Wade speaks 2 languages fluently. Jeremy Wade speaks English and Portuguese but also speaks a bit of 12 other languages including Hindi, Russian, Lingala, Spanish and French.
English is his first language as he was born and raised in England and attended English-speaking schools growing up.
Where is Jeremy Wade From?
Jeremy Wade is from the United Kingdom. He was born in Suffolk in 1956 to an English family and was then raised there too.
In fact, his hometown is actually where his love of fishing first began, right on the banks of the River Stour in Suffolk.
He then got a degree in zoology from Bristol University in the UK and became a high school teacher in England before starting his career in TV.
Jeremy has spent most of his life living in the UK but has traveled extensively across the globe to every continent on the planet (apart from Antarctica) to catch fish.
Due to his extensive travels, Jeremy has picked up words and phrases in over 12 languages.
Does Jeremy Wade Speak Portuguese?
Yes, Jeremy Wade speaks Portuguese fluently.
Jeremy spent many years living and working in Brazil where the main spoken language is Portuguese.
He reportedly spent 3 hours a day learning Portuguese for 3 months prior to his first trip to Brazil.
After arriving in Brazil he continued studying Portuguese in depth, eventually becoming fully fluent.
His time in Brazil was mainly dedicated to fishing in the Amazon rainforest and there’s no doubt that his knowledge of Portuguese helped him during this time.
He even spent some time working as a Portuguese-English translator for a while earlier in his career according to IMDB.
In an interview with Animal Planet, Jeremy himself said that he speaks Portuguese fluently. He also said that Portuguese is the only language he speaks fluently besides English.
You can see Jeremy Wade speaking Portuguese in the video below:
As you can see from the video, Jeremy clearly speaks Portuguese very well and is really confident at speaking impromptu.
Does Jeremy Wade Speak Spanish?
Jeremy Wade understands Spanish but he can’t speak it.
Jeremy admitted once in an interview that he understands Spanish quite well but he struggles speaking it.
He said that when he tries to speak Spanish, he mixes it with Portuguese and it doesn’t make much sense.
Spanish likely came quite easy to him after learning Portuguese as the two languages share many similarities.
It’s understandable though that he may confuse the two when trying to speak for that very reason!
Did you know that Michael Portillo also speaks Spanish too?
What Other Languages Does Jeremy Wade Speak?
In an interview with Animal Planet, Jeremy mentioned that he speaks bits of 12 other languages besides English and Portuguese.
He said that his level in each language varies drastically.
Jeremy mentioned that he has studied Hindi, Russian and Lingala extensively.
Lingala is the main spoken language in the Congo where Jeremy has spent a significant amount of time fishing and producing content for his TV shows.
It also makes sense that Jeremy studied Hindi extensively as his first ever international trip was to India back in 1982. He later returned and filmed several documentaries there.
He even appeared in a Bollywood film in 1986 as an extra.
Due to his extensive travels across Africa, including a lot of time in the Congo, Jeremy has also picked up a decent amount of French which is spoken in many countries in Africa due to their colonial history.
He also knows a bit of Pidgin which is a common English-based creole language spoken in many countries in Africa.
Jeremy has said before that, when it comes to languages, the most important thing is to make an effort, even if you only know a few words.
Check out Jeremy Wade talking about how many languages he speaks in the video below:
What Are Jeremy Wade’s Views On Learning Languages?
Jeremy Wade thinks that learning and speaking other languages is hugely important.
He’s said before that languages are a great way to connect with the local community and are especially important for his line of work.
Jeremy travels the globe, spending lots of time in remote, rural locations and he needs the help of the locals to film his TV shows.
He relies on the local communities to help him and teach him what he needs to know in order to discover new fish or uncover truths.
For this reason, speaking at least a little bit of the local tongue is hugely important and is partly what has enabled him to have so much success in producing such captivating TV programs.
In fact, Jeremy himself said he’s studied over 12 different languages and all of them have been useful to him at some point in time.
It may surprise you that Jeremy Wade knows over 12 languages. It surprised us too!
It’s great that Jeremy has spent so much time learning languages including several that few people ever try to learn.
Thanks for reading this post which answers the question ‘how many languages does Jeremy Wade speak?’.
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