What Languages Does Blinken Speak?
Anthony Blinken Speaks English and French fluently.
Blinken has a flawless command of the French language, with only a smidgeon of an accent.
After his parents divorced and his mother, Judith, married Holocaust survivor and strong lawyer Samuel Pisar, the future top diplomat relocated to Paris as a child.
Blinken is no “Omelette du Fromage Man,” but the Real Cassoulet, much to the joy of French policymakers, journalists, and other fervent “francophonie” torchbearers.
He’s done a lot of interviews in French, and he’s very good at it. Blinken went to École Jeannine Manuel, a bilingual institution in Paris where another Obama administration alumnus, Robert Malley, also attended.
Blinken’s half-sister Leah lives in France and runs a non-profit promoting multicultural understanding, while his stepfather Samuel Pisar, a lawyer and Holocaust survivor, was close with former French President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing.
Blinken has been hailed as a “friend of France” by the former French ambassador to the United States, Gerard Araud.
Blinken has already discussed the importance of the EU as an American ally.
His French is fluent, as one would expect from someone who spent part of his childhood here, and he is glad to give speeches in French as well as participate in interviews and Q&A sessions in French.
And because this ability is so uncommon among American politicians, Blinken has received a lot of great news in France.
