Octolingual Pete Buttigieg just proved he can speak Italian at a news conference

Pete Buttigieg.
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Now he's just showing off.

South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg, a fast-rising 2020 Democratic presidential candidate who people like to say is "having a moment," put his language skills to the test today. Buttigieg, a former Rhodes Scholar, has turned some heads because of his ability to reportedly speak eight different languages — in addition to English, he can speak Norwegian, Italian, Spanish, Maltese (his father is an immigrant from Malta), Arabic, Dari, and French. Today, during a press conference at Northeastern University in Boston, he provided further evidence that he is, indeed, a legitimate polyglot.

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.