Kobe Bryant: A Man of Many Languages

Kobe Bryant not only speaks fluently in English and Italian but is also learning Serbian and French for very practical reasons. For one week now Kobe has been sitting on 15 technical fouls, one short of the league’s automatic suspension. However, it seems as if number twenty-four is unable to stop his practice of yelling at the referees. This is where knowing multiple languages comes in as the Washington Post explains.

Bryant has held his tongue, walked the other way or used another, more confusing means to voice his frustrations to officials. “I just cuss them out really bad in Serbian,” Bryant joked.

Bryant said he has learned how to swear in the native languages of teammates Vladimir Radmanovic (Serbia), Sasha Vujacic (Slovenia) and Ronny Turiaf (France). “I’ve been cursing in French. French is really cool, because everything sounds good in French.”

Didn’t I say he was learning these languages for practical reasons.