Does Serena Williams Speak French?

Serena Williams is one of the most successful women to ever play tennis.

She won 23 Grand Slam titles and 4 Olympic gold medals. And she gave her victory speeches in foreign languages!

Does Serena Williams speak French? Yes she does. In fact, Serena williams is multilingual.

Serena Williams takes speaking French as seriously as her tennis. But how does she do it? 

In this post you’re going to find out all of Serena’s language learning secrets, so you can master your new language fast.

Why Does Serena Williams Speak French? 

First things first…

How on earth did a girl from Compton, California end up giving live interviews in French with millions of tennis fans watching all around the world?

Serena’s story kicks off with a dream and some fierce determination.  

When she was 11 years old, she decided she was going to win the French Open. Instead of just writing it in her diary, she told everyone about her plan.

And then she said she was going to give her victory speech in French when she won. 

Could she speak French? No, she was 11! Talk about putting yourself on the spot. 

Her thinking? “I know English, maybe I can learn French.”

• Did she win the French Open 22 years later? Yep. 
• Did she speak French? Yes.

Serena wins the French Open and keeps her promise, thousands of people watching in the stands, millions of people watching on TV  – it’s pretty gutsy. 

But then again, setting a language learning goal like that where you make yourself accountable to everyone – that's going to motivate you. 

Is her French any good, though? You'll soon find out!

You see, there’s a little more to it than just the French Open. 

When Serena sets a goal for herself, she crushes it. And it has everything to do with the way her mind works.

Born Fierce And Feisty

Okay, if you’ve ever seen Serena Williams on the court, you'll know that she likes to win. 

But let’s rewind the clock, because you need to know a little backstory first. So, I was digging around and I found a cheeky little secret about her: 

Serena’s been a winner ever since she was a child. And I mean a feisty winner – she cannot bear to lose! Want to hear what her mum said?

“With Serena, everything had to be perfect and she would get frustrated if it wasn't. She always had to win, no matter if it was a talent show, cards, she had to be the winner.”

Oracene Price, Serena William's mother

OK, this is good intel! 

It sounds like losing was never an option – not with tennis, not with French. 

But there’s more.  

Her dad was her first coach – he started teaching her tennis when she was just 3 years old, and he was a super strict coach!

And somehow, between her very strict Dad Coach, and her natural can’t-lose attitude, something huge happened – Serena became a force of nature. 

Think she attacked French like she attacks the court? You bet. But as you’ll see, she didn’t do it in the usual way. 

I’ve never heard anyone say this before – most people wouldn’t dare – but Serena has a very unusual thing driving her. 

She said…  

“If I don’t have that intensity or that anger, I’m not doing as well as I need to do to win. Sometimes I almost need to get angry to win, which is really, really weird but it works for me.” 

Serena Williams

Now don’t panic – I’m not going to tell you to let anger stoke your language lessons unless that works for you.

But you can definitely channel your passion from something else if you want to! Meanwhile, Serena secretly had a second great reason to tackle French.

French-Speaking Africa

You see, she’d already heard about French-speaking Africa as a girl, and she was fascinated. 

“I learned that in Africa they speak French – it's like one of the most popular languages over there. So as a girl, I wanted to speak French.” 

Serena Williams

And it’s true that many African countries have French as one of their languages. 

Now, I just want to mention something real quick about learning French. Even though it’s quite tricky with pronunciation, it’s actually one of the easiest languages you can learn. 

The hard parts are things like silent letters – they’re a pain at first, because they make reading a bit difficult, 

And there are all these gendered word endings to get used to. And let’s not talk about getting your mouth around the French ‘R’ – that one’s a real challenge!

But check this out: 

On the (in)famous FSI chart, French is only a category one language  –  those are languages that you could learn in 24 weeks if you’re studying every day – not bad, huh? 

And it’s an official language in 29 countries – pretty useful! 

I think Serena chose a good first language to learn. 

Anyway, she gets older and hears about the big Franco-African tennis stars, like Yannick Noah who is Franco-Cameroonian.  

Next thing, Serena’s on a plane to Africa! She went a few times, actually – what was it, 6 countries? 7?

She didn’t want to feel like a fish out of water – her words – so she worked on her French first.

And came home even more inspired by French Africa – which is not quite the same as Parisian French! 

Listen, I’m sure you know this, but one of the strongest inspirations when you learn a language is connecting through culture – get curious!

And it certainly doesn’t have to be from the origin land – my Spanish is from the Canary Islands, for goodness’ sake.

Anyway, back in France, Serena was in the Olympic Village and she was speaking to an African athlete.

She noticed his English wasn't great, so she started speaking to him in French, and he was really surprised.

He said, “But you're American, no Americans speak other languages.” 

All these little interactions made her more excited about French. And then one day in 2012, Serena hired a Frenchman as her coach.

The French Coach

That’s her coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, and it seems he did at least some coaching in French – what a way to make the language practical! Right?

And working with a French-speaking coach was just one more reason to get good at the language. 

She really does push herself hard, doesn’t she?! 

I don’t know what language they speak in private, but clearly she’s used to hearing French from him. 

Very inspiring guy, by the way. Back to Serena.

And we definitely know why she wanted to learn French,  but how did she actually do it? 

How Did Serena Williams Learn French? 

I can’t wait to talk about how good she is! Ok, I’m going to give it to you straight.

Serena Williams didn’t get to study French in school, and she didn’t go to a fancy French academy.

There was none of that, but she was still so determined to do it. And she couldn’t break her promise, so she decided to do it on her own!

From young, she did a tonne of self-study, and she kept this up over the years – I’m talking way before she even got to Africa. 

In fact, she’s been picking up French things ever since she was in 6th grade! Yep – while she was training to become the greatest tennis player of all time. 

Her sister Isha said:

“She wanted to speak French, so she's fluent in French.”

Isha Price, Serena William's sister

Just like her tennis, then. I bet no-one dared stop her!

When she was in college she wanted to take French, but they didn't offer it that semester. So she just kept on studying and practising relentlessly on her own, any chance she could get, and hung out with French friends – even if they were mostly tennis players! 

All for her dream of speaking at the French Open. Fast forward to after her massive win and the amazing speech.

And what do you know? 

Serena is still at it, still doing all the French things!

She’s studying, she’s immersing herself in the language, she’s gone to Africa many times for some alternative French culture, and she’s even taken lots of live interviews in French. 

What else could make her French experience more real? 

Paris

Ah, Paris. What can I say?

Language is more than just words and when your job is to play the French Open, it helps to have a Paris outpost to call home! 

If you happen to love the city, all the better. And in 2007, Serena bought herself an apartment in Paris. 

So now we’re really talking. This isn’t just about tennis anymore. 

She set roots in Paris and she’s helping her daughter Olympia learn French.

And you know what else? By teaching Olympia, she’s not only making the language more meaningful, she's taking her own French to a whole new level! 

It’s just something cool that happens when you teach – you have to think about the language, and you learn even more. 

This kid! Olympia was already saying lavez les mains for “wash your hands” when she was just 11 months old. 

There’s no denying it – Serena has a new motive to work on her French! 

Does it count as immersion? It totally does, because she’s creating a French environment in her home life, and this is how the magic of language really comes alive. 

But I know you’re only here for the answer to one big question: How good is Serena Williams’ French? 

How Good Is Serena Williams' French?

Click here to watch a clip from an interview on French TV with Serena. She seems to understand everything, but how’s her response?

Well, I’m hearing a strong American accent – she can definitely speak French, though.

The interviewer asks her if she’s scared of her rivals, and Serena asks her coach: “How do you say “fear”?”

I like that – she’s willing to ask for help. 

And she doesn’t use complicated French, she uses very simple words, but she’s getting her message across. 

Honestly, you don’t need more than 1,000 words to get speaking – for any language. Now listen carefully…

“All of them!” Okay, so she didn’t know the phrase toutes les trois and she said it in English. 

Again, she’s not scared to speak when she doesn’t know the right words – that’s good! It’s a strength. 

Here and there she confuses words, like savoir and connaître,  and gets her word order wrong – but that’s common with beginners.

So, bottom line? 

Serena doesn't speak like a native, but she owns her mistakes and just keeps speaking confidently; 

People understand her, and she sounds great! 

In my book, that’s what fluent is.

I remember once she said speaking French in front of the world was way more nerve-racking than playing tennis.

That's hilarious because I’m sure the rest of us think the opposite,  but yeah – speaking a new language to actual people is a whole different ball game, especially when you’re put on the spot!

Key lesson here: drop the ego and speak fearlessly! 

That wraps up this case study of Serena Williams and her French. I hope you've picked up some practical tips and mindset hacks that will help you learn your new language.

If you'd like to discover more multilingual celebrities, check out my case studies of John Cena and Trevor Noah.

Does Serena Williams Speak French? FAQ

Olly Richards

Creator of the StoryLearning® Method

Olly Richards is a renowned polyglot and language learning expert with over 15 years of experience teaching millions through his innovative StoryLearning® method. He is the creator of StoryLearning, one of the world's largest language learning blogs with 500,000+ monthly readers.

Olly has authored 30+ language learning books and courses, including the bestselling "Short Stories" series published by Teach Yourself.

When not developing new teaching methods, Richards practices what he preaches—he speaks 8 languages fluently and continues learning new ones through his own methodology.