How Shakira Learned 7 Languages Fast

How many languages does Shakira speak? She actually speaks seven languages.

And we're not talking about tourist phrases either. We're talking Brazilian street slang, Walt Whitman poems and one language so controversial that Spain called her a traitor.

But behind the glitter and the hips, something way more interesting is going on. Because Shakira did not grow up multilingual. She had to work to learn these languages.

And if you've been struggling to fit language learning into your life, juggling work, stress and a million other things, you're going to want to see how she learned her languages.

If you prefer watching videos to reading, hit play on the video version of this post at the top of this page. Otherwise, here's what you'll discover in this article:

Spanish: Where It All Began

Shakira grew up in Barranquilla on Colombia's Caribbean coast. Spanish was her only fluent language.

She started writing poems aged eight, picked up the guitar at nine and by 13, she was already recording songs. Fun fact: the choir teacher kicked her out because her voice was too strong.

Before any of us had even heard of her, Shakira already had hits across Latin America, entirely in Spanish.

And that's important because it's easy to assume that some multilingual people grew up speaking six languages before breakfast. But Shakira didn't. She started just like the rest of us — with only one.

If you're only fluent in one language right now, take a breath. You're exactly where Shakira was.

How Did Shakira Learn Arabic?

If you've seen her belly dancing, you already know that didn't come from Colombia. It came from her dad. Her dad was Lebanese and when she was a kid, she would hear Arabic music playing around the house, especially at big family dinners.

In Lebanon, they speak Levantine Arabic. It's similar to what you'll hear in places like Jordan or Palestine — same dialect family, but Lebanon has its own flavour.

There's a fun story that she's told a few times. She was four years old, eating at a Middle Eastern restaurant in Colombia, when suddenly a dumbek drum started playing and some belly dancers came out.

Little Shakira climbed up on the table and started imitating them right there in front of everyone. That was the moment — the spark.

Her name even comes from Arabic. Shakira means “grateful.” By the time she was 12, she was performing Lebanese songs off by heart anywhere she got the chance.

She even convinced her dad to buy her an Arabic music album so she could copy the sounds and practise those hip drops and shimmies, which she may or may not have learned from her Lebanese gran.

But this was not the end of her Arabic story. First, she had a whole continent to win over.

Portuguese: Learning On The Job In Brazil

Shakira was just 18 when she started touring in Brazil, and Brazil went absolutely mad for her. When you're on stage in São Paulo with a sea of fans screaming your lyrics back at you, you quickly realise Spanish alone isn't going to cut it.

So she made a choice. She started picking up Portuguese right there on the job.

It doesn't look like she even took any classes — she just learned through all the interviews, rehearsals, stage banter, chatting with fans and hearing street slang. Real life language. And only two months in, she was speaking Portuguese.

Obviously Spanish helped, but even native Spanish speakers struggle with that twisty Brazilian accent. It's very easy to end up speaking half Spanish, half Portuguese because you can kind of get by. Not her. She spoke Brazilian Portuguese.

Next thing you know, she's recording full songs in Portuguese, coaching Brazilian singers on The Voice and winning over an entire country. She trained her ear just by living it.

You hear a bit of Spanish sneak in sometimes, but her Portuguese is solid — somewhere around a high B2, I would say.

Portuguese helped her blow up in Brazil and earned her a pretty awesome name: the Queen of Latin Music.

How Did Shakira Learn English?

A lot of people think English was Shakira's second language, but when she arrived in the US the first time, her English was extremely basic. And yet she was already releasing songs in English. How?

In the beginning, she had help from the legend herself, Gloria Estefan, who translated some of her early lyrics. But even though she was surrounded by Spanish speakers, Shakira knew that if she wanted to break into the US scene, English wasn't optional.

She didn't just sit back and sing the translations. She wanted to write her own lyrics. So she rolled up her sleeves and got to work on her English.

And unlike Portuguese, English gave her nothing for free. This wasn't just a different language — it was a totally different system.

So what did she do? She got a tutor. She bought a rhyming dictionary. She'd sit there writing lyrics one word at a time. She gave herself two years.

Then Shakira decided to go full nerd and start reading the great poet Walt Whitman — Leaves of Grass, if you're curious. That's some serious poetry. And why stop with Whitman?

She also studied Bob Dylan lyrics and Leonard Cohen. As she put it: “If I was going to learn English, I better learn from the masters. I wanted to understand everything about the resources of English literature and composition.”

Shakira chipped away until she could speak and write fluently, getting feedback from everyone — her producers, collaborators, friends. Sure, you can hear she's struggling in her early interviews, but there she is on TV trying and smiling.

The coolest part? She said that songwriting actually sped up her learning. That's not just a pop star trick, by the way. It works for anyone. Even learning lyrics helps your brain absorb grammar and vocabulary.

Have you ever heard her throw out words that most native speakers don't even use? Words like “paradoxical,” “conundrum,” “didactic” and “diaphanous.” That's what happens when you train like a beast. She does it in Spanish too, by the way.

Honestly, English was probably her hardest one. But everything she did — repetition, memory tricks, songwriting — that's not celebrity magic. It's smart language learning.

Notice what Shakira did not do. She didn't sit there with grammar workbooks. She wrote songs. She read poetry. She sang lyrics over and over and let native speakers correct her.

She treated language like a living, moving thing. And that's why it sticks. That's how you remember words without having to try.

Italian: Throwing Herself In The Deep End

Let's talk Italian. Even Shakira says she doesn't speak Italian all that well. But did she try? Of course she did.

She picked it up by spending time in Italy, just hanging out with locals, throwing herself in the deep end.

She's got a pretty strong fan base there, and it's clear she made the effort to connect: she sings in Italian, has spoken Italian at events and she's rather stubborn about doing it all without an interpreter.

There's a fantastic moment where she's on live Italian TV and she tells the interviewer she's totally chilled about speaking in Italian. She even switches to English for the bits that she can't quite say.

Honestly, I think that's the key. Fluency is a weird word. People love to argue about it, but the real question is: are you willing to try to focus on communicating even if you don't know the words? Because Shakira is.

Let's be real — a lot of people in her shoes would not even bother, especially when you're already juggling four or five other languages.

The cool thing is that once you've got a few good strategies for learning, picking up another Romance language isn't as hard as you think if you already speak Spanish and Portuguese.

Why Did Shakira Learn French?

One of the best ways to learn a new language is full immersion. Of course, if you're someone like Shakira touring the world year after year, immersion just kind of happens.

But by this point in her life, she'd already learned the hard way: nothing kills a great song faster than a weird translation.

So when her label wanted to release music in French, she took the same approach as always — understand enough of the language to personally make sure every version of every song meant exactly what she intended.

So she learned French.

She always says that she's not fluent, but she looks pretty relaxed and engaged in French interviews. She's clearly put in the work. She's sung “Ne Me Quitte Pas,” the classic French ballad, beautifully.

But she's done way more than this — she's sung at festivals and given entire French interviews. And there's no script reading going on. It's all real.

She knows more than enough to get by. And this is fluency in my book. At the very least, functional fluency — conversational, whatever you want to call it. It's great.

Catalan: The Language That Got Her In Trouble

You'd think she was done after all that, wouldn't you? But here's where things take a political twist.

Shakira's mum's family name is Ripoll. That's a Catalan name, and Shakira uses it. But the real reason she started picking up Catalan was a man.

Maybe you've heard of her big romance with the football legend Gerard Piqué. Catalan is his home language, and Shakira lived with him in Barcelona for over 10 years.

If you've ever flown into Barcelona, you've seen Catalan on the signs. It's the main language there. And if you've never even heard of it, it's a Romance language that sounds a bit like French and Spanish got together and had a child.

So naturally, she picks up some of the language. No big deal, right?

But then one day she sang in Catalan and suddenly the girl was in hot water. At the time, Catalonia was pushing hard for independence from Spain.

So when Shakira sang in Catalan, some people accused her of being a traitor. Social media blew up. But come on — she's just doing what she always does. She throws herself in, heels and all.

The Rest Of The Arabic Story

I told you this chapter wasn't done yet. As you might have guessed, Shakira never forgot Arabic. She's performed in Arabic in Beirut, for goodness sake, and that ain't easy.

I struggle to find evidence that she's a fluent speaker, so she's probably not, but she's clearly studied the sounds and gone deep into the feel of Arabic.

She often chats about how she grew up listening to the Arab world's classic divas. And it's good to have an inspiration as strong as this. It can really motivate you when things get tough.

In fact, here's something exciting to look forward to: Shakira plans to learn more Arabic so that she can fulfil her dream — an entire album in Arabic.

Somewhere in there, she also started learning some Hebrew, something to do with her work with UNICEF.

How Many Languages Does Shakira Speak? FAQ

What Can You Learn From Shakira's Approach?

So, how many languages does Shakira speak? Seven: Spanish, Arabic, Portuguese, English, Italian, French and Catalan — with Hebrew on the side.

But the real lesson isn't the number. It's how she learned them. Here's what stands out:

• She started with just one language. Shakira wasn't born multilingual. She grew up speaking only Spanish, just like most of us start with only one language. The others came later, through effort and exposure.
• She learned through doing, not just studying. Whether it was touring Brazil, writing English lyrics or living in Barcelona, Shakira picked up languages by using them in real situations — interviews, performances and everyday conversations.
• She wasn't afraid to make mistakes. She asks how to say words on camera. She switches to English when her Italian fails her. She tries, even when she's not perfect. That willingness to communicate, regardless of errors, is what keeps her improving.
• She used her passions as learning tools. Poetry, songwriting, music — Shakira turned her interests into language learning opportunities. She didn't separate learning from living.
• She invested time and got help. For English, she hired a tutor, bought a rhyming dictionary and gave herself two years. She sought feedback from producers, collaborators and friends.

The gap between you and Shakira isn't talent — at least not when it comes to languages. It's just knowing what actually works and being willing to throw yourself in.

Speaking of throwing yourself in, if this post made you want to keep improving your new language the StoryLearning App is a low-effort way to do it: short stories written at your level, with vocabulary support built in, so fifteen minutes of reading is a real session rather than a chore.

Have a look at the StoryLearning App.

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.