Jaden Smith’s father, Will Smith, has shown that he is able to speak Spanish. He frequently even does interviews in a mix of Spanish and English. This has made people wonder what languages Jaden speaks.
Despite his father being bilingual, it is thought that Jaden Smith only speaks English. Jaden grew up in America to native English speakers, Will and Jada Pinkett-Smith. His father learned Spanish on his own and is not fluent, so he never taught Jaden or his sister Willow.
Continue reading to find out more about Jaden Smith’s upbringing and his history with language learning.
Jaden Smith’s Upbringing
Jaden Smith was born in 1998 in Malibu, California. While there is no official language in the United States on a federal level, English is the most common language.
Approximately 239 million people in the United States speak English and all government services are completed in English.
As his parents are also native English speakers, Jaden did not grow up with a need to learn another language.
He was also homeschooled by his mother Jada, so while some children may have learned Spanish or another language in school, Jaden did not have that opportunity.
Jaden’s father Will, however, learned Spanish as an adult. When asked how he learned, Will responded: “Los Angeles, talking to people. Traveling to Spain where I do have many friends. Little by little I’ve been learning and I’m not afraid of talking or making mistakes, but I’m conscious of my terrible accent.”
This exemplifies that there are other ways to learn another language without schooling, even as an adult. So Jaden may learn another language later on in life as he is only twenty-one years old now.
The “Jaden” Language
Though Jaden Smith only speaks English, in 2014 he tweeted this: “I don’t want you guys to think because I was born in America that I speak and abide by English grammar. I speak Jaden, indefinitely.”
This is not the first tweet of Jaden’s that is strangely cryptic as he has been known to tweet whatever seems to be on his mind.
Creating his own language, however, was a new one. Based on his tweets, fans have compiled rules for speaking the Jaden language.
In his tweets, he consistently uses the wrong “there” “their” or “they’re”, so fans have said in Jaden’s language, there is no difference between these three words.
Similarly, when he is tweeting, Jaden capitalizes the first letter of every word rather than the English rule of capitalizing proper nouns and words at the beginning of a sentence.
For example, his tweet on the 28th of August, 2014: “The Sky Is Purple”. Capitalization rules in Jaden’s language do not apply.
His language also does not use punctuation, apparently, as he tweeted: “Stop Gossiping Reflect Internally You Will Find Yourself A Neglected Part Of Your Self.”
When he does use punctuation, it is not correct as evident by this tweet: “JUPITER!!!!!”
Math also does not seem to follow the same rules in Jaden’s language as he tweeted: “School = Depression. Learning + Creation = Happiness. Happiness = Art. Art = Intelligence. Intelligence = Rebellion. And Rebellion is Bad For The”
We’ll never know what rebellion is bad for as Jaden never finished his sentence.
Jaden has since changed his Twitter handle from @officialjaden to just @jaden. Fans thought this might mark the change of a new era of tweeting. He does seem to use more traditional English grammar now but is still following his rule of capitalizing the first letter of every word.
Other than using his self-proclaimed language, “Jaden”, Jaden Smith writes his own music and frequently collaborates with his sister Willow Smith.
All of their music is in English and frequently changes styles. Jaden describes his music as genre-fluid, but is typically hip hop, rap, or punk rock.
So, Jaden Smith is a native English speaker, a native Jaden speaker and a natural musician.