Languages and nationalities

Which languages Angelina understands and speaks, and to what extent, is a matter of some debate. It is obvious that she speaks both Norwegian and English at a native or near-native level. It is less obvious how much Swedish, Japanese, and Persian she knows, although it is commonly believed that she is familiar with these languages to varying extents, mainly due to the reported nationalities of certain family members.

Norwegian

Angelina was born in Oslo, Norway. She is regularly described as being Norwegian, as is her mother. It is widely assumed that Norwegian is her (Angelina's) native language, and there seems to be no evidence to contradict this.

English

Angelina has been singing in English since she was (reportedly) 18 months old. Presumably she was also starting to speak English around that time, although the earliest video evidence we have of that is from when she was (around?) three years old. It was reported, that she had relatives in California and had lived there for the first few years of her young life. She was already "conversational" in English by the time she was (reportedly) five years old.

On several occasions she has made English grammar and vocabulary mistakes, so she seems to be not quite at a native level with the language. She has developed a very "middle-of-the-road" (i.e., not noticeably "regional") American accent, however, after having lived in the U.S. for years. But even that sometimes "slips" and makes it clear that she did not grow up in an English-speaking country.

Swedish

Angelina's father is Swedish, but there doesn't seem to be any direct evidence that she speaks the language, only that she understands it. (Swedish and Norwegian are very closely related languages and have a high degree of mutual intelligibility^↗.) She has been interviewed more than once in Swedish, answering in Norwegian.

She has also sung a song called "Hey tomtegubbar", which has been described as a Swedish drinking song and also a children's Christmas song, but it is not clear whether she was actually singing any Swedish lyrics beyond the title words.

Japanese

Angelina's maternal grandfather is Japanese. It is known that her mother and uncle grew up in Japan and speak Japanese. The extent to which Angelina was spoken to in Japanese as she was growing up is unknown.

When she visited Japan in March 2017, she sang a song in Japanese (apparently with the aid of written lyrics) and was interviewed in the language multiple times through interpreters speaking English. It is not clear how much of the Japanese she understood before getting the English translations.

When asked to record a message to a Japanese fan when she was 14, she chose to do so in English. This seems highly significant: if she can speak Japanese well, presumably she would have recorded the message in Japanese. So, it seems that she is, at the very least, not "fluent" in the language.

Persian

Angelina's maternal grandmother is Iranian and speaks Persian (a.k.a. Farsi), in addition to other languages. She and Angelina are very close, so it is assumed that they sometimes speak Persian with each other. However, direct evidence of this seems to be hard to come by. (To be specific, it is not known whether any video exists where Angelina is either spoken to in Persian or speaks Persian.)

When Angelina met the shoeless girl in "the Middle East", they had a lengthy conversation. Some people assume that this must have taken place in the girl's native language, which they assume must have been Persian. However, Angelina has never been specific as to what language they were speaking and even whether they were both speaking the same language, as opposed to going through an "interpreter" ­(i.e., her mother or grandmother).

German

Angelina has learned German in school, and spoke a few simple sentences herself when being interviewed by a German television team on 2014-10-06.

On 2024-05-10, towards the end of an Instagram livestream, Toby Gad asked her in German if she would speak and understand German. After first jokingly denying that with "Mmm-mmmm", she said she would ("I do"). However, she then asked how she would say that in German, which indicates that she's not fluent in German. She then went on with saying "I love you" in German ("Ich liebe dich").

Other languages

Angelina has been interviewed in (Brazilian) Portuguese, and probably other languages, as well, but she used an interpreter in these cases and did not speak these languages. Whether she showed any evidence of understanding the languages at all is a matter of personal opinion.

She has also sung in French and Spanish.