Angelina Jolie’s children are learning seven languages.
The 41-year-old actress has revealed her kids Maddox, 14, Pax, 12, Zahara, 11, Shiloh, 10 and seven-year-old twins Vivienne and Knox aren’t overly interested in following in the footsteps of her and her husband Brad Pitt by carving out a career in film and would rather focus on becoming multilingual.
Speaking on Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, she said: "I asked them what languages they wanted to learn and Shiloh’s learning Khmer, which is the Cambodian language, Pax is focusing on Vietnamese, Mad has taken to German and Russian, Zahara’s speaking French, Vivienne really wanted to learn Arabic and Knox is learning sign language.
"I suppose you don’t know who your children are until they show you who they are and they’re just becoming whoever they’re going to be. They’re interested about other cultures."
And Angelina – who was named a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations (UN) 15 years ago and now acts as a special envoy to the UN Refugee Agency – is also proud of how much interest her children take when it comes to her work with refugees.
She said recently: "I’d never push them to be involved. It’s something I believe each person must come to on their own. It has to be an honest and real connection."
The actress and director has admitted it was her eldest son Maddox, who she adopted in 2002 from an orphanage in Battambang, who encouraged her to make her last film ‘First They Killed My Father’, which is based on Loung Ung’s account of the Khmer Rouge’s regime in Cambodia.
She explained: "Maddox has known Loung since he was a baby. It was his urging that pushed me to make the film.
"He has been with me every step of the way, from script to post-production. Shiloh asked to travel with me to Lebanon after I told her of a little Syrian girl named Hala.
"She wanted to meet her and she and Pax have shown interest, like most kids do, in what their mom does."
Angelina Jolie’s kids learning 7 lanugages
