Do the Turtles know Japanese?

[Bauer536]

Okay, depending on how the turtles are in any incarnation, it should be obvious that since Leo is close to Splinter and dedicated to the arts of ninjutsu, he is likely to know Japanese. Donnie could do it to, but he may have no interest in using that language in any case even if it's possible he can speak it. Mikey and Raph may not really care about the Japanese language that much, but soon may learn it as a requirement for Splinter.

[Donnie]

Originally Posted by Machias Banshee

I could see Donnie getting interested in understanding the history of languages...

I can totally see that as well. The history of languages, absolutely. I just don't know if he'd be a scholar, so to say, in any foreign language because he's never overtly been labeled a linguist. That's not to say that he couldn't be fluent or even an expert in a different language, because he's obviously brilliant.

[Jester]

I flipped through Tales Vol 2 #19 after reading Doc Spengler's review, and I think it points to Mirage Leo not speaking or understanding Japanese.

[Cryomancer]

Peter Laird is/was (as of this posting) doing another round of blog questions so I asked about this.

http://peterlairdstmntblog.blogspot..../ask-pl-9.html

PL August 10, 2012 7:19 PM

While we never specifically addressed it, as far as I can remember, my gut feeling is that they could all speak (and write and read) English and Japanese. I suspect Don might have known some additional languages. -- PL

[Panda_Kahn_fan]

Not to dig up an old thread, but the word 'clan' isn't japanese, it's celtic. The Japanese word for clan would be 'shi', hence the foot clan would actually be called the "Ahsi-shi".

[ToTheNines]

Raph could speak fluent Japanese in the Image books.