"I speak a few languages," he admits with a small smile. "My parents spoke Spanish when I was growing up, so I learned that from them, but I picked up the others during my time in the military. My Dutch is mostly limited to being able to give the dog commands and only because I was friendly with the man who did the training."

John doesn't generally think of himself as being intelligent. He follows orders, he does what he's told, he does it well, but sometimes he surprises himself and the fact that he speaks several languages fluently and others conversationally says something about him he's never quite known what to do with. "I think I just have a knack for it," he says. "I'm fairly good with Portuguese and Arabic as well."