What Charlene Can do to make her mark on Monaco?

[Lenora]

Originally Posted by Duke of Marmalade

Unfortunately, Charlene is in good company regarding the hardly-speaking-french issue, something that is beyond my understanding.

While Maxima understood from the beginning how important it is to speak the language of the people of the country she was about to become a princess of, there are lots of examples, most notably in Denmark, where the consort or princess hasnt fully adapted to the native language after months, years or even decades what in my opinion is really shame- and disrespectful.

If I was to marry a prince of a country that is not not my country of origin, I would work pff my butt and spend, if necessary, 24 hours a day with private tutors etc in order to do my engagement interview fluent in the respective language. Not doing so in my opinion shows arrogance and lazyness, a bad start to the lifelong relationship with the public.

I don't think Charlene is very arrogant or lazy.Maybe Maxima was more spontaneous in communication and has more abilities in learning foreign languages,I guess she was more in love with her husband.
While Charlene seems to be more shy and distant ,the Monegasque and French mentality are distant for her.She already has achievement in sport and she is not hurrying to conquer the hearts of new people.

[Tilla]

Pitty, that Prince Albert did not make me the Princess of Monaco, I am speaking very well French......

[melina premiere]

Yes,why not? The prince must marry all the intelligent girls of France, they speak french, but not the usa girls there are too many and they don't speak french only english what damage!

[CrownPrincess5]

Just a few months ago I thought she had to make some drastic changes to make her mark, but after seeing her at the recent events by herself I think she will have no problem in her position. She coming out into her own and now I think it's up the people to give her a chance.

[Hissy]

Yes, the problem though is that CW doesn't seem nearly so comfortable and outgoing as she did in her home country when she is in Monaco. Besides that I don't think she should be doing any official trips until after they are married. (If this trip even was considered "official"?)

I have minimal understanding of and verbal skills for French, but I sometimes can get the gist of things by recognizing key words, etc. I would love to learn French and other languages.

CW does seem to be really concentrating when people speak French to her and looks to be trying to understand. Yet she seems to be much more comfortable with English, etc. in her homeland and I'm thinking that was another reason she looked relieved to be there.

I wonder how many people who live in Monaco actually have a good command of English? Pretty sure they would be quite a few and if CW takes the care to be warm to the local people they (and others) would probably be more than willing to speak to her in English until she gets a better grasp of French (she said herself in the last interview she gave for a podcast that French is still difficult for her).

The criticism comes from the length of time she has lived in Monaco already, I believe, and it frustrates and disappoints those people that CW is not more fluent already. Perhaps this could fall to Prince Albert to speak to her in French more so she is forced to understand, but not to feel embarrassed practicing in public, or in interviews?

To Tilla: Very funny post!

[Fürstin Taxis]

I´m sure she will learn it the next months (years?). If you have a good teacher, then it´s easy after a while. My French is modest, but I understand articles in this language.

[CrownPrincess5]

I think she should just be herself. She'll eventually warm up and feel more comfortable with Monaco like she does with her hometown.

I don't see anything wrong with her doing official trips. Albert and Charlene are grown and I think they should do what they want to do.

[Renata4711]

I still maintain that it's quite hard for English speakers to learn French. I was lucky because I had French / Walloon speakers in my family. As a language tutor I found that English speakers, especially first year, had a lot of trouble with pronunciation, amongst other things.

CW is not doing herself nor Monaco any favours by failing to make a concerted effort to learn both Monégasque and Standard French.

[melina premiere]

I will say you are right that Charlene did nothing to learn French the day where you all would say these critics in a correct french, go go girls, show what you are able to do in french and than I will say nothing about that otherwise it is only critics.
Charlene speaks french , we see her speaking french but she is not easily confortable like many of us when we must exprims our feelings...Stephan Bern says that she is speaking more and more fluently.It is previous that there will be an interview of the prince and Charlene Wittstock before the wedding. We will see.

[fairy tale]

There is a difference: Why must everybody be able to speak french til he is allowed to critizise? Charlene chose to live in a french speaking country, even in a high position also somehow as kind of rolemodel. I guess that doesn't apply to most of us.

[Sereta]

Just a thought but perhaps she didn't study hard to learn the language because she wasn't sure she would be living there permanently until Albert proposed. Why should she spend so much time on something if it may not pan out? The amount of time from the proposal to the engagement interview wasn't exactly enough time to learn a language fluently. Hopefully now that they are engaged she will devote more time to learning it.
I agree with Hissy that Albert should help her by speaking to her in French because the best way to learn it is to actually apply it to everyday speaking.

[Mermaid1962]

Yes, I agree. English and French are so different. French, as a Romance language, has more in common with Spanish and Italian. The structure of English is so different, and we don't have masculine and feminine for objects, except for referring to ships as "she" and other rarities. There are a lot of students here who take French Immersion for years and still can't speak the language fluently when they graduate from High School. An advantage English-speakers had years ago is that they were taught Latin, which is a great help to understanding how cases work in any language. I was in the last Latin class in Nova Scotia, believe it or not--
six boys and I in Grade 10.

Originally Posted by Renata4711

I still maintain that it's quite hard for English speakers to learn French. I was lucky because I had French / Walloon speakers in my family.

[Tilla]

Oui, il faut apprendre le Francais ((avec cedille)) ((et accent)).......parce que c`est la PLUS BELLE LANGUE du monde.

[Nathalie Cox]

Originally Posted by melina premiere

I will say you are right that Charlene did nothing to learn French the day where you all would say these critics in a correct french, go go girls, show what you are able to do in french and than I will say nothing about that otherwise it is only critics.
Charlene speaks french , we see her speaking french but she is not easily confortable like many of us when we must exprims our feelings...Stephan Bern says that she is speaking more and more fluently.It is previous that there will be an interview of the prince and Charlene Wittstock before the wedding. We will see.

Your love for Charlene is amazing. How you defend her, it's really amazing.
We don't need to speak french, she MUST speak it, she knew this was going to happen. So, it's her fault if she doesn't speak well in 4 years. I mean, 4 years are 4 years, don't you think?

[iceflower]

_________________


I think we all agree that it's essential that the future Princess of Monaco will speak French
fluently one day, as always criticism is allowed and in this particular case not a question of
own language skills. Having said that, this is not the topic of this thread, so let us move on now!

Thanks for your understanding!

[maria-olivia]

What she did in her country for the Special Olympics was great .

[rob2008]

Other than producing heirs, she can bring a healthy eating regime and appropriate exercise to Albert's lifestyle. He needs a change of direction if he is to avoid health disease, diabetes etc. He is looking terribly overweight.

[Lumutqueen]

Helping Albert loose weight is going to make her mark on Monaco how?

[Renata4711]

In view of his very large tummy at the Swedish wedding, CW could/should indeed try to influence him to change his sedentary lifestyle.

[KittyAtlanta]

There are some photos of PA on another thread (taken on Feb. 21). He is standing with three other men who look to be of average size and he looks no larger than they do. He's been working on his physique.

Here's the thread, last post on page 9...
http://www.theroyalforums.com/forums...ml#post1208704