English Speaking Royals


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Princess Marie (Denmark) speaks English very well; obviously you can hear her French accent, but I find her much easier to understand than, for example, CP Frederik. In my opinion, Joachim, contrary to what one psoter wrote earlier on, speaks excellent English, probably due to having been married to a native speaker of English for so many years.
 
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alex001 said:
Princess Marie (Denmark) speaks English very well; obviously you can hear her French accent, but I find her much easier to understand than, for example, CP Frederik. In my opinion, Joachim, contrary to what one psoter wrote earlier on, speaks excellent English, probably due to having been married to a native speaker of English for so many years.
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I must say I agree with you. I just watched the press interview Joachim and Marie did to announce their engagement on YouTube, and I almost found Joachim's English to be a bit British. I honestly haven't heard enough of Frederik speaking English to judge, but I'm sure he speaks English just as well. Not only is he married to a native English speaker, but I know he spent some time in U.S. studying at Harvard.
 
CaliforniaDreamin said:
Well, that's good information-thanks! I am happy to hear that the Duc de Brabant does indeed speak Dutch, maybe it is the anti-monarchist Flemings who complain about his grasp of the language?

It was very wise indeed for Albert and Paola to ensure that their children spoke Dutch. Unfortunately I read in "A Throne For Brussels" by Paul Belien that when Paola first married Albert she absolutely refused to learn, saying that she found the language "ugly".

That was back in her wild, controversial days as Princess de Liege. She is a completely different woman now, and as Queen of the Belgians she undoubtedly wishes she had taken the time to learn the language!
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Foreign (and especially French) accents are not very much appreciated in Flemish speaking Belgium, something to do with history. These days, Mathilde speaks excellent Dutch, even if she still has an accent. Philippe's Dutch is pretty good, but stiff. King Albert's Dutch is Flemishy, really cute. I know King Baudouin's Dutch was impeccable (or almost, anyway). Queen Fabiola reputedly speaks Dutch pretty good, but I cannot judge because I never heard her say more than two sentences.

As to Queen Paola... She reputedly once said "I will never understand that peasant's language", meaning Dutch. I suppose that would explain why she wasn't always that much appreciated... It's rocky, and actually quite unacceptable for the Queen of a country of which over half the population speaks the language. On the other hand, she also reputedly still takes Dutch language courses every summer. So that would be in her favour, she still is trying.

The "next gen" (Albert's grandchildren) all went to school in Dutch-speaking schools from kindergarten onwards, so they should be perfectly bilingual.

I believe Philippes English is not that bad. Totally French accent, but not that bad. Same for Mathilde.
 
giov said:
They only teach to translate sentences and poems with the help of the dictionary, but nobody can speak latin, not even the teachers can, and I am sure that not even the US teachers can!
Actually, I have never heard of anybody who can.
So, I am sure William studied Latin, but he doesn't speak Latin, of course.
They laugh at you if you say you can speak Latin!
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Well, in our school they actually teach you to speak Latin. We read, write and speak Latin. We can't use dictionary - we have to know at least a thousand words by heart :nonono:

I'm going through the first year of Latin. It's the most hated subject. In the first 6 months we were forced to learn all five declensions, all four conjugations, five tenses, passive and active forms, plus numerous proverbs - all by heart. I'm brainwashed :eek: I can only imagine how hard it is for native speakers of English, since English nouns decline only to distinguish singular from plural (not grammatical genders and grammatical cases, like in Latin and Bosnian).

But it's nice when you can read the inscription on a medieval coin and actually understand it!

So, I believe it is possible that Prince William of Wales speaks Latin.
 
MM's English is excellent! She seems so relaxed and comfortable speaking it. It appears to come naturally to her. Thank you for posting these videos. I had never heard her speaking English before.
 
Has anyone else noticed the change in Rania's accent? It seems more Americanized as she's enunciating her T's less and gliding over her vowels. Everything is consciously less studied, just like her fashion.



Humera said:
one of my classmates at university was from Egypt and she attended the American university in Cairo before she moved to Canada, she had absolutely no accent either!
She said that a lot of their profs are American so that probably accounts for the lack of accent too.


King Abdullah and Queen Rania's kids also speak English along with Arabic. They have english speaking nannies and go to English schools.
Infact English is almost like a second first-language to the members of the Jordanian royal family which is not surprising since a lot of them have been educated in the UK and US.
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wow MM sounds like an American! And she seems like a fun person to be around! I've always thought she would have an accent.
 
I Was surprised at how Different MM And Crown Prince Haakon sound and Prince
and Prince Joachim sounds British!
 
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i was always curious about King Juan Carlos and Queen Silvia portuguese. i never found videos of them speaking it. Portuguese is one of the hardest languages around, and i never heard a non-portuguese citizen speak in a perfect portuguese accent, never in my life! portuguese of Portugal, not portuguese in Brazil.

i speak Portuguese, Spanish, English and Japanese. except the Japanese royals, i wonder if another royals speak Japanese. i knew once that Princess Raiyah of Jordan went to study in Japan.
i want to learn Korean too, never heard of an european royal that speaks that language too!

anyone here has some videos of Letizia speaking in English? i heard her English is awful
 
Here is link from post at Queen Silvia's Language Abilities/Skills Thread when she speak portuguese .And some comment are that she speak perfectly with Brazilian accent , although she has only lived in Brazil as a small child :)
BTW on YouTube you can found more :)
 
Can't find any English speaking videos (or really, much video at all of Letizia speaking - mostly musical tributes to the way she looks).
 
thanks MagMil for the link. Queen Silvia did a great job when speaking portuguese of Brazil, well the accent from Brazil is much easier than the accent of Portugal. even brazilian citizens cant speak with portuguese from Portugal accent. i thought it was hard to believe that Queen Silvia could spoke from Portugal accent, it was actually the accent from Brazil and not Portugal, but her brazil accent is great and she sounded fantastic!

i wish i could hear King JC speak portuguese, im sure its from Portugal accent.

thanks PrincessKaimi for looking for Leti videos. im still curious about her english skills though
 
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