What languages do the royals speak? - Page 11

CaliforniaDreamin · #**201** 03-12-2008, 04:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Henri M.

My idea of fluent is: being able to speak or write smoothly, easily, or readily.

And I'm sorry to disagree with you on this point: no any Belgian royal except probably Princess Astrid does master the Dutch language 'fluent'. I'm not talking about an accentless pronouncation, but really... even the King's Christmas Adress is a pain for my ears.

Zap with your remote to RTBF (the french-speaking channel) and hear the same King speaking French... a scandalous world of difference.

I've read that the late King Baudouin spoke Dutch like a native, as does HM Queen Fabiola. So if Baudouin was taught the language as part of his education why not Prince Albert as well? Was it because no one expected him to become King? I still think that is a poor excuse but that might explain it.

I do agree that a Belgian monarch should and must be as fluent in Dutch as he/she is in French.

Princess_Beatrix · #**202** 03-12-2008, 05:39 PM

Is it true that Letizia does not speak English?

I have read that she is not understanding it very well and that she cannot speak it.
She must learn it. As Queen she need to be able to communicate with foreign Royals.

CaliforniaDreamin · #**203** 03-12-2008, 07:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Princess_Beatrix

Is it true that Letizia does not speak English?

I have read that she is not understanding it very well and that she cannot speak it.
She must learn it. As Queen she need to be able to communicate with foreign Royals.

I have read the same thing, that she speaks nothing except her native language and is trying to learn English. It's surprised me. A future Queen should at least be fluent in two languages and ideally several languages.
It's one of the many things that astonished me about Prince Felipe's choice of a future wife and queen.

tan_berry · #**204** 03-12-2008, 07:35 PM

I have read that Queen Victoria, whose mother and husband were germans, used to speak in german in the family circle and it seems that was her really first language, and she had to make an effort to learn to speak english without accent, which she could achieve.

The mother of Queen Sophia of Spain was not british, but german, and the family lived exiled in South Africa several years when the queen was a child, so that she must speak german and english since very early in her life.

I have heard of the Grimaldis, that Albert and Stephanie speak english with american accent, but Caroline and Charlotte speak perfect english but with a slight french accent, which happens to be their first language.

The euskera, the language of that region of Spain whose name in euskera is Euskadi, the vasco people, where there are terrorists (ETA) that want to be independent from the rest of Spain, that language do not belong to any family of languages. There are in Europe some languages that do not belong to any linguistic family: Euskadi, Finland (in their language Finland is called Suomi), Hungary and Turkey.

tdarlene · #**205** 03-13-2008, 01:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Princess_Beatrix

Is it true that Letizia does not speak English?

I have read that she is not understanding it very well and that she cannot speak it.
She must learn it. As Queen she need to be able to communicate with foreign Royals.

I think that the Princess speaks good english, otherwise when the Princess was working for TVE and had to go to USA because of the 9/11 and then to Irak she spoke in english in some of those reports, and obviously that TVE or any other good televison network would never send a person to another country, especialy those that speak english, that has to do the majoraty of his work in english.

stephanievl · #**206** 03-13-2008, 03:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CaliforniaDreamin

I've read that the late King Baudouin spoke Dutch like a native, as does HM Queen Fabiola. So if Baudouin was taught the language as part of his education why not Prince Albert as well? Was it because no one expected him to become King? I still think that is a poor excuse but that might explain it.

I do agree that a Belgian monarch should and must be as fluent in Dutch as he/she is in French.

I find the Dutch of king albert II very good. He speaks it the best. With queen Paola it is a bith 'forced' but she doesn't speak French perfect either. The Dutch of prince Philippe, Laurent, Astrid is good. You can her that they sometimes have to think to find some words but for the rest it is oke. This is the same with Mathilde. I don't think princess Claire speaks good Dutch, also Laurens does not speak it very good.

The next generation of Belgian Royals will be perfect billinguel. We see it al ready with amedeo, Maria Laura when they give interviews on television. Also the rest of the childen of Astrid and Philippe will be perfect billingual. This is because they are going to a Dutch speaking school, and have dutch speaking nanny's. The childern of king albert did not went their whole school career to a Dutch speaking school. And now that changed. They start in a Ducth speaking school when they are 2,5 until the 3dyear of highschool (16year) and then they might go to a school in english or French (as Amedeo, Maria Laura and Joachim went to egland to study).

Princess Sarika · #**207** 03-14-2008, 04:43 AM

I do believe Queen Elizabeth II speaks french fluently.

tan_berry · #**208** 03-14-2008, 04:30 PM

Queen Victoria Eugenia of Spain, spouse of the king Alfonso XIII, was a grand-daughter of Queen Victoria. She was made a princess by her uncle king Edward VII, so that she could marry an enthroned king. They had two sons with hemophilia, one of them the crown prince, and the second son was deaf, even without hemophilia. That embittered the marriage. I do not know if the king spoke english when they met, but she certainly learned spanish later. What language or languages do they would speak in the family circle?

janine1984 · #**209** 04-13-2008, 08:53 AM

Hi, I would like to know, what foreing language can William and Harry speak... I tried to find any information on wiki and other official web.. but I didn´t success

candygirl_68 · #**210** 04-13-2008, 03:54 PM

i'm sure they can speak french, just my guess...

Charlotte1 · #**211** 04-15-2008, 09:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by janine1984

Hi, I would like to know, what foreing language can William and Harry speak... I tried to find any information on wiki and other official web.. but I didn´t success

Neither William nor Harry can speak any language fluently other than English. William did take Spanish to GCSE level ( Grade 10 in high school) Harry didn't take any languages at GCSE or A level ( grade 12), William didn't take any language at A level. Both probably know some basic French as it's compulsory at some early level in the UK and latin since that's taught at Eton. ( Beatrice and Eugenie both have GCSE French, no languages at A-level)
William knows a little bit of Swahili from being in Kenya and Harry maybe would have learnt some Afghani ( Farsi?) phrases. He certainly learnt Iraqi ones when he was preparing to serve in Iraq, it was part of his squadron's training.

King Alfonso and Queen Victoria Eugenia when they first met communicated in French, Alfonso knew very little English and Ena no Spanish.

Queen Sofia always spoke to her children in English and even employed British nannies to make sure they would be fluent English speakers. When Sofia and Juan Carlos first got together a common language was a problem. He spoke fluent Spanish, Italian, Portugese and English badly, she spoke fluent German ( she attended boarding school in Germany) English and Greek.

politikgirl · #**212** 04-20-2008, 01:20 AM

I'm really enjoying this thread. It has also inspired me to learn a few more languages!

Rice · #**213** 04-21-2008, 11:15 PM

I think Queen Paola is very hesitant when she speaks. She seems very guarded. I have heard her speak in her native Italian, and she is as hesitant in Italian as she is in French. I have heard her Dutch isn't perfect. But I believe her natural speaking style is just very cautious, and she thinks about what she says before she says it.

PrincessKLS2007 · #**214** 05-03-2008, 08:17 PM

Well at least the Queen is fluent in French and William did try to learn Swahili (he might know Spanish) since he spent time in Latin America (during gap year).

It used to be a requirement of royals to be multilingual and well educated. But those were back in the days when they were treated more as true rulers and not just celebrities.

And there are some attractive members of the BRF, it's just some of them...

Boris · #**215** 05-04-2008, 06:23 AM

Well... if Prince William tried to learn Swahili, maybe he shouldn't have tried in Latin America... Wrong continent!

Someone should have told the poor chap.

I'd say that being multi-lingual is still essential for any Royal with a working agenda. Queen Silvia of course speaks Swedish, English, French, German, Spanish and Portuguese, but this is exceptional and also due to her former profession and to growing up bi-lingual.
This is something her children didn't - but although Princess Victoria's German is supposed to be rather bad, she does speak English and French. I don't know about her mother's 2nd language, Portuguese.

shb007 · #**216** 05-04-2008, 06:34 AM

the monaco royals are my favorite they all know at least 3-4 languages
and they are all

PrincessKLS2007 · #**217** 05-10-2008, 02:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Boris

Well... if Prince William tried to learn Swahili, maybe he shouldn't have tried in Latin America... Wrong continent!

Someone should have told the poor chap.

I'd say that being multi-lingual is still essential for any Royal with a working agenda. Queen Silvia of course speaks Swedish, English, French, German, Spanish and Portuguese, but this is exceptional and also due to her former profession and to growing up bi-lingual.
This is something her children didn't - but although Princess Victoria's German is supposed to be rather bad, she does speak English and French. I don't know about her mother's 2nd language, Portuguese.

I don't think he tried while in Latin America. I think he tried while at university.

ashelen · #**218** 05-10-2008, 12:24 PM

what about Maxima?
spanish, english, dutch? anything else? i belive italian?i think she is the mos inteligent preincess from the new generetion

Menarue · #**219** 05-10-2008, 12:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nichola

Diana learnt Welsh and Sign Language.

I remember footage of her being given Freedom of the City and she gave a short speech in English, then translated it into Welsh.

In Hello Magazine this week, there is a photo of Edward and Sophie leaving a class, and it says they have been learning French together since last year.

I remember at the time it was said that Diana had memorised this short speech in Welsh but I doubt whether she could speak Welsh. As far as I know she could speak English and that was that. If she went to Swiss Finishing School as most daughters of aristocrats do then she would know some French.