Queen Sofia's Spanish

[Marcus]

Her spanish is grammatically correct, but she has a very very strong accent that she can never get rid of. She sounds as if her native language was german.

[ysbel]

Wasn't her mother, Frederikke of Prussia? Would then her native language be German?

I imagine though she spoke Greek as a child also.

[*SofiaM*]

I don't think Queen Sofia has a specific accent, though if I had to pinpoint one, I'd say more Greek.

She attended school in Germany, so maybe there is a slight accent from there.

[acdc1]

Does she speak o.k. Spanish? And how good is her Greek, are there any videos of her speaking it recently?

[HMTLove23]

I read somewhere that King Juan Carlos doesnt speak Greek and that he regrets that. is that true.

[RoyallyRich]

Greetings everyone!This is my first post here and I would like it to be about one of my most favorite and most loved Royal.I have heard Queen Sofia speak Castilian alot via the internet and I think she speaks it beautifully.But I do notice a slight accent.Nevertheless Her Majesty is so fascinating to listen to because her voice is strong and clear.I always wanted to hear her speak some Greek for a long while,and I was able to thanks to our wonderful Anna R for the post.I notice whenever the Queen finishes a speech,she always gives everyone a nice warm kind smile.I really love that about her.It's just so kind and polite.Viva La Reina!

[Philippe Egalite']

I don't know about her Spanish, but queen Sofia's English was (is) excellent and in contrast to the heavy Spanish accent observed in the spoken English and French of the entire (excluding Infanta Pilar) Spanish delegation in Singapore.

[Philippe Egalite']

Originally Posted by acdc1

Does she speak o.k. Spanish? And how good is her Greek, are there any videos of her speaking it recently?

Her Greek, during her address to the IOC in Singapore, was old, formal Greek, unnaturally spoken and rusty.

[hofburg]

Originally Posted by Philippe Egalite'

I don't know about her Spanish, but queen Sofia's English was (is) excellent and in contrast to the heavy Spanish accent observed in the spoken English and French of the entire (excluding Infanta Pilar) Spanish delegation in Singapore.

Where could I listen to Infanta Pilar?

[Philippe Egalite']

Originally Posted by hofburg

Where could I listen to Infanta Pilar?

If you scroll up in this thread, there is a reference to the videotaped lengthy presentation of the entire Spanish delegation.

[btsnyder]

Originally Posted by Duke of Marmalade

Is Sofia basically seen as spanish or do people still think of her greek background? Would be interesting to know.

It would be interesting if they thought of her as Greek, because she's really not Greek at all, is she? I think she's, for the most part, German.

[adelaide]

Originally Posted by btsnyder

It would be interesting if they thought of her as Greek, because she's really not Greek at all, is she? I think she's, for the most part, German.

By great part of her roots, yes we can say she is german, but as she was living part of her childhood and her youth in Grece, we can imagine that she is greek by destination, as the daughter of the King of Grece, we can suppose that she learn an academic greek

For her other language is a little bit complicated.

First, as her fathers have to exile because the mondial war II for a while, in countries where people as them speak english, we can imagine that she began to speak english very early because the circonstancies and because it was very normal for a young girl of her generation in her circle of Society speak fluently english.

For german too. First as her fathers and in particular her mother are german it was an evidence that the Queen Sofia has to learn german very early too. Then as she finished her studies in Germany at the Salem Castle, she had to improve her german a lot.

It's very well know so that the Queen Sofia speak a good french so well to have with her husband, who is fluent in french, private conversations when people around are disturbing.


That is for the numerus and qualities of the langagges that she is speaking. But in watching at the video about the olympic games we can understand that she is not a great speaker in public and even, she isen't very found of that. It recalled me the Infanta Elena doing a speech in english, in New York, in front the spanish society. Her english was pretty good but the ton to express it was not at all in accordance with the speeche. In the same digression-I'm sorry, it's not the item- I beleive that the Infanta Cristina is these among the women of the Spain Royal Family who is the most skilfull to speak in public...before the arrival of Letizia.


Always before to watch at the Olympic Games's video the single one among the spanish speakers who was of international level to speak english and who did her speech in an english very fluent was Esperanza Aguirre, who first is a perfect speaker and - I was very surprise - absolutly fluent in doing her speech. For her the question is very clear, she like the tribunes, in a certain way it's normal, she is apolitic woman!

Very soory for my too long post but the video was too long so !

[Tan]

Originally Posted by acdc1

Great question! All I know is that she speaks it, I don't know how fluently or whether with an accent or not. I have heard her German is good, too, (she went to school in Germany, did she not?) but I don't know about her Spanish.

Here you can hear her german:

ZDF.de - Die Königskinder

go to zur ZDFmediathek

It´s a report about felipe and Letizia from Zdf.


In my opinion her german is good.

[MisrEmiri]

I am a Canadian by birth and everything else, but my ethinic background is Turkish and my parents originally from Istanbul. Since my parents never had any ethnic prejudices, I had the good fortune to grow up amongst members of the Windsor and Toronto Greek communities. I listened to Queen Sophia speaking English and I was surprised because I was expecting her accent to be very heavily English. In fact, Her Majesty's accent sounded to me just like the accent of someone who immigrated to North America from Greece and therefore an accent you'd hear in any North American Greek community. (Remember Toula's mum in MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING? Lainie Kazan did an excellent job mimicking the Greek-American accent.)

[*SofiaM*]

Originally Posted by Tan

Here you can hear her german:

ZDF.de - Die Königskinder

go to zur ZDFmediathek

It´s a report about felipe and Letizia from Zdf.


In my opinion her german is good.

Tan, thanks for the link as I think it's the video I've been looking for for ages.
I clicked on 'zur ZDFmediathek' (on the right?) but I can't find the video.

[*SofiaM*]

Originally Posted by adelaide

In the same digression-I'm sorry, it's not the item- I beleive that the Infanta Cristina is these among the women of the Spain Royal Family who is the most skilfull to speak in public.

I am in agreement with you, adelaide. Infanta Cristina is very at ease when speaking in public and I've found that when listening to her speeches, she keeps my attention. Cristina has always come across as a very confident woman anyway, so I guess the ability to speak well publically comes almost naturally to her.

[Tan]

Originally Posted by *SofiaM*

Tan, thanks for the link as I think it's the video I've been looking for for ages.
I clicked on 'zur ZDFmediathek' (on the right?) but I can't find the video.

Click on zur ZDFmediathek
than up right there stands a word "Inhalt", write down "königskinder" and than you can find videos of them and than you choose and than you find every reportage about the royalchild (about crownprinces)...

[Vanesa]

I think she spoke Greek in her childhood and teen years, and also German. Maybe, her Greek is a little gone through lack of use, but she must know how to speak it. So, it could sound a little formal and "old".

Vanesa.

[Philippe Egalite']

Originally Posted by adelaide

By great part of her roots, yes we can say she is german, but as she was living part of her childhood and her youth in Grece, we can imagine that she is greek by destination, as the daughter of the King of Grece, we can suppose that she learn an academic greek.

No it was not academic. None of King Paul's children was academically or artistically inclined except perhaps for Yriny who had a relative talent as a pianist.
Sofia's Greek is a rigid and artificial one as if she had learnt it in a classroom and never practised it and her enunciation was very disappointing.

[LadyGabrielle]

I would say her Spanish is pretty good although there is an accent of some sort. But you have to remember that she did not grow up speaking Spanish, so I have to give her credit for a good attempt. It is much more difficult to learn a new language when you are older, she has done well. Put it this way, I am Spanish and Spanish is all my father would speak to me but I refused to speak it and now that Im older its hard for me to hold a conversation. I understand more than anything. I give the Queen credit for at least trying to speak the language and castillian spanish for that matter!