Languages

Suonymona · #1 10-01-2005, 04:11 PM

Obviously Albert, Caroline and Stephanie learned French, English and Monegasque growing up in Monaco. But which languages do they still know and more interestingly, what languages do they prefer to speak in?

Feel free to include their kids as well in your replies.

Suonymona · #2 10-01-2005, 04:15 PM

My reply:

Albert does most of his speeches in French with some English. And while he's listed as knowing some five or six languages (including Italian and Spanish), he seems to naturally prefer French unless speaking to certain media--then he'll speak English with a more pronounced stutter (though he stutters in French too).

I've only seen Caroline speak English during speeches to the Princess Grace Foundation, everything else she seems to be speaking French or German (if she's in Hanover territory).

Stephanie I've only seen speak French.

I would imagine that NC speaks French, English and pieces of a few other languages having been a first-class international flight attendant. And as she is raising Eric in France, he will learn French.

Ann

sebastian · #3 10-01-2005, 04:44 PM

They all ( Caro, Albert; Steph ) speak French and English equally.
I know that Stephanie once said that she likes very much to read in English because as she said it 'slips' better.
They also speak Spanish, Italian and German. All three to very different extents. Caro speaks Italian fluently and German very well ( as for her Spanish I don't know - 'good ' I suppose) . Albert speaks a little German and Steph as well but they understand everything. They just don't practice it too often. As for their Italian I don't know neither. I think Stephanie spoke a lot of Spanish with her second husband Adans, who is Portuguese ( as she speeks no portuguese) - but the two also conversed in English and French.
With Louis, Pauline and Camille Stephanie speaks mostly French and sometimes English. They also learn German and Italian at school.
The Monegasque language is a provincial dialect all 'real' Monegasques speak and the kids learn at school. All of the family can speak it. When they sing their national anthym they sing it in monegasqe I think.

Mrs.Smith · #4 10-01-2005, 05:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sebastian

Albert speaks a little German and Steph as well but they understand everything. They just don't practice it too often.

Albert once said some words in German on TV and it was not too bad. better to say: it was excellent for someone who doesn't practice that often. He had to "search for words" a little bit, but the grammar was good and so was the pronunciation.

LadyMacAlpine · #5 10-01-2005, 10:38 PM

From http://www.palais.mc/wwwpal.nsf/Inde...set=iso-8859-1

Albert -- LANGUAGES
Bilingual English-French
German
Italian
Knowledge of Spanish

Caroline-- She speaks French, English, German, Spanish, and Italian.

There is nothing on the languages Stephanie speaks.

tbhrc · #6 10-02-2005, 07:57 AM

From the book Rainier and Grace - An Intimate Portrait by Jeffrey Robinson

Quote:

Where the three (Caroline, Albert and Stephanie) are very similar is that they were each raised to be multi-lingual.
They spoke English to their mother and their nanny but French with their father and the household staff. While they were still very young, Rainier and Grace also encouraged them to learn other languages. Today Caroline, Albert and Stephanie speak absolutely perfect French and equally perfect English with slightly east coast American accents. They each also speak German, Italian and some Spanish.
Rainier and Grace mostly spoke English together.
Grace however perfected her French, as she used to say, 'Because the children demanded that I do. Whenever I made mistakes they'd make fun of me so I had to learn to speak it well.'

sebastian · #7 10-02-2005, 08:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tbhrc

From the book Rainier and Grace - An Intimate Portrait by Jeffrey Robinson

Evil kids :p

..to tease their mom for not being perfect in french...

LadyMacAlpine · #8 10-02-2005, 11:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sebastian

Evil kids :p

..to tease their mom for not being perfect in french...

When Grace first got to Monaco in the first two years people thought she was a snob since she didn't speak much when in actuality she was trying to learn the language and didn't want to offend anyone by saying the wrong thing.

Tosca · #9 10-02-2005, 12:01 PM

I don't think Caro is so fluent in Italian, as she is said to be. I had the opportunity to watch her interviewed by the Italian state-run tv many years ago. At that time Stefano was still alive. Well the only Italian word I hear her say was "Buonasera!". Not much for a person who's reported to speak Italian fluently, if so I can boast of being fluent in Russian, as I studied it for 4 years. The rest of the interview was conducted in French, for the record.

Mrs.Smith · #10 10-02-2005, 12:24 PM

I think these "royals" want to give interviews only in languages they feel 100% secure in. Once I saw an interview of half German (ok, quarter german) Victoria of Sweden with German Rolf Seelmann Eggebert,(I think that's his name), for german TV that was in English. He only asked "what about your german" in german and she answeres "could be better" in German, too. But these three words sounded really good. Maybe they (Viktoria, Caroline, Grace) weren't perfect in that language and so they were afraid of being blamed for not being perfect in the language of their mother/husband/country. You all know the media.

Princess BellyFlop · #11 10-02-2005, 01:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LadyMacAlpine

When Grace first got to Monaco in the first two years people thought she was a snob since she didn't speak much when in actuality she was trying to learn the language and didn't want to offend anyone by saying the wrong thing.

That's too often an excuse. You can only offend your own ego when using the wrong gender for an object and most French people know that the concept of gender doesn't exist in many other laguages. At one point you just have to jump in and swim with the language.

LadyMacAlpine · #12 10-02-2005, 02:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Princess BellyFlop

That's too often an excuse. You can only offend your own ego when using the wrong gender for an object and most French people know that the concept of gender doesn't exist in many other laguages. At one point you just have to jump in and swim with the language.

I have been trying to learn French myself when I was going to move to Ottawa on a fiancee visa. I wouldn't have spoken it until I knew I was saying the correct things and thats not an excuse to me its being polite to not offend them.

Lucia Rose · #13 10-10-2006, 11:08 PM

Sorry another question. Anyway what languages does Stephanie speak fluently besides french,English. I know Caroline speaks as well as French and English Italin,German,Spanish. What language do they speak when they are all together Ernsts, his kids Caroline her children Stephanie her children.

Also I have Stephanies cd she put out and her English is very good just like her brothers they all speak very acctenless sound like neuteral Americans.

Hi knwo this is off topic. What languages does the whole family speak when they are together? That would inclued Caroline,her kids,Ernst his sons an alexandra and so.

Anway i know Stephanie and Albert sound scctenless like Americans when they speak english what about Caroline? I heard she sounds British a little. My friend says she di an interveiw in America about 10 years ago when she had alopecia and said she sounded american. does anybody have any interveiws here Caroline is spekaing English because I heard her speak french only. I did look in the video link for for Princley fanily of Monaco but she was only speaking French. Thanks

Tosca · #14 10-11-2006, 09:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LadyMacAlpine

From http://www.palais.mc/wwwpal.nsf/Inde...set=iso-8859-1

Albert -- LANGUAGES
Bilingual English-French
German
Italian
Knowledge of Spanish

Caroline-- She speaks French, English, German, Spanish, and Italian.

There is nothing on the languages Stephanie speaks.

I heard Albert interviewed by an Italian journalist, and believe me, he speaks a pretty halty Italian. He started his speech in Italian (BTW he went wrong in almost all verbs) and then continued the interview in French.

libra65 · #15 10-11-2006, 12:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lucia Rose

Anway i know Stephanie and Albert sound scctenless like Americans when they speak english what about Caroline? I heard she sounds British a little. My friend says she di an interveiw in America about 10 years ago when she had alopecia and said she sounded american. does anybody have any interveiws here Caroline is spekaing English because I heard her speak french only. I did look in the video link for for Princley fanily of Monaco but she was only speaking French. Thanks

I agree about Caroline sounding British. I have seen a few interviews of hers, although not recently, & thought she sounded British. I also thought Prince Rainier sounded a bit British in his interviews. Although, I think he went to an English or Scottish boarding school for a while & had an English nanny (not sure though).

Lucia Rose · #16 10-11-2006, 04:09 PM

Ya I heard Carolien speaks neauteral American with a slight British crest to it. I think that sounds very nice.

Saturn · #17 10-11-2006, 05:39 PM

I don't know about Stephany, but I would say that Caroline and Albert can't speak spanish, because when they come to Spain they always talk in English o French in teir interviews, they aren't able to say a single word in spanish (maybe they have a certain knowledge of the language, but can't manage in it at all)

Lucia Rose · #18 10-11-2006, 06:44 PM

Ya English and french are their native tongues so their the msot comftorbale in those. so thats why they give intervewis in thos ethe most. Anyway wha nationlities were their nannies. Since they spoke English with the. British and American nannies?

Also the Monaguesque langauge is that acombination of French and Italian?

rosana · #19 10-11-2006, 10:25 PM

I heard Caroline say she could read english,french,italian and a little in spanish, she didn´t say anything about speaking,it´s so much difficult to speak a language fluently!

Tosca · #20 10-12-2006, 10:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lucia Rose

Ya English and french are their native tongues so their the msot comftorbale in those. so thats why they give intervewis in thos ethe most. Anyway wha nationlities were their nannies. Since they spoke English with the. British and American nannies?

Also the Monaguesque langauge is that acombination of French and Italian?

Well, when I went to Monaco, I heard some people speak the Monegasque language, and since it comes from Latin, it sounds similar to both French and Italian, although it sounds much more like the dialect spoken in Genoa, which is pretty unintelligible to not so well trained ears...