Máxima's Voice, Accent and Languages

[IloveCP]

Does anyone have any information with the exact years that Maxima attended Northlands?

I just recently realized that she may have been a classmate of mine or my sister, as we are the same age and I attended Northlands as well! I was there for only a few years, Kindergarten through 3rd grade, but we probably overlapped. I would be tickled to know we might have known each other!

And I agree with what the poster above said regarding the English instruction at Northlands. My memory of those years were that the days were divided in two, with instruction in English in the morning and then switching to Spanish in the afternoon. I very much remember that in the recess at mid-day we were even supposed to play on the playground speaking English among each other, and teachers would scold us if they caught us speaking Spanish! That was tough.

Anyway, just curious if anyone had any information on when she started at Northlands? I know she graduated in 1988, but I was long gone by then. Thanks!

On her wiki page, it says that she only attended Northlands school, so there is a chance may have attended that school her whole primary and secondary school years. If so, I think she started primary school in 1975 or 1976. So I think she attended Northlands from 1975/76-1988. I hope this helps.

 

[fortimo]

I can't watch the video, It's not there anymore

Does anybody have another link of Máxima speaking in spanish???

Here is the video (she speaks at 3'35):
Princesa Máxima de Holanda Entrevista Loret de Mola Cumbre G20 México Los Cabos - YouTube

And here she speaks fluently french (2'48):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBESMKbt4V0

 

[carlota]

wow fortimo, thanks! i didn't know maxima could speak french to such a good standard. i'm surprised - no official sources ever told us she could speak french! i wonder if she can speak any other languages we don't know of.

 

[LadyGabrielle]

Fantastic. She speaks French quite well. I think its always a plus when someone is bi-lingual or tri-lingual. It seems being able to speak multiple languages really opens the door to great things.

Sent from my SCH-I800 using The Royals Community mobile app

 

[Baroness of Books]

Maxima is such an intelligent and formidable woman and with her grasp of these languages is so well-equipped to step out onto the global platform. Very impressive.

 

[Frelinghighness]

Her french is excellent and she of course was very lucky to have been able to attend the Northlands school in Argentina. She is at least 4-lingual, and obviously very intelligent, vivacious and a loving wife and mother. What more could Holland ask?

 

[Moonmaiden23]

Maxima is such an intelligent and formidable woman and with her grasp of these languages is so well-equipped to step out onto the global platform. Very impressive.

I agree. She's one of the smartest, more impressive Royals out there, what we call "the bomb"!

I have heard her speak Dutch, German, English, French and of course her native Spanish and she seems equally at home in all five.

 

[ricarda]

Maxima is definitely not "at home in German", except for a few words/sentences she cannot speak the language at all.
4 languages are impressiv enough, no need to exaggerate.

 

[bertie5252003]

Indeed she is amazing and a real asset to Holland pretty impressive all round IMO

 

[carlota]

is she learning german then? or does she just know a few words to get by?

oh, i´d love to hear a clip of maxima speaking in french now during his visit to the netherlands! fingers crossed.

 

[EmmaNL]

Máxima spoke also French to the Danish Prince-Consort when they had their introduction visit to Denmark. I don't know if there is a video form that converstation.
She's able to speak/understand a bit Portuguese too, because it is a bit the same as Spanish, she told some people at the Brazil Festival in the Netherlands a few years ago.

 

[cmbruno]

If you speak Spanish not too fast to someone who answers back in Portuguese not to fast as well (and vice-versa) you are able to carry on a conversation in which 90% will be understood without any problems whatosoever. If you, beeing a Portuguese speaker, have had the chance of beeing exposed to some French or Italian (for example, studying a month a free online course), you are also able to understand 60 to 70% of what is said to you or what is written in those languages. Of course you have to have had a good knowledge of your own language (morphology of the words and grammar) beforehand and be not too shy, very curious, not afraid of making mistakes, have the will to learn and be calm. Of course I am talking here about communication, not professional, diplomatic or academic relationships. I wish I had had latin classes when I was in my schoodays.

 

[ahtikavalentine]

Maxima is definitely not "at home in German", except for a few words/sentences she cannot speak the language at all.
4 languages are impressiv enough, no need to exaggerate.

True that. I saw on "blauw bloed" that she is trying to learn german, doesn't mean that she already speaks it (however, she might be able to understand, since the languages are very close to each other)

 

[COUNTESS]

She is a lovely and delightful woman. Remember Spanish and French have the same root, not that she shouldn't be complimemnted on this. I just love the sound of her voice. She is very intelligent and not a ribbon cutter, as in some countries. Actually, in Holland, all three wives of the "Queen" (Beatrix), I know, Maxima is queen, are quite educated and doing real work.

 

[Moonmaiden23]

I agree COUNTESS. The Netherlands has some very impressive and intellectually dazzling women

Maxima is a marvel as queen, CP Willem-Alexander chose well!

 

[carlota]

i didn't know she could speak a reasonable german and portuguese... maxima never fails to amaze me!

 

[Kit]

Sorry but Máxima does not speak German! She knows a few words like Hello and Good Bye in German but that's about all there is to it.

 

[fortimo]

There was shown a documentary about WA and Maxima on ZDF, and there was said, she does speak 4 languages. They didn't mention, what languages she speaks, but I think there are spanish, english, french and dutch.

 

[julliette]

i didn't know she could speak a reasonable german and portuguese... maxima never fails to amaze me!

Does she speak portuguese too?

 

[carlota]

Does she speak portuguese too?

so i read earlier on in this thread, but we don't know to what standard.

 

[Duc_et_Pair]

There was shown a documentary about WA and Maxima on ZDF, and there was said, she does speak 4 languages. They didn't mention, what languages she speaks, but I think there are spanish, english, french and dutch.

I think Queen Máxima speaks some German. Her husband's family and many of their mutual friends (Von Amsberg, Von dem Bussche-Haddenhausen, Von Lippe, Von der Recke, Von Oeynhausen, Von Sierstorpff-Cramm, Von Bismarck, Zu Waldburg-Zeil-Hohenems, Zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein, the Mossbruggers from Gasthof Post in Lech, etc.) are all German-speaking. In the meantime the Queen will have learned a substantial basic German. No doubt about that.

 

[Duke of Marmalade]

Maxima is not fluent in german. When she recently came to Baden-Baden is was said that she understands a lot (WA is fluent) and speaks a few words but that's it. Nevertheless, she must be very talented when it comes to learning languages. Dutch and German are different languages of course but if you speak dutch, its quite easy to get to understand german with a bit of practice. Writing is a different matter though.

 

[Kit]

Duke of Marmalade is right! Máxima does not speak German. She may understand some German but when it comes to speaking she only knows the absolute basics like Hello and Good Bye in German. Dutch is different from German and as a German native-speaker I can tell you that I don't understand a thing when M and WA speak Dutch. I think German is taught as a foreign language in Dutch schools but even WA who is fluent in German and was raised by a German father makes grammatical mistakes when he speaks German. ?

 

[Duc_et_Pair]

I think all Dutchmen make grammatical mistakes in German because they simply use it as a third language, after English, and have too less daily practice to speak it without errors. In old days, the Dutchies watched ARD, ZDF, WDR and NDR but now with dozens Dutch-speaking channels, the knowledge of German has faded away.

 

[Duke of Marmalade]

I've seen a video a couple of weeks ago when WAX were visiting Germany, the reporter asked (in German) both if they had brought presents for the girls. WA answered in fluent German, while Max answered in English, meaning she had no problem to understand the question or the following conversation but she didnt even try to speak German. My impression is that she understands well but can't speak what is very common when you are in touch with a language (in her case through WA) but not in an environment to speak (either the partner is native and speaks as main language or you live in the country).

 

[Duc_et_Pair]

Correct, it is the same with me. I can understand Spanish but I find it hard to speak or write it.

 

[IloveCP]

I'm surprised to find out that Maxima speaks French, presumably fluently:

I also read somewhere that she speaks Italian.

 

[Mbruno]

Duke of Marmalade is right! Máxima does not speak German. She may understand some German but when it comes to speaking she only knows the absolute basics like Hello and Good Bye in German. Dutch is different from German and as a German native-speaker I can tell you that I don't understand a thing when M and WA speak Dutch. I think German is taught as a foreign language in Dutch schools but even WA who is fluent in German and was raised by a German father makes grammatical mistakes when he speaks German. ?

The grammar (mostly morphology actually) of modern Dutch is much simpler than that of standard German, so it is not surprising that Dutch people make grammatical mistakes when they speak German. On the point though of German native speakers not "understanding a thing" when they hear Dutch, I think it depends on where in Germany they come from. The pronunciation of Dutch is quite different from German pronunciation, but I assume that someone from northern Germany with some exposure to Low German should be able to understand it. Am I wrong ?

 

[Mbruno]

I'm surprised to find out that Maxima speaks French, presumably fluently:

I also read somewhere that she speaks Italian.

I don't know how fluent she is in Italian, but I would take all those assumptions with caution.



All major Romance languages (i.e. the languages which evolved directly from spoken Latin), are more or less somewhat mutually intelligible. A Spanish or Portuguese speaker has a limited ability to understand Italian, and vice-versa, even without having learned the other language. French is somewhat more "different" : in terms of vocabulary, it is actually more similar to Italian than to Spanish/Portuguese, but it has undergone many phonological changes that make it not so easy to understand without any prior knowledge. However, a Spanish speaker who formally learns some French at school can easily progress to a reasonably good command of the language, much faster actually than an English speaker for example.



Compared to Spanish speakers, Portuguese speakers have an additional advantage when learning French in the sense that they can pick up the difficult nasal vowels much easier (even though the Portuguese nasal vowels are actually phonetically distrinct from the French ones). What surprises me the most though about Máxima is that, both when she is speaking in English or in French, I don't hear that characteristic "Spanish accent" which we hear for example even from King Felipe VI or Queen Letizia. Since Spanish is the Romance language with the smallest inventory of vowel sounds, it is really hard for Spanish speakers to lose that accent and the fact that Máxima can comfortably produce sounds that are not native to her mother language is quite impressive !

 

[Lee-Z]

The pronunciation of Dutch is quite different from German pronunciation, but I assume that someone from northern Germany with some exposure to Low German should be able to understand it. Am I wrong ?

Well it is more similar than for instance German to Finnish or another language-family, but i think it's a stretch to say that only the pronounciation is different and "some" exposure is enough to understand it. I'd say with some exposure a german might understand some isolated dutch words, but not complete sentences or conversations.
But a german who lives in the NL might learn dutch easier than someone from the other side of the globe.
In reality, dutch people tend to like to switch to a "foreign" language quite happily when speaking to a non-dutch person, which gives the other person little experience to learn dutch (it is a remark regularly heard; dutch particularly use english (with a dutch accent ) quite quickly)

for people who live quite near the border between both countries, it's easier to use their local dialect, as that translates much easier to the dialect of the neighbours on the other side; but ofcourse these dialects are usually really local