Languages of the Royal Family

[Charlotte1]

Alexandra speaks Cantonese, she learnt Mandarin Chinese a few years ago and made a speech in Mandarin at the inauguration of the first direct SAS flight from Copenhagen to Shanghai.
Marie-Chantal only spent a very short time at Le Rosey she attended a bilingual school in Paris for a few years. She apparently is fluent in French.
Anne-Marie is fluent in Greek and she and Constantine spoke only Greek at home with their children. Pavlos and his brothers and sisters attended the Hellenic College in London which has a strong emphasis teaching students the Greek language ( Modern Greek and the senior students can choose to study ancient Greek as well) Pavlos' children now attend the Hellenic College, they also had Greek speaking nannies for periods when they were still living in the US.

[claudia]

King Constantine speaks Greek, english and german.
Queen Anne-Marie, danish, greek, french and english.
Alexia, Pavlos, Nicholas, theodora and Philipos, english, greek and spanish.
Their spanish is fluent.
M.Chantal, english and some words in greek, a shame she doesn´t speaks greek being the Crown Princess and too bad she doesn´t speaks spanish being her mother from Ecuador.
I heard Alexia and Pavlos speaking spanish and they do speak it correctly with a spanish accent ( from Spain).

[Alexandra]

Originally Posted by claudia

I heard Alexia and Pavlos speaking spanish and they do speak it correctly with a spanish accent ( from Spain).

How do they come to Spanish? Of course they have near relatives in Spain, but I never heard, they speak the language of their aunt and cousins. Nice that, anyway.

Were they all taught Danish as well as Greek? Likewise with their Spanish cousins, can they speak Greek? What language do they all use together when they all meet up, maybe English?

[kelly9480]

Constantine can't speak Danish, so while his children may understand it, they probably don't speak it very well. I know Sofia taught her daughters some Greek, don't know about Felipe. The family uses English.

[crisiñaki]

Originally Posted by kelly9480

Constantine can't speak Danish, so while his children may understand it, they probably don't speak it very well. I know Sofia taught her daughters some Greek, don't know about Felipe. The family uses English.

Elena, Cristina and Felipe are all very fluent in Greek and use that language to communicate among themselves and (ironically) they speak English with their mother.

I think that at least Pavlos and Alexia speak some Danish because they lived in Denmark for a while, I'm not saying they are fluent but which language did they speak with Queen Ingrid, at that age I don't think was English; and for Phillipos and Theodora if they don't even speak Greek (that's stated in their website) I don't think they know anything about Danish

[kelly9480]

The Greeks lived in Denmark for around a year, and were educated at home by a tutor, so it doesn't automatically follow that they learned Danish. I'm pretty sure they used English with Ingrid, because English is commonly used in royal families (the ones that don't speak French or German).

[Piaa]

I find it very interesting that Phillipos and Theodora do not speak Greek. Is it because they didn't learn the language at all or they just choose not to speak it?

[kelly9480]

I don't think it's so much that they don't speak it, just that they don't speak it as well as their siblings. They would have learned the language at the Hellenic College, but they may not be as fluent as the rest of their family.

Sort of makes sense. Alexia and Pavlos were born in Greece, Nikolaos was born while there was still a chance of Constantine regaining the throne. By the time Theodora and Philippos were born, those chances had evaporated, so there may not have been the same emphasis on learning the language. Constantine still should have taught his two youngest children Greek from birth, but apparently he didn't.

Plus, the older three were initially educated by a Greek tutor, so they would have heard the language even in their lessons. HCL teaches Greek, but I don't know that instruction is in Greek so the students would be forced to become fluent in the language.

[Queens]

do we know for a fact that the younger children cannot speak Greek very well or are we just speculating?

[kelly9480]

Who? Constantine, Anne Marie and the three eldest speak Greek very well. Even Greeks who live in Greece and have spoken to them have said as much (another person said MC can follow Greek conversations, but struggles with speaking it). The younger two have questionable skills, but they attended a school that teaches the language, so they should have some level of knowledge.

[Piaa]

Thanks Kelly.....

[kelly9480]

No problem, Piaa.

Originally Posted by Queens

do we know for a fact that the younger children cannot speak Greek very well or are we just speculating?

On the previous official site, it said that the two younger children's Greek skills are improving, which led many to assume they couldn't speak the language. That wasn't my interpretation of the comment, but, whatever. The general assumption is that their Greek skills aren't as advanced as the rest of the family's (not including the Spanish branch).

[fandesacs2003]

Originally Posted by crisiñaki

Elena, Cristina and Felipe are all very fluent in Greek and use that language to communicate among themselves and (ironically) they speak English with their mother.

Strange. I do not know about Elena & Christina, but Felipe, a couple of years ago being in Athens for some event, he talked to the greek TV in english, he did not try to pronounce a single word in Greek!
May be Queen Sofia, talked greek to the gilrs, it was on her beginning in Spain, but Felipe is abt 4 years younger, so meanwhile she learned Spanish.

Originally Posted by crisiñaki

Iand for Phillipos and Theodora if they don't even speak Greek (that's stated in their website) I don't think they know anything about Danish

It is strange that Constantinos did not teached to his youngers greek. Can you give me the link of this website?
Into the http://www.greekroyalfamily.org/index.cfm?get=family, nothing is written about this.

[branchg]

The Spanish Royal Family usually speaks Spanish or English. Elena is said to be the most fluent in Greek, while Christina and Felipe are not. Usually, the Danes, the Spanish, the Greeks and the Germans all address each other in English.

Ironically, the Queen often speaks French, which she is very fluent in, and only rarely uses German, which she is not.

[crisiñaki]

Cristina perfected her Greek when she lived with Alexia, it was like an interchange: Alexia taught Greek and Cristina taught Spanish and at the same time they both took catalan classes so they are both poliglots.

Don't you think we are all getting a little bit out of topic, this thread is about the GRF not the SRF and if anyone who wants to talk about them should open a thread in their forum; I know I started the discussion, so now I'm kind of backing off before the moderators step in.

Thanks in advance

[norwegianne]

I think I remember reading a biography about Anne-Marie where she said that it hadn't been a priority of hers to teach her children Danish - and that what they could were not very much. I'm uncertain as to how much.

[crisiñaki]

Originally Posted by Queens

do we know for a fact that the younger children cannot speak Greek very well or are we just speculating?

If you check out the GRF site http://www.greekroyalfamily.gr/index.cfm?get=family in QAM's profile is this sentence: The family speaks Greek at home and her three older children all speak Greek fluently. The two younger ones, Princess Theodora and Prince Philippos are learning very quickly.

So my guess is that they don't speak Greek

[ChevalieurduCiel]

Well they can!!I heard them speaking!

[claudia]

Alexia, Paul, Nicholas, Teodora and filipos speak greek, english and spanish fluently. I don´t know if they know any other language.

I asked queen Sofía about her greek and she answered me " está dormido ", she told me that Elena, Cristina and Felipe don´t speak greek and that the king knows just some words.

All of king Constantine children are fluent in Greek, english and spanish, they speak spanish with an "spanish- Spain " accent.