Royal Languages....

[bumbershoot]

Isn't a minimum competence in a second language required for graduation from a U.K. university? And presumably William would have studied French when at Easton.
 

[choux]

Isn't a minimum competence in a second language required for graduation from a U.K. university? And presumably William would have studied French when at Easton.
 

Are you kidding?!? Despite being close to all those European countries us Brits have the worst reputation when it comes to learning languages - we don't need to bother because everyone else learns English!

When I was at school I had to study French to the age of 16 as I was in the top band of students.  Anyone not in the top third of students could quit at 14 after just 3 years of learning.

Public schools like Eton probably push languages a little more but the English upper classes are quite a closed group and they don't mingle too much with 'foreigners' unless they live in London and speak impeccable English.  I was incredibly surprised to see Pippa had some aristocratic French friends although that probably just shows she will climb in any country she can!

[choux]

interesting thread
i heard on TV prince charles in french and he speaks it correctly with his beautiful english accent, but what about his sons?

I think William said something in French in Canada last year? I didn't hear him or know if he can speak it besides reading some sentences, though.

William's accent and pronunciation were pretty poor - I'm sure he can speak barely a word without a well rehearsed speech in front of him.  Even the Telegraph acknowledged it wasn't very good:
http://www.telegraph.co.u...proves-in-new-speech.html

[Honnish]

^ On YouTube some of the comments stated that he sucked :D

Queen Elizabeth I - As well as being fluent in French, Flemish, Italian, Latin and Greek, Queen Elizabeth was reputed to speak Welsh, Scottish, Cornish and Irish.  http://www.vaguelyinteresting.co.uk/?p=207

Kate sang the Welsh National Anthem before. She probably considers herself fluent in Welsh now 

[LadyBunion]

Isn't a minimum competence in a second language required for graduation from a U.K. university? And presumably William would have studied French when at Easton.
 

Don't even need a GCSE (exam at age  16 done in about 8-12 subjects) in a foreign language to be able to get into a UK university.

[luvcharles]

To get to uni William only had A-levels in Geography (A), History of Art (B) and Biology (C).

Harry didn't make it to university and studied Art (B) and Geograph (D) for his A-levels.

Eugenie's A levels were the best of the Queen's grandchildren - Art and English literature (As) and History of Art (B)

Beatrice's school results were an A in Drama and Bs in History and Film Studies.

Peter and Zara also achieved A level results that took them to uni but they have never been made public.

My point with this post is that none of them even studied any languages in the final two years of school.

Of the Queen's children only Charles studied a language for his A-levels - French.

Their A level results (grades in brackets - no grade is because the grade wasn't made public only that the person passed the subject).

Charles - History (B), French (C)

Anne - History (D), Geography (E)

Andrew - History, English, Economics and Political Science (E)

Edward - English literature (C), History (D), Economics and Political Science (D)

Of course it must be remembered that there has been 'grade inflation' since the Queen's children did their A-levels so that more students now get higher grades then they did in the past but at the same time these aren't flattering grades.

As can be seens only one of them studied any language past the compulsory time at school.

I do wonder whether or not Andrew has any understanding of Arabic or other eastern languages given his decade long work with Trade and Industry in that area.  He may not have studied anything formally but may have learnt some of the language for courtesy sake.

[Honnish]

They are all arts-focused aren't they? From A-levels to their college degrees. It would've been nice to see a science nerd in the royal family :D

[bumbershoot]

Big contrast to Japan's Imperial family, which has a lot of scientists.

[luvcharles]

They are all arts-focused aren't they? From A-levels to their college degrees. It would've been nice to see a science nerd in the royal family :D

Zara's degree is in a science related area of Equine Physiotherapy.

Peter's degree is in Sports Science.

As a Arts degree graduate I don't think that Science is any more important than thinkers and humanitarians - yes they have a place but no more than anyone else.

[loubna]

william's speech in french was and it's obvious that he suffered a lot at each word  

[Principessa]

My knowledge of French is not sufficient enough to judge William’s French speech.

During my time at (high)school in the Netherlands I had classes (incl. tests etc.) in Dutch (of course ), English, French and German. As I had no feeling for French I dropped this subject as soon as possible At that time there were some (high)schools were you could also learn Frisian (which is a co-official language in the Dutch province of Friesland), Spanish and Russian. I have noticed that it is useful to have an understanding of various languages.

When I am correct the knowledge of foreign languages was not a requirement for Dutch Universities. With the exception of the languages studies and courses which were in English or another language. For many studies it was an advantage when you had knowledge of English or German. Among others because of the languages predominantly used in the associated professional literature (and professional world).

During time I heard Queen Beatrix speak Dutch, German, English and French. As I am no native speaker, except for Dutch, I am not able to judge if she is totally fluent in all these languages. I assume prince Willem-Alexander also speaks Dutch, German, English and French. Several years ago both princess Máxima and prince Willem-Alexander said he was trying to learn Spanish (the mother tongue of Máxima).

[bumbershoot]

Beatrix's English is certainly excellent. Daisy's is also very good and Harald's is apparently effortless.

[CyrilSebastian]

Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume of Luxembourg speaks Luxembourgish, French, German, Spanish and English.