Video Fix: Royals speaking foreign languages

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Many of us envy royalty for their seemingly easy and lavish lifestyle, but it’s true in this case that with great privilege comes great responsibility. Royal figures are recognised and celebrated all around the world, and this is even more true for the British Royal family than for any other.

Even though many countries don’t have a monarchy and don’t recognise the British crown in this way either, people from all parts of the world remain fascinated and intrigued by these recognisable figures. For this reason, they are always in the public eye and more often than not have to speak a few words at a big event or while promoting a charity or helping to launch a new initiative.

Representing the UK in other countries and meeting world leaders also comes as part of the territory and as a result we often see the Royals themselves attempting to deliver speeches in the mother tongue of the people they are addressing or simply making their best effort to exchange pleasantries with their honourable hosts in their native language.

It’s not difficult to imagine someone born into royalty having better opportunities to develop their linguistic skills and learn another language than the rest of us, but as you’ll see from this brief video different members of the British Royal family have tried their hand at speaking foreign languages with varying degrees of success.

So if you want to hear the Queen speak French or Prince Harry give a speech in Arabic, look no further and enjoy this video:


We hope you enjoyed this short clip. Tune in next week for another entertaining Video Fix!


Written by

Liam Kennedy – Schuman Trainee at the Terminology Coordination Unit of the European Parliament. Graduate of Journalism with a Language (French) at Dublin Institute of Technology. Completed a Masters in Translation Studies at University College Cork.