Thanks in advance.
Thanks Eric and Johan.
It's always interesting to learn these stories of a RF from a bilingual (trilingual in this case) country. I always wonder how citizens from one "side" feel towards their representatives if they are not fluent/don't speak that side's language.
But that's the beauty of Belgian reality I believe.
Boudewijn and Josephine-Charlotte had a Dutch nanny. Albert II was too young to learn much of her but the other two had a native Dutchwoman in their nursery in the second half of the 1930's. That must have left it's mark on them.
Im not sure if Queen Astrid spoke Swedish with them. If she did it could explain why it was easier for them to learn Flemish as they were already used to a second language (and a Northern one as well).
I must admit I was a little bit disappointed as when Princess Elisabeth did her first very short speech as a toddler, I had the impression she was more fluent like a Flemish than here.
It seems she studied well the whole text and in some words you can hear the French undertone. She made some bigger mistakes a Flemish would hardly do like "in de gemeenschap" instead of "op de gemeenschap", using the plural form of "mentaliteiten" in this context.
But overall, for the rest of the speech really the first generation speaking Flemish without French undertone.
I think her great-grandfather King Leopold III was also rather good speaking Flemish in comparison with his eldest son King Boudewijn more than sixty years ago.
Prince Baudouin, eldest brother of King Albert I, was the first of the family to speak rather good Dutch, unfortunately only written sources, but no audio exists of him.
Elisabeth's generation is the first to be raised fluent in Dutch. The King and Queen speak Dutch/Flemish but it is always clear it's a second or even third language.
Prince Laurent even is known to have joke that he speaks ABN. That usually means the Dutch version of Queen's English but he decided that in his case it stood for Alles Behalve Nederlands (=All But Dutch/Flemish).
Elisabeth also speaks German but im not sure she is fluent in it. As the German speaking part of the Kingdom is only a minority it's enough for her to speak it next to English as a foreign language but she needs to be bilingual when it comes to French and Dutch. Fortunately she is.
Thanks Eric.
Is the Princess and her siblings 100% fluent in Dutch, French and German? How about the two previous genereations of the Royal Family?
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