I think William should have learned Welsh?

[antelopevalley]

William is the new Prince of Wales. He has known for years he will be, but still only knows a few Welsh words.
Charles learned to speak Welsh and can have conversations with people and has given many speeches in Welsh.
I don't understand why William has not done the preparation his father did for this role?

Never meant to be an insult - Dumbarton does not sound exciting, doesn't mean it isn't. Perhaps the duchess and duke should do more to put it on the map.

What connection do any of them have to the titles they are given? It's all very archaic and quite frankly belongs in the dark ages. But of course we wont be doing away with them yet, they are vital for controlling influencing the masses in the UK.

@Coucous I'll second that, perhaps we'll then get a Waitrose in Swansea 🙏

What do you want him to do? Some fucking clog dancing at the Eisteddfod? 🤣 Bash out some cerdd dant? Make some cheese on toast, get pissed in Cardiff on a 6 Nations day?

Like leave the man alone, seriously. He will do what he can from his guilded cage I'm sure. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Also I'm a fluent Welsh speaker, I don't care that he can't speak the language. He's English 🤣

He should learn Welsh.

I moved to Wales and am taking Welsh classes. It's polite to make an effort with the language

Oi @CaptainBarbosa , welsh rarebit is not cheese on toast.

My first language; in parts of Wales like Gwynedd about 75% are fluent, far less in other areas. A wonderful language.

No your right..... It's cheese and cheese sauce on toast 🤣

Ok... [makes mental note to not eat at @CaptainBarbosa 's]

But to be fair I imagine PW's life is busy and hectic to a degree none of us can possibly comprehend 🙄

Is that a joke?
Have a look at the Court Circular to gauge how 'busy and hectic' he is....

I would rather imagine parents with a couple of kids holding down two jobs each to cope with the cost of living crisis, as 'busy and hectic'
Really really not William

I am Welsh and I don't speak Welsh! I was never taught it 🤷🏻‍♀️

I’m still miffed that while he was Duke of Cambridge, he didn’t even bother to study at Cambridge University and lived in Norfolk of all places. Disgraceful.

What would you like removing from the curriculum to make room for children learning a language that is used by very few people across the world and is likely never going to be needed in their lives later?

I've just watched a clip of Prince William giving a fair-sized address at the Anglesey Show nine years ago.

Is it easy to share videos to Mumsnet threads?

Collective daily worship and the bit of geography about ox bow lakes, the superheroes topic my son did 3 times, and some of the made up grammar they do in year 6.

Does he need to learn Cornish and Scots Gaelic too?

By the way, I'm English by birth and speak pretty competent Welsh

I’m surprised as well that Charles didn’t make him learn Welsh from when he was little, given how much effort he went into to learn welsh. Thought they would try harder

Win win all round!

It's embarrassing that he couldn't be arsed until now. The bar is so low for these clowns and still they continue to disappoint.

Speaking of languages, did QE really speak French fluently? If so why did she choose French rather than any of the other language from the countries she was head of state . . . Any Nigerian, Kenyan, South African languages for example.

Apparently she was very proud of the Commonwealth. Perhaps KC will learn Jamaican Patois since he is now in charge.

Well, it was, perhaps still is, the language of diplomacy and international relations which would be useful for a head of state but it was also the sort of education an aristocratic young lady would be expected to have.

Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa became all fully independent decades ago so QEll was only their HoS for a short time. Besides, given that there are several languages spoken in all of these countries, one of them being English, which one should she choose? I of course know the 'point' you are trying to make, but you haven't really thought through it very well.

As for French, I don't think she 'chose' it, rather than that it was the international language of diplomacy when she was a young girl and would have been the obvious choice of language for an upper class young lady to study, much as English would be now. I'm not sure if she was ever fluent in French, but I believe she did speak it reasonably well, as did Philip.

Yes, she did speak fluent French. There are loads of recordings, and it is fluent.
I suppose French is useful beyond just Canada, so perhaps that's why she chose French.

I am reading @Coucous message as "she spoke French, and of course French is one of the languages of a country of which she is head of state, but why didn't she learn others".

I have actually - she was head of state of South Africa for about 10 years - that's plenty of time to learn a language when you don't work.

Also this Welsh not thing. Yes, on one hand kids were told not to speak Welsh in class but equally the teachers were also saying if you want to achieve, be the best, compete in England (which my generation did because there were no jobs in Wales) you have to speak English like the English. I don’t have an accent because of this. It’s been good advice in my opinion.