Was there anything Kate didn't excel at?

[Mommymoments]

Having read many articles Kate (pippa & James also) is so accomplished since she was tiny.
She is very sporty.. strong swimmer, excellent skier, hockey player, lacrosse, athletics, netball.. Plays piano very well & also was lead in schools drama production. Excelled at art.
It seems the Middleton's didn't do much in the way of equistrian sports?
Would love my dc to be as accomplished & well rounded. Can't afford Marlborough or any private for that matter!

The guy is 40. He's had at least two decades to learn. A few phrases at his age doesn't cut it in terms of demonstrating intention.

He is just bone lazy.

On his first visit to Wales after he became POW he told people that he was learning Welsh and offered a few phrases.

But his father made an entire speech...

Is there evidence of further progress on the 'few phrases'?

Individuals not speaking other languages is not shameful, whatever resources they have to hand. If you want to argue that royals should be required to speak other languages as part of their working royal status, I don’t entirely disagree with you. However, some people simply cannot grasp other languages, so that needs to be taken into consideration. William and Harry don’t strike me as having the sort of academic prowess of their father - in that regard, they are very much their mother’s children.

Yet Harry’s grades weren’t even mediocre, despite a private (and arguably better) education.

Given enough time, resources and motivation anyone can learn any language to any standard. Consider which of those three factors is in short supply for William.

Charles' Welsh is surprisingly good. He sounded fluent and natural the last time he spoke at the Welsh Assembly.

Absolute b?!lsh&t. My dh and I can speak several languages between us. Ds2 spent years going to a tutor for his father's native language , the same lady who taught his db, but he learned very little. Some people just can't pick up languages. How many do you speak?

When William became PoW he said he would try to learn Welsh. He was in his 40's. It's much easier to learn when younger, especially when you live there. He didn't know if he had an aptitude becsuse he didn't bother trying. I agree I think Charles has his father's intellectual curiosity, and you don't need to be bright for that, just interested in learning about things. I suspect William and Harry have none of that. But that makes Charles and Philip outliers, iñ their family, not William and Harry. Most learning is practice, time and motivation, not natural ability, which is about 20% of learning.

There is a huge push in Wales to keep the language alive. He lived on Angelsey, where Welsh is more or less the first language of many. As Prince of Wales, he shoukd have learnt Welsh. Why did he not 'learn a few phrases' when he was an air ambulance pilot?

He did. He even gave a speech partially in Welsh.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CLzkP_x6EFE&pp=ygUdUHJpbmNlIHdpbGxpYW0gc3BlYWtpbmcgd2Vsc2g%3D

There was a huge push in Wales to keep the language alive 30 years ago when I spent a lot of time there. The numbers appear to have fluctuated up and down over the years. The last census showed a decrease in speakers, but the ONS equivalent time survey an increase. Less than a third of Welsh people claim to speak Welsh.

Is there any evidence to support the statement that some people are incapable of learning languages? And if so, are all those people native English speakers?

Prince William got into St Andrew's.

This is obviously merely an anecdote and I’m quite sure that Prince William is not like this so it’s moot on that point - he should just be learning Welsh and I hope he’s got George mugging up on it as it is easier when you’re a child.

BUT I have a friend who is Canadian, brought up just outside Quebec (though her parents were not French Canadian). She married a Frenchman (actual French), had 2 years of weekly lessons in London and then moved to France for 5 years and she still truly honestly speaks the most appalling French I’ve ever heard. She’s like Joey of Friends being taught by Phoebe. It’s astonishing. Her MIL has learned English as a result. She is an intelligent woman who succeeds everywhere else. But my God, I’ve never heard anything like it. She has never made reference to it herself. But wow.

Don’t be ridiculous 🙄
How many helicopter pilots do you know who are ‘unintelligent’?

Aw he was pleased with his effort wasn't he? However that wasn't someone speaking a language, just someone reading, with difficulty, a prepared speech- probably in phonetic script - sounding stilted and as if they didn't know what they were saying. I sound like that when I try to read long German words.

@DuchessOfPort I completely understand that.
My BIL lived in France for 21 years, had intensive one to one lessons there. Never got beyond the basics in spoken French and I mean basics ie bonjour, merci, c'est combien? etc. Understood more than he could speak as is often the way. He survived because SIL is a good French speaker.
He's also excruciatingly tone deaf which may partly explain his inability to pick up new sounds. Some people are clearly not capable of learning a second language as adults.

He survived because SIL is a good French speaker
So he didn't really need to learn the language. And he clearly lacked motivation.

Yes, to compare the RF to actual diplomats is ridiculous, unless your idea about what diplomats actually do is based on an old Ferrero Rocher ad.

What always strikes me is how mediocre at best the RF’s academic performances are, despite their incredible educational opportunities. People of average intelligence should be excelling with the kind of education, which suggests we’re at a pretty low level.

And yes, agree about the lack of languages. Surely the ability to smile and wave and deliver a bland speech in another language would be a priority for all that ‘soft power’ stuff monarchists claim is so key?

Well I know him and you don't so you'll have to trust me on that one. He didn't shell out for expensive lessons because he lacked motivation. He was plain hopeless.

@DewinDwl I answered this point put to me:

As Prince of Wales, he shoukd have learnt Welsh. Why did he not 'learn a few phrases' when he was an air ambulance pilot?

with William saying a few phrases he presumably had to learn how to speak and what they meant.

Your contempt for people who don't speak more than one language competently/fluently is plainly apparent.

Your contempt for people who don't speak more than one language competently/fluently is plainly apparent

Wrong. Like I said before I think anyone can learn any language to the level they need, and I don't think it's helpful to call people hopeless, rubbish or "just no good at xyz".

It's okay to say you don't want to learn a language because you don't need to, you don't like it, you don't have time or you're just not interested. I understand that it might not look good for a royal to own up to any of the above.

The RF lack of languages other than English sets them apart from European royalty and even from British aristocracy. It's an interesting phenomenon really.

Other than that I don't want to get into a discussion about RF members intelligence as nobody here knows them.

The RF lack of languages other than English sets them apart from European royalty

It speaks volumes about their complacency and the fact that they look inward not outward (in spite of the occasional declaration about how devastated they are about this or that). The young heir to the Belgium throne is currently at Oxford, fluent in four languages and reading Hist/Pol in a language not her own, which is no mean feat at Oxford level.

There really is no excuse.

King Charles is fluent in Welsh, French and German, Camilla speaks French and Anne is fluent in French and German.
The Duke of Kent is fluent in French as his mother and aunt preferred speaking in French.
The Wales children speak Spanish.

CurlewKate · Today 08:04

Is there any evidence to support the statement that some people are incapable of learning languages? And if so, are all those people native English speakers?

I think most people will learn a language eventually if living in the relevant country and totally immersed, at whatever age, although we know that the brain is sort of 'programmed' to actively acquire language most easily before the age of 7. I know that, of all the languages I've learned in classroom settings (never ideal) French is the one that sticks most because I started it at age 7 at my primary school.

The problem is that classroom (or even online) formal language learning is not successful for everyone - my daughter was an example. It takes a lot of application for which you need high motivation. Plus a lot of teenagers - which is just the age we stupidly start teaching most kids languages in this country - are very self-conscious about speaking a foreign language in front of their peers, so it all feeds into a bit of a disaster area for the less-linguistically inclined.

But I think the 3 young royals are actually learning Spanish from their nanny, Maria, which is good news. Sorry I haven't got the source of this info - I know MN likes a link! - but it was 'respectable', I remember - not just some Youtube video. That's great, because hopefully they'll acquire Spanish more naturally, like children who have a non-native-English parent. But yes, they all need to get French, German and (for some) a bit of Welsh under their belts.