Spanish is not my mother tongue, but I can understand it well, and I not only agree, but I could feel *love* in her voice. She *loved* those babies - and she treated those humble peasant women with genuine respect, something that's often not usual in their own culture.
+Debbie Lough: In my previous comment I forgot to say: Her mastery was not perfect but good enough for being understood and not hesitant as it is the case of many (bad) speakers of foreign languages. Thinking of her charm and goodness, her utmost elegance and her exquisite performings, should take precedence to her ability in talking foreign languages. She is the favourite of many of us.
I'm amazed at how many people are being critical of her linguistic abilities, because she's not *perfect* in 'x' language, or because she speaks with an accent i 'y' language... Being fluent simply means being able to communicate articulately in a given language, it doesn't mean speaking it as though it's your first language - and she could clearly do that in spades... And that's incredibly impressive... Languages aren't really my thing (I'd love to be better, but I'm just not very good at them). I can just about get by - to ask directions, buy a train ticket, read a website, etc, in half a dozen languages or so (offhand, French, German, Italian, Russian, Latin (yeah, useful one that ;) ), and Spanish...). Not including English, obvs. But I could never hold a proper conversation like that. I know she had the advantage of living all over the place, but maybe it's because I find languages a real challenge that I find her language skills so impressive.
+Debbie Lough Your arguments are very solid and true, and it is not because of your modesty about languages. Most people are unable to buy a train ticket or read a website in other than their own language. Most English speakers assume they will be understood everywhere and I have even heard some Spanish speakers asking abroad for Patatas fritas.
The French are arrogant and constantly criticize the accents of non-native speakers. They are often deliberately obtuse and act as if they can't understand non-native speakers. That's the reason very few people are willing to try to speak the language. Audrey Hepburn spent her childhood in Belgium and French was virtually her mother tongue.
BV Bill she only lived in Belgium for about 3 years, her mom was Dutch and took her to the Netherlands. Her native tongues were Dutch and English because her father was British. The other languages she learned yes.
I believe persons who are extraordinarily gifted like Audrey Hepburn have been endowed by our creator as a gift to humanity that endures throughout time.
Audrey is often compared to an angel, and in that sense, I really think she was. She was sent to this world with beauty to draw our mean attention to superficial things, but then she taught us and inspired us on elegance, grace, and above anything, compassion. She was a gift from God and we have to be thankful for having had her - and for still having her in film and in our memories and hearts.
She speaks those languages with such charm, I am not forunate enough to speak French, Italian, Dutch or French but you can feel the warmth in her character. she was really a wonderfully beautiful person outside and in.
lollypop2120, she had been married to an Italian doctor and spent a lot of time in Rome. So, she had lots of chances to practice it. Not that she wasn't fluent in it even before that already, and that she wasn't gifted for languages. She was such an extraordinary woman in so many respects...
The most intellectual movie actress in modern history. Extremely smart, classy, compassionate, humble, queenly, etc. At last, she found the right man to love her at the end💝🙏🏽
A true citizen of the world was Audrey Hepburn! An angel sent here to show us what grace, beauty, and compassion looks like in one package. Her delicate features and fragile look belied the strength and courage she possessed. If we all had a little bit of the love Audrey Hepburn had in her heart, the world would be a better place indeed.
Once a latin based language is learned it's easier to learn others. I had 3 years of spanish in school which made learning french in Africa much easier. She was surrounded by latin languages in the film industry, especially when promoting a film. In Belgium it's mandatory to learn both Flamande and French, so she learned them as a child.
William Wyler...her Director from the movie Roman Holiday said that what Audrey had couldn't be taught, he said that God had Graced her cheek, and there she was...I believe him. She was a very special person.
Thought I couldn't admire her anymore than I already did - I was wrong!! I can only dream of being able to speak so many languages so fluently.. I'm still working on French and Portuguese...
Elegance , intelligence , wealth , fame , and multilingual to boot what an absolutely incredible human being And i haven't even touched on her compassion 🙃
That was fantastic she speak all of those languages. I understand many Europeans could speak several languages due to the close proximity of each other. Many Americans cannot speak another language since they cut out the foreign language requirement in colleges across the nation.
I am european, and I must say, even for a european speaking that many languages fluently is pretty outstanding. I'm up to two fluently and on the third I can understand the topic and I can make myself somewhat understandable to a small amount...
I am European too, and speak four languages. But don't think, that just because you are European you are automatically fluent in different languages. You also still have to study hard and have the willpower to speak different languages. I also lived in the US (Texas) and was shocked that they didn't start teaching spanish straight from kindergarten. There are so many spanish speaking people there, it is pretty much bi-lingual, yet hardly any Texan I met spoke any Spanish.
Miss Hepburn ...a true international treasure...beyond that the epitome of intelligence...charm...class ...elegance beauty...the very best in humanity ❤️🙏🏽❤️
I would like to see more clips of her speaking Spanish (that's my language) I listened just few words...but more than that I like the way she approached those women and it showed how much she was interested in the health of the little kids
God, Audrey is goals af. I'm still only fluent in English after three years of Russian, and German, two years of Japanese, and a bit of Spanish, and French. Probably should just focus on one at a time, but I love language. For some reason I chose to study political science, and history in college as my major/minor. I thought it seemed more practical, but now I'm just cynical, and question almost everything. At least I'll finally be getting my degree this year. After a long journey with many twists and turns. I hope I can one day be less Holly Golightly, and more Audrey Hepburn, but who am I kidding? No one could ever compare to either.
Her Dutch is an old upper class accent. I never knew she had Dutch roots. She is not celebrated by the Dutch and Belgian people. I speak also a dozen of languages
I don't speak Dutch, but I know that she left Belgium as a child and spent most of her adolescence in Arnhem, so I believe it's unlikely that she has a Flemish accent.
I grew up speaking French and Spanish. She was fully fluent in her native Dutch and the related German. English was flawless Italian was excellent French was trés bién aussi Her Español was less than stellar but understandable. She had bigness of soul, a true savant and best summed in one word: Braveheart
+loveharrydaily those are more or less similar - same language family. Try to learn Chinese, Arabic or Russian... I'm really happy Russian is my native since I'd never be able to learn it otherwise :)
SergeiInyushkin I started learning Russian months ago (I could learn faster if Duolingo would stop perpetually postponing the course. I'm getting fucking impatient. I've been waiting over a year!). I know basic Mandarin and I want to start Arabic one day but I've never officially started. I know words but I don't know how to write it.
The epitome of class - a true lady! A director once said of her, "God kissed Audrey on the cheek". How does one speak 7 languages? I would get them all mixed up together!
Judging from an hour long French interview (on youtube), her mastery of French is very good with a very light accent, difficult to pinpoint (I taught contrastive linguistics). A few occasional syntax or vocabulary errors.
wow..n'er grew up with telly, couldn't give a toss about celebrities, but Audrey's radiance was a godsend..and here are records of her dynamic multi-facets at that 🍸
She was born speaking Dutch... Of course it's natural. It probably just sounds strange because of the time difference. I'm English, and I don't think anyone speaks English like her in the video any more haha!
Her first years in Switzerland were in the German part (near Lucerne), so I wonder why there is no German here (Swiss German). She also must have learnt some German during the occupation of Netherland (which makes me wonder why she decided to live in that part of Switzerland), as she had such a talent for languages.. Or maybe she refused to speak German. As to Spanish - her first husband was of Cuban origin, and he certainly knew Spanish. She must have heard much of it.
She probably refused to speak German since Holland was occupied by the German Nazis when she was there. She has said she hates Germany ever since. Alas. For many Germans feel bad about this.
***** Hey, now, that's a bit offense, don't you think? Germany is now a great place and people need to stop blaming this generation for the faults of their past generations. (Plus, by this logic you should also hate Japan and other countries that supported the Nazi movement.) :)
She was such an wonderful person. I'm German and I could understand it if she hated Germany. I'm sad about that, but I can understand it. Of course, this applies to all who suffered at the time.
@@mckavitt13 while I love Audrey very much, she shouldn't have blamed a whole nation for the crimes of its leaders. Many Germans suffered in WW2 too. I say this as someone who's grandfathers both fought for the allies against Germany. They never blamed the German people
@@cloudbuster1024 I love Audrey and both of my grandfathers fought against Germany in WW2. But Germans have to stop feeling so ashamed of their past. War is war, many other nations have committed genocide and war crimes, not just Germany. England did terrible things to Scotland and Ireland including ethnic cleansing, but that doesn't make English people today evil. Germany can't take in all the world's refugees, Germans need a homeland too and they have to stand up for themselves
I think she could also speak a bit german, because she's belgian and german is the third national language. And I read in one of her biographies that she once lived in the germanspeaking part of Switzerland and even her son called her "Mutti" because it was commonly used in that region. But in that book it was said that one of her reasons to move to the frenchspeaking part was that the german language reminded her too much of the Nazis and her postwar trauma.
This are the true stars that brought to the world nothing but a positive example.The kind of celebrities women all over the globe should look up to.Today unfortunately is considered as talented and followed those who get fame through scandal.Those days wont come.
thanks a lot for loading this video. I didn't know Audrey Hepburn could speak so good Italian. I can tell you, because Italian is my mother tongue, and I know Dutch and English too. She speaks all of them beautifully.
Once you know one latin based language, you can basically learn all of them easily (for example, once you speak french, it's pretty easy to learn italian and spanish, same goes with other roots like english makes it easier to learn other germanic languages like dutch and german)
People tend to critisize everything. I must say that she was able to comunicate in different languages while some lazy people can only speak English being native and so bad with many grammatical mistakes.
Wow, when she speaks Dutch she has an ACCENT. Not that I complain, I love her. But it's funny to hear that the Dutch accent had washed away over time and had taken over by an English one, for I assume that's the funny accent I hear when she's speaking Dutch.
Although she was born in a subburb of Brussels (Elsene), mother Dutch/father English - she moved in het childhood to Arnhem (because of the danger of 2WW, and her parents thought probably the Netherlands would be neutral) her Dutch wasn't fluent, she had a accent (a strange pronounciation), or, because she maybe didn't speak it much later and "forgot' it. But the latter is strange because her partner was also Dutch (Robert Wolders). But even so, her ability to speak so many languages is impressive.
I think it goes to show that traditional form of education doesn’t always work for everyone. How much what she has achieved went beyond those with many years of schooling, both in languages and in acting.
Her mom was Dutch .. and she grew up in Netherlands and Belgium which they speaks French.. her father was British/Austrian because of her multinational background she could speaks many languages..
thank you so much!! :) yes, i agree. Audrey was a legend and a true angel!! She was amazing in every way! :) and that's so cool! You're from Holland?? That's awesome! :) I've always wanted to go to Holland :)
Según wikipedia no era fluida en español y alemán pero, vaya, que una actriz hollywoodense tuviera la habilidad de hablar más de un idioma ya es una cosa digna de admirar... y que hablase 4 ya es un prodigio( para cualquier persona). Realmente era una mujer exquisita y bella, aún a su edad madura. Hermosa.
Impressive considering she never went to college. As a British citizen in Nazi occupied Netherlands she used an assumed name and dared not speak English. Her father spent the war in a British prison/ detention center, her uncle was executed by the Nazis, one brother was a forced laborer in Germany while it was being destroyed and the other went in to hiding- she didn't know where. When the war ended she had no clue whether her father or brothers were alive or dead. She never fully recovered from the malnutrition she suffered under the Nazis. Later in life she said that if they had known how long the Nazis would stay her family might have just shot themselves.
Her english accent is unique, sure, but she is fluent, shows no hesitation in putting up sentences, and makes no basic mistakes, so I think she would be identified as a native english speaker, people just wouldn't be able to figure out from where. Don't u think? I saw the full interview you mentioned and I recognize her french is pretty good, yet she makes another basic mistake ("dans voyage" instead of "en voyage"). Sure her french is way better than her spanish. And her italian is excellent
She spoke spanish pretty well, but I was even more impressed by her french and italian. It's very, very hard to grasp the musicality of so many different languages... nothing short of a prodigy... I think I love her a little more now, if that's even possible!
you're absolutely right. esp.with latin, French, spanish and italian. If you know German Dutch isnt much of a problem. and German - English is very similar.
To the highly critical people who only see the faults in others. This woman was amazing!, and jealousy is one of the lowest, most pathetic human traits... I pity you.
Excuse me, Yvette, but I don't think the comments are "highly critical", most of them just state the fact that her Italian is very good and it would be a lie to say her Spanish is perfect. Her gift of speaking many languages only adds to her other qualities. We remember her and love her for those.
Beatriz Cotello She is addressing the people who are “highly critical”, not the “comments are highly critical” 🤦🏻♂️ Use your eyes to read but also please use your brain to understand before jumping in. 🤦🏻♂️
Die zijn precies de talen dat ik spreek, apart van mijn moeder taal!! Amaai, dat is een echt toeval, wat een mooi verassing! Ik hou van Audrey Hepburn!
@ACWProductions101 She spent a lot of time traveling in 3rd world countries after she retired. Since she spoke English and French, she may have sort of plunged in, when she was around Spanish speakers, and then the more she was around then, the better she got. She was never discussing anything complicated, mostly talking with parents about their children, with children about what they did during the day. She did live in Switzerland and Italy, also, where there are lots of Spanish speakers.
