On March 1, St. David’s Day in Wales, Prince William posted a video in which he spoke Welsh. Before now, William could only say a handful of Welsh words, despite living in Wales for several years in his late 20s and early 30s, and despite the fact that he knew for 40 years that he would eventually inherit the “Prince of Wales” title. William spent his first two years as Prince of Wales refusing to even commit to taking Welsh language classes. Then, finally, he claimed to be learning the language via Duolingo last year. The St. David’s Day video was supposed to be the big reveal that Duolingo lessons paid off. Except that most people believe he was reading from a teleprompter. Personally, I believe that his whole speech utilized AI. In any case, people are unimpressed.
A Cardiff University professor has suggested the Prince of Wales should be able to be able to speak better Welsh by now after 42 years preparing for the role. Dr Dylan Foster Evans gave his assessment after the prince posted a video greeting in Welsh to Instagram on Saturday to mark St David’s Day.
Speaking on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme Dr Evans, head of the school of Welsh at Cardiff University said many viewers would not be impressed.
‘People say that he should be able to do a bit more than read for a few seconds from an autocue since Welsh does have an official status in Wales since 2011,’ he remarked. ‘Maybe we should expect quite a bit more.’
In 2024 William revealed he was using popular language app Duolingo to help him learn Welsh unlike his father who spent nine weeks at Aberystwyth University learning Welsh language and history before his investiture as Prince of Wales in 1969. He was taught by the Welsh nationalist Dr Tedi Millward and went on to give a number of speeches in Welsh.
When asked what the prince needs to work on Dr Foster Evans said: ‘His pronunciation is a little faulty.’ He continued: ‘He gets most things right but practice will do him a great deal of good. You need to use the language in a real world situation with real people to really get to grips with it.’
But Dr Foster Evans conceded that the prince had made an effort. ‘He was quite understandable and clear but he has a little way to go I think,’ he added. ‘It’s not perfect but it’s a start. I think many people were impressed and pleased to hear William speaking Welsh. Most people in Wales don’t speak Welsh and it’s not easy to broadcast in your second language.’
The prince’s ability to speak Welsh has prompted reactions across social media. One X user said: ‘Given that he’s always known he’d be the Prince of Wales one day, William’s Welsh really should be better. It’s not as if his family couldn’t afford private Welsh lessons.’
This is the real story: “Maybe we should expect quite a bit more.” This is what decades of infantilization and embiggening has gotten people: an heir who expects to be praised and lauded for doing less than the bare minimum, a man who can’t even commit to taking private Welsh-language lessons when he’s Prince of Wales. Maybe people SHOULD expect “quite a bit more.” All I know is that if I was being paid $30 million-plus annually from slumlording, I would be eating up those private Welsh lessons AND I would buy a cute little Welsh cottage.
Happy St David’s Day from The Prince of Wales
Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus gan Dywysog Cymru
pic.twitter.com/0PryZlImBl
— The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) March 1, 2025
Photos courtesy of KP and Avalon Red.
