Today, Princess Marie attended the Day of the French Language at the Dansk Industri in Copenhagen.
The Day of the French Language (Journée de la Francophonie) is celebrated every 20 March across the world. The date was chosen in order to celebrate the creation of the International Organisation of La Francophonie on March 20th, 1970.
According to the Organisation’s 2018 report, French is spoken by approximatively 300 million people across the world. French is the fifth most spoken language and the second most learned foreign language after English and its place in the business world is evolving rapidly. This is why the Dansk Industri decided to organize a conference focusing on the benefits of speaking French to do business.
This starts by hiring employees who can speak French but also helping all the employees to learn French when it is appropriate for their position. This would be particularly helpful when doing business in African countries for example as a lot of these countries have French as a main language and not English. The conference also focused on education asking questions such as “How high must the linguistic level be for it to be efficient?” and “What role does culture play?”. To answer these questions, higher education leaders were invited to give their assessment of how companies and students get the most out of the new initiatives in the Danish government national language strategy for the French language.
The text of Princess Marie’s full opening speech isn’t available yet but I know she made her speech in French and here is a small extract: ” Thank you to Dansk Industri, the Institut Français and the group of Ambassadors from French-speaking countries for hosting this great event about the French language and to the audience for being so many to attend. You know how much I love the French language which is spoken on the five continents by approximatively 230 million of people today and by many more tomorrow. You also know about my engagement for the education of young people in Denmark and abroad. In today’s globalized world, multilingualism is a very important asset to understand and to succeed. Denmark is a very international-friendly country so it is important that young Danes know foreign languages as much as possible. The French language is not only a language with culture and values. […]” I will update the post when the full speech is available.
After the first part of the conference – which was focused on business- Princess Marie took part in the networking event before attending the second part of the conference focusing on education.
Princess Marie wore a fully repeated outfit today including some items that we hadn’t seen in a few years. She decided to wear her Paul & Joe coat which she last wore in 2011 during an official visit to Italy.
She also wore a black Hugo Boss peplum top which she first wore during an official visit to Paris, France in 2014 with an ufo skirt that she debuted in 2009. Her earrings are the ‘Trinity’ earrings from JEWLSCPH and her Christine Hvelplund diamond bracelet.
© JEWLSCPH 
© Christine Hvelplund
Marie paired the outfit with her Carlend Copenhagen black ‘Aicha’ clutch and her favorite Jimmy Choo ‘Romy’ black suede pumps.
©Carlend Copenhagen 
© Jimmy Choo
In other news, Prince Joachim had an unannounced event last week. On March 12th, Prince Joachim visited Fredensborg Castle’s Rotary Club. During the event, he talked about his life and his job in the Armed Forces. Around 160 members from 13 different Rotary Clubs in the attended the event. Prince Joachim explained that his job consists of advising the Chief of Defense about the defense programs of the Armed Forces and the Home Guards volunteers. After his presentation, the Prince answered the audience’s questions. Prince Joachim also visited the small castle museum where he had the opportunity to see old photos of the castle in which he spent most of his childhood. You can see photos of the event here.
A guest shared a nice photo of herself and Prince Joachim at the event with a nice text: “Rotary Tuesday night. This gentleman is undervalued. What a fantastic evening with HRH Prince Joachim, who visited my Rotary club in Fredensborg for this year’s completely sold out intercity meeting. Lively, humorous and knowledgeable – 160 listeners got it all. I kept short speeches in the Prince and it was with little butterflies in the stomach. It was called both brave & bold. Everything is as it should be. Thank you!”
Rotary Clubs exist all over the world and “brings together people who work for major issues on different levels. Members represent many different industries such as health, the arts, industry, handicrafts, homemaker, leadership at all levels, etc. All these different backgrounds provide different perspectives and experience in cooperation improve s life for others who need help.” Prince Henrik was Patron of Copenhagen’s Rotary Club.
