Prince Harry is dropped from German exams for ‘mumbling’
THE Royal family may be aspirational figures around the world, but their elocution is not good enough for Germans, it seems. A recording of Prince Harry is to be dropped from exams in German schools after pupils accused him of “mumbling”.
An online petition calling for the exam to be changed attracted more than 43,000 signatures from pupils who complained they could not make out a word the prince was saying.
The Royal family is highly popular in Germany, and Prince Harry’s romance with Meghan Markle is a regular feature in the country’s newspapers.
But there were reports of distraught pupils and angry teachers after a recording of the prince turned up as a listening comprehension test in the German equivalent of GCSES in the state of North Rhine-westphalia.
“Some students were extremely upset, there was weeping and great disappointment,” Bernd Hinke, a headmaster in Düsseldorf, said.
The row centred on a recording of a speech Prince Harry gave about Aids at a children’s centre in Lesotho, which pupils said was impossible to make out.
“It was too hard, it was beyond what could be expected,” Brigitte Balbach, head of a local teachers’ association, said. “Teachers, even native English speakers, said they had difficulty understanding the listening comprehension task.”
The petition was started by Daro Schramm, a 16-year-old pupil.
“I think it’s very important that students are set a final exam which is actually possible to pass,” he said. “We had to listen to two podcasts, one of them a speech by Prince Harry. Both were very difficult to understand.
“I was angry. When it comes down to it, this exam can decide my future.” The problem was not solely down to Prince Harry’s enunciation, he said. “There was a lot of background noise.”
The other recording featured Miriam Makeba, a South African singer.
Pupils said they also had difficulty with vocabulary in a question that tackled apartheid.
The petition was backed by two teachers’ unions. The exam accounted for half of students’ grades in English.
The marks awarded are to be revised and pupils will also be allowed to resit the exam if they choose – without Prince Harry’s voice.