His lack of any talent for languages was peculiar.

He spoke French tolerably, but otherwise no other language, though he had a smattering of Italian and Czech.

For years--indeed, to the end of his life--he struggled with the greatest energy to learn Hungarian.

He had a priest living permanently in the house to give him Hungarian lessons.

This priest accompanied him on his travels, and at St.Moritz, for instance, Franz Ferdinand had a Hungarian lesson every day; but, in spite of this, he continued to suffer from the feeling that he would never be able to learn the language, and he vented his annoyance at this on the entire Hungarian people.