BBC Sherlock Fan Forum - Serving Sherlockians since February 2012 » Languages

Lilith · October 26, 2014 12:49 pm

I don't know if you had it here before but it makes me smile, our language experts Sherlock & John

Liberty · October 26, 2014 1:03 pm

Those German words are great! I wish we could adopt some of them.

Lilith · October 26, 2014 1:16 pm

I think you already did adopt the Weltschmerz word?

Liberty · October 26, 2014 1:41 pm

Well, we do use "mittelschmerz"!

This Is The Phantom Lady · October 26, 2014 1:47 pm

That is really interesting. The french one.... ooh-lala!

Lilith · October 26, 2014 2:03 pm

What is mittelschmerz?! I have heard English speaking people using the word Weltschmerz. I don't know what mittelschmerz is supposed to be though

Liberty · October 26, 2014 2:56 pm

It's the pain some people get on ovulation (mid-cycle). I think it has always struck me because so many medical terms tend to have Latin or Greek roots rather than German. I haven't heard it for years, though.

Yes, I kind of liked the French one, Phantom. The Russian one was nice and deep too .

Lilith · October 26, 2014 4:28 pm

How funny, you taught me a German word I have really never heard it before.

This Is The Phantom Lady · October 26, 2014 4:51 pm

The russian one reminded me of my first and only Russian language class... that was a scary experience! I attended a class before starting college and the teacher thought I was one of his regular students and tried to force me to read out loud from the text book.

I actually find that video so interesting, how different and yet so alike languages are

I remember Mittelschmertz from advanced German classes... when we weren't reading about murderous women we were learning how to say we had pains in different places...

Last edited by This Is The Phantom Lady (October 26, 2014 4:53 pm)

Lilith · October 26, 2014 6:23 pm

This Is The Phantom Lady wrote:
I remember Mittelschmertz from advanced German classes... when we weren't reading about murderous women we were learning how to say we had pains in different places...

Ah, see, that's it, i never took advanced German classes, i AM German (which makes it pretty funny i have never heard it before *smile*)

This Is The Phantom Lady · October 26, 2014 6:56 pm

I actually regret most of my advanced language classes, they focused mostly on grammar that not even a native speaker would use or understand, or words like that that you would never use in a sentence.

I passed advanced Spanish and I can't even have a conversation in Spanish.

The only language I actually was happy I took the advanced class off was English, because I already spoke it quite well...

with German I am not comfortable writing it, I'm happier to attempt to speak it though.

johnlockislove · October 31, 2014 1:19 pm

היי מה נישמע?? זה כיף לדבר עברית

tonnaree · October 31, 2014 1:31 pm

I do evny all of you your language skills.

I took Spanish in high school and French in Uni. But I'm no good in either.

I also wish that America would put more focus on producing multi-lingual students. You go to other countries and so many people speak more than one language. But come here to AMERICA and by golly you are expected to speak English. *sigh*

MartaSt · October 31, 2014 2:39 pm

This Is The Phantom Lady wrote:
I actually regret most of my advanced language classes, they focused mostly on grammar that not even a native speaker would use or understand, or words like that that you would never use in a sentence.

I passed advanced Spanish and I can't even have a conversation in Spanish.

The only language I actually was happy I took the advanced class off was English, because I already spoke it quite well...

with German I am not comfortable writing it, I'm happier to attempt to speak it though.

I have the same problem. In English classes in school they taught me a lot of grammar stuff ( and most of it is useless in face to face communication) but they have never paid attention to speaking skills. So now I know most of English tenses but I have problem to explain foreigner how to find a street in my city.

I've always envied people who know more than one lagnuage. I know English, some basics of Japanese and that's all. I've always had so many problems in learning new language that in my case knowing even one is a success. *sigh*

besleybean · October 31, 2014 5:57 pm

I think you're all brilliant.

This Is The Phantom Lady · November 1, 2014 2:11 pm

Yesterday a lot of the people at the party were Swedish and despite our languages being a bit similar everyone decided on speaking English right away.

One of the girls was French and I was so surprised when she suddenly said a long sentence and I actually understood her. So was she!

What she said (In french) fits the resent talk in here well... she said that there is a lot of 'correct' grammar when speaking French, you can say 'bla-blah-bla' but you have to remember that 'bla bla' is fine too because everyone understands you.

Davina · November 2, 2014 12:31 pm

Language teaching here in the UK is pretty rubbish really. Like the US people just seem to expect everyone to speak English. Most think it is sufficient to speak more slowly and to shout.

besleybean · November 2, 2014 12:54 pm

I have to say that my German teacher at school was great..
Languages just wasn't the route I chose.
Unlike my son: fluent in German, excellent in French and now learning Italian.

Last edited by besleybean (November 2, 2014 4:11 pm)

Liberty · November 2, 2014 2:01 pm

Yes, it's pretty dire here. It doesn't help that languages aren't taught until secondary school, and you don't need to be fluent to pass the exams. As an adult it's time-consuming, difficult and expensive to learn a new language (in my opinion), so I wish it could start earlier. It's very embarrassing, especially when people from neighbouring countries often speak English amazingly well.

tonnaree · November 2, 2014 2:24 pm

It boggles my mind that my daughter took 4 years of German in high school and passed with good grades but barely speaks it.