BBC Sherlock Fan Forum - Serving Sherlockians since February 2012 » Understanding neighbouring languages

Vhanja · February 6, 2017 2:55 pm

I'm curious to see if there are others who can, based on where you come from,understand other languages.

For instances, I am Norwegian. And so I can understand Swedish and Danish. And since we were occupied by Germany during WWII, some German words have bled into our language (not to mention that we have the same Germanic root, so we have many similar roots). For instance, it was not uncommon for the generation of my parents to use the word "krank" to mean "not feeling well", something that came from the war.

So I'm curious if any of you guys have languages you understand based on where you are from? For instance, I can imagine that if you are from Germany, you can understand some Dutch, perhaps?.

nakahara · February 6, 2017 4:05 pm

Because we were once one state called Czechoslovakia, Czechs and Slovaks usually can understand each other´s language very well.

ewige · February 6, 2017 4:49 pm

I'm Russian so I understand written Slavic languages pretty well - Czech (cheers nakahara!), Polish, Slovene and Ukranian. Probably others too, but I've no experience with them.
I understand written Dutch well enough as an English and German speaker.
However, I get only about 10% when any of the above foreign languages are spoken

This Is The Phantom Lady · February 6, 2017 5:26 pm

Being Danish, like Vhanja I understand Norwegian and Swedish (almost... I always found them easier to read than hearing them... but that might be my bad hearing playing in there)

I remember my Dutch boyfriend and I talking about German. He understands it pretty well.

I do too, and a lot of Danish people have been taught German in school (though sadly a lot have been exposed to almost traumatic teaching experiences and seem to hate using it...)

Vhanja · February 6, 2017 5:31 pm

This Is The Phantom Lady wrote:
Being Danish, like Vhanja I understand Norwegian and Swedish (almost... I always found them easier to read than hearing them... but that might be my bad hearing playing in there)

I remember my Dutch boyfriend and I talking about German. He understands it pretty well.

I do too, and a lot of Danish people have been taught German in school (though sadly a lot have been exposed to almost traumatic teaching experiences and seem to hate using it...)

In Norway, it's the opposite - we can read Danish easily, but some have trouble understanding spoken Danish. With Swedish, it's the other way around - it's easier to understand spoken Swedish, but it's harder to read (probably because Swedish is more inspired by French, so they have some letters and words we aren't used to).

I also had German in school, but for this thread I'm thinking mostly about what you understand of other languages because they are by nature similar to your own. (Then again, there are quite a few similarities between German and Scandinavian due to them all having Germanic root).

Interesting to read about it being more or less the same with Slavic languages, nakahara and ewige.

Last edited by Vhanja (February 6, 2017 5:32 pm)

ewige · February 6, 2017 5:48 pm

This Is The Phantom Lady wrote:
I do too, and a lot of Danish people have been taught German in school (though sadly a lot have been exposed to almost traumatic teaching experiences and seem to hate using it...)

I had like two months of German in school and I hated it with passion so I dropped out mid-term. Tongue-twisters like entschuldigung did me in. Incidentally, I also hated Math, and look at me now - doing Math all day long in German

Last edited by ewige (February 6, 2017 5:49 pm)

besleybean · February 6, 2017 5:51 pm

I loved German at school, but we had a brilliant teacher.
I only took it as far as 'O' level.
But I am now so proud that my son is fluent in German and teaches in a German speaking school.

Vhanja · February 6, 2017 5:53 pm

Haha, I didn't really mind the German lessons (although I remember we were taught by an elderly woman with bad breath). But I did develop a hate for Kasus (not sure what that is called in English).

besleybean · February 6, 2017 5:54 pm

Neither am I, but I am dying to know!

Vhanja · February 6, 2017 5:56 pm

Nominative, Accusative, Dative, Genitive etc. German has eight, doesn't it?

besleybean · February 6, 2017 5:59 pm

Oh, cases, I see...not so well covered in English!
Our brilliant teacher gave us mnemonics!(sp?!)
DOGWUF for the accusative: durch, ober, gegen, wieder, um, fur.

Then a poem for dative: aus, bei, mit, nach, seit, von, zu, dative for me and dative for you!

Vhanja · February 6, 2017 6:02 pm

We had some of those in older version of Norwegian (Norse), but not much now. So I have traumas from trying to memorize them.

Last edited by Vhanja (February 6, 2017 6:03 pm)

besleybean · February 6, 2017 6:04 pm

We just had a chart for the German ones and I just learned it off by heart: das, die, der etc!

ewige · February 6, 2017 6:06 pm

A lot of native Austrians (and probably Germans too!) confuse Dativ and Akkusativ all the time (or ignore Dativ altogether ) so you guys don't have to feel bad about having problems with the cases.

besleybean · February 6, 2017 6:08 pm

I never had a problem, but as I said, it was down to good teaching.

Vhanja · February 6, 2017 6:11 pm

Oh, das, die, der is ok, because we have those in Norwegian too. But the cases drove me crazy. Glad to hear natives struggle with it too.

besleybean · February 6, 2017 6:13 pm

Well I meant how they changed in the cases.
As I said, I just learned the chart off by heart!

Vhanja · February 6, 2017 6:14 pm

Hahaha, I love how this thread ended up with all of us focusing on our German lessons.

besleybean · February 6, 2017 6:18 pm

Well, the Germans are my neighbours.
Literally, in my case!
I grew up with 2 German households in my street and my best friend having a German mother.
I currently have a German lady living opposite me!

ewige · February 6, 2017 6:25 pm

besleybean wrote:
Well, the Germans are my neighbours.
Literally, in my case!
I grew up with 2 German households in my street and my best friend having a German mother.
I currently have a German lady living opposite me!

Do you speak a little German with any of them? Or do they strictly prefer English? Do they sound like Eurus in TLD? (I keep wondering how on Earth people can discern her accent as German, she sounds nothing like a German speaker to me! lol)

Last edited by ewige (February 6, 2017 6:26 pm)