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

Davina · October 10, 2012 5:40 am

Is Hungarian allied to Finnish? I was told that when I visited Finland but I don't know if it is true. I love languages too. A funny thing I've noticed, and I wonder if anyone else has, is that if I am stuck for a word for something in one foreign language, into my head will pop the word for that thing in another foreign language rather than in my mother tongue.

The Doctor · October 10, 2012 7:36 am

I tried to vote but apparently the options are exclusive of one another?

SusiGo · October 10, 2012 7:43 am

Davina wrote:
Is Hungarian allied to Finnish? I was told that when I visited Finland but I don't know if it is true. I love languages too. A funny thing I've noticed, and I wonder if anyone else has, is that if I am stuck for a word for something in one foreign language, into my head will pop the word for that thing in another foreign language rather than in my mother tongue.

As far as I know they're not allied as such but they have in common that they do not belong to any other European language family. They stand somehow alone and there are Finno-Ugrian studies as a subject at some unis.

Dramagod · October 10, 2012 9:35 am

Finnish and Hungarian languages are related somehow but don't resemble each other in any way. So it must be more that they're based in the same rules or something, I don't know. And now I'm hungary. Gonna go have a bite.

Milad · October 10, 2012 9:44 am

I was 8 when my mom and I emigrated to Canada. I was just thrown in really. I do remember listening to music and singing along even though I had no idea what was being said. I also watched tv shows and tried to figure out what was going on.

I made friends! You can imagine how terrified I was 8 years old, new place. But I was lucky to meet really wonderful kids who didn't care whether I spoke English or not. That helped a lot.

So....just jump in, try to have conversations with german speakers, maybe even hire one out once a week. Get a good book that explains vocabulary, and grammar.

Here is a site I ran across a while back: www.livemocha.com

Hope that helps
Best of Luck!

Milad · October 10, 2012 9:48 am

So interesting about Krio! I worked with 2 gentlemen from west africa and even though they were not from the same country or have the same language they could speak something that was mixed with English and some west african language. It was sooo cool/entertaining.

hypergreenfrog · October 10, 2012 10:06 am

Great idea for a poll!
We have such a wealth of languages on this board, lovely to see it in a poll.

If you don't mind, I have a few suggestions...
I am quite sure that the majority of our members are fluent in English as a second or third language, so it would be nice to have that option in the poll.
Maybe swap French with Latin? Because strictly speaking you cannot really be fluent in a dead language. I had Latin in school for 6 years, but I don't speak it at all, it's just not taught that way.
Finally, instead of the massive "other" group, you could try grouping related languages, say seperate groups for Slavic languages, Romanic languages - and definitely Finno-Ugric for Dramagod

Davina · October 10, 2012 11:04 am

Latin is hardly taught in schools here anymore.

I think changes cannot be made directly to a poll so maybe an idea would be to do a Mark 2.

horserider99 · October 10, 2012 6:38 pm

hypergreenfrog wrote:
Great idea for a poll!
We have such a wealth of languages on this board, lovely to see it in a poll.

If you don't mind, I have a few suggestions...
I am quite sure that the majority of our members are fluent in English as a second or third language, so it would be nice to have that option in the poll.
Maybe swap French with Latin? Because strictly speaking you cannot really be fluent in a dead language. I had Latin in school for 6 years, but I don't speak it at all, it's just not taught that way.
Finally, instead of the massive "other" group, you could try grouping related languages, say seperate groups for Slavic languages, Romanic languages - and definitely Finno-Ugric for Dramagod

My sister speaks Latin.... Once the poll is put up, it doesn't allow for any changes. otherwise, I would've changed a few things by now....I wouldn't mind if somebody used my idea and created their own poll with languages they thing should be added.

veecee · October 10, 2012 6:47 pm

Caroll wrote:
veecee wrote:
Nothing is ever simple, is it?

English is my native language. My Spanish is pretty good. I can carry on a conversation in Portuguese. I can read French, Italian, and Catalan, and converse a little in each of those.

I continue to be impressed by the level of English proficiency of non-native speakers on this forum.
Não há brasileiros aqui, mas há alguém que fala português! Você já esteve no Brasil, certo? Algum dia eu vou conhecer a neve dos Estados Unidos.

Sim, fui ao Brasil faz muitos anos. Adorei. Gostaria voltar algum dia. Temos bastante neve aquim em Michigan, mais nao muito o inverno passado. Fazia calor demais.

veecee · October 10, 2012 6:48 pm

Milad wrote:
I was 8 when my mom and I emigrated to Canada. I was just thrown in really. I do remember listening to music and singing along even though I had no idea what was being said. I also watched tv shows and tried to figure out what was going on.

I made friends! You can imagine how terrified I was 8 years old, new place. But I was lucky to meet really wonderful kids who didn't care whether I spoke English or not. That helped a lot.

So....just jump in, try to have conversations with german speakers, maybe even hire one out once a week. Get a good book that explains vocabulary, and grammar.

Here is a site I ran across a while back: www.livemocha.com

Hope that helps
Best of Luck!

Hey, you're in Canada? Whereabouts? I'm in Michigan.

tiharoa · October 10, 2012 8:39 pm

hypergreenfrog wrote:
Great idea for a poll!
We have such a wealth of languages on this board, lovely to see it in a poll.

If you don't mind, I have a few suggestions...
I am quite sure that the majority of our members are fluent in English as a second or third language, so it would be nice to have that option in the poll.
Maybe swap French with Latin? Because strictly speaking you cannot really be fluent in a dead language. I had Latin in school for 6 years, but I don't speak it at all, it's just not taught that way.
Finally, instead of the massive "other" group, you could try grouping related languages, say seperate groups for Slavic languages, Romanic languages - and definitely Finno-Ugric for Dramagod

In Finland there was a news service broadcasted in Latin, I think it was called Nuntii Latini. Sometimes when I was driving in the "far north" it was one of the few station you could get.

veecee · October 10, 2012 8:54 pm

My Latin teacher went to a conference of Latin teachers where they all spoke Latin -- with different accents, of course.

Forgot to say, I studied a little Latin, Farsi, Japanese, and Russian, but can't say I speak any of them. Except Farsi, in which I do remember how to say "I don't speak Farsi." Whenever I say it to a Farsi-speaker, her or she gets all excited and starts speaking to me in Farsi. I have to remind them what I've just said. They're just so happy to hear an American use it at all.

Dramagod · October 10, 2012 9:06 pm

tiharoa wrote:
hypergreenfrog wrote:
Great idea for a poll!
We have such a wealth of languages on this board, lovely to see it in a poll.

If you don't mind, I have a few suggestions...
I am quite sure that the majority of our members are fluent in English as a second or third language, so it would be nice to have that option in the poll.
Maybe swap French with Latin? Because strictly speaking you cannot really be fluent in a dead language. I had Latin in school for 6 years, but I don't speak it at all, it's just not taught that way.
Finally, instead of the massive "other" group, you could try grouping related languages, say seperate groups for Slavic languages, Romanic languages - and definitely Finno-Ugric for Dramagod
In Finland there was a news service broadcasted in Latin, I think it was called Nuntii Latini. Sometimes when I was driving in the "far north" it was one of the few station you could get.

Must've been before my time as I've never heard any news broadcasted in latin.

Last edited by Dramagod (October 10, 2012 9:07 pm)

tiharoa · October 11, 2012 6:20 am

Dramagod wrote:
Must've been before my time as I've never heard any news broadcasted in latin.

I checked and although I'm pretty sure you won't be interested, this YLE news can still be obtained for free from itunes

Dramagod · October 11, 2012 9:59 am

YLE is the main broadcasting channel here. You get the news on telly and radio every day. Or do you mean you can get the latin ones from itunes?

tiharoa · October 11, 2012 1:54 pm

Dramagod wrote:
YLE is the main broadcasting channel here. You get the news on telly and radio every day. Or do you mean you can get the latin ones from itunes?

Originally this news were broadcasted on radio by YLE a few times a week. Now they still produce the program but it's available on itunes. You can subscribe for free. I spent many summers driving around Lappland and the programmes on the radio were a bit depressing, something like: one channel where people talked in Finnish (I couldn't understand it might have been skolt sami or inari sami for what I know), traditional Finnish songs, Sibelius, and I often got the news in Latin (which was the only one I could make sense!), Near cities it's different. Of course I brought cds with me but after a while one needs a change.

Last edited by tiharoa (October 11, 2012 1:54 pm)

MollyHfan · October 22, 2012 9:13 am

Very interesting poll!

My mother tongue's German, my second was Latin (but I can't speak it of course), my third was English (fluent now), my fourth French, in which I'm quite fluent as well and I'm learning Norwegian and Arabian right now.

But my favorite of them all is English.

Last edited by MollyHfan (October 22, 2012 9:14 am)

Davina · October 22, 2012 11:10 am

Have you watched any Norwegian programmes on TV?

tiharoa · October 22, 2012 3:34 pm

@ Davina How cute, baby otter as avatar... The question about Norwegian tv it's a bit tricky, I can't say I watched it, it's more accurate to say that I look at the tv while something
was happening on the screen. I haven't the faintest idea of what exactly. You know, they have this looooong white nights in summer and I can't sleep if it's not dark, so out of desperation once I didn't have anything left to read.......... I did enjoy "The Killing" though, in danish with English subtitles.

Last edited by tiharoa (October 22, 2012 3:45 pm)