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

**Posted by Davina** October 22, 2012 5:03 pm

See if you can get Lillehammer (Lilyhammer) somehow. It's Norwegian although some is in English. Black comedy/ crime.

**Posted by veecee** October 22, 2012 5:57 pm

MollyHfan wrote:
But my favorite of them all is English.

Because of Sherlock?

**Posted by Davina** October 30, 2012 7:52 pm

I'm now learning Italian. I'm playing CDs in the car when I'm travelling around and must look a bit crazy as I repeat everything that is being said. I am a bit concerned about starting to drive like an Italian though...could be dangerous!

**Posted by Molly Hooper** October 30, 2012 7:55 pm

Ooh, Italian? Ciao, Come stai?
My Friend's Mum's Italian so I've picked up a tiny bit.
I going to start learning BSL (British Sign Language) soon, I'm really excited!!

**Posted by Davina** October 30, 2012 7:59 pm

Bene grazie! E tu? I love everything about Italy: the food, the wine, the architecture, the culture, the guys , the weather, the scenery, the clothes. Oh...but NOT the driving. Ciao!

**Posted by 221B Baker Street** October 30, 2012 11:29 pm

My mother language is Russian. The second is English (fluent, at least I hope so ), the third is German (some years ago I spoke quite freely, as for now I read literature and watch news in German, but hardly speak). Also I learnt Latin at the institute, still remember lots of proverbs, able to translate a text, with a dictionary of course.
That's a pity I don't speak German for a long time,one tends to have difficulties at speaking without constant practice.

**Posted by tiharoa** October 31, 2012 1:43 am

Davina wrote:
Bene grazie! E tu? I love everything about Italy: the food, the wine, the architecture, the culture, the guys , the weather, the scenery, the clothes. Oh...but NOT the driving. Ciao!

I'm a very good driver thank you. I choose to live away from Italy though, and the only things I miss have to do with food. Weather being too hot, clothes are nice but unfortunately there are expectations, and while I favour understated elegance I won't bother to be perfectly groomed all day. The architecture and the overwhelming wealth of ancient artifacts, paintings and sculptures are just that, overwhelming at the point of becoming commonplace. I think you have to have less to appreciate more.
Guys might look exotic but are more or less like all the others in the western world.

**Posted by hypergreenfrog** October 31, 2012 9:31 am

Molly Hooper wrote:
Ooh, Italian? Ciao, Come stai?
My Friend's Mum's Italian so I've picked up a tiny bit.
I going to start learning BSL (British Sign Language) soon, I'm really excited!!

Sign language is something I have always wanted to learn, great idea!

**Posted by Davina** October 31, 2012 10:39 am

I did learn Makaton some years ago, which is based on BSL. Used with children and adults with Special Needs along with speech.

**Posted by Molly Hooper** October 31, 2012 3:31 pm

Yeah, my Mum's teaching a little girl with learning difficulties so she's learning Makaton. Sometimes we'll try and have conversations together but mainly we just finger-spell which I can do pretty well.

**Posted by besleybean** October 31, 2012 5:46 pm

I did Makaton about 30 years ago and British sign language about 20 years ago!

**Posted by veecee** October 31, 2012 6:20 pm

Molly Hooper wrote:
Ooh, Italian? Ciao, Come stai?
My Friend's Mum's Italian so I've picked up a tiny bit.
I going to start learning BSL (British Sign Language) soon, I'm really excited!!

I've always wanted to learn ASL (American Sign Language). I wonder how much it differs from BSL.

BTW, with your nice fingernails, you'll probably have a nice accent.

**Posted by veecee** October 31, 2012 6:22 pm

besleybean wrote:
I did Makaton about 30 years ago and British sign language about 20 years ago!

I've never heard of Makaton. I wonder if we use it here in the US.

**Posted by Mell92** January 11, 2013 1:25 pm

Dutch is my native language, English is my second language (quite fluent, I hope, after all I am an ESL teacher ), I speak a bit a French and a bit of German. And a couple of words in Spanish But I guess that doesn't count.

**Posted by Mary Me** January 11, 2013 2:47 pm

I'm a native german speaker and I can communicate in english, too. And I speak a bit french.

**Posted by equiraptor** January 11, 2013 3:22 pm

I'm a native English speaker, and being in the US, haven't been exposed to as many languages as others. In school, I chose to take Spanish - living in Texas, learning Spanish seemed like a smart thing to do. At the time, I was pretty proficient in the language. I was reading Cien Años de Soledad in the original Spanish and writing essays, also in Spanish, analyzing it for class. But it's been 12 (almost 13) years since I graduated from high school, and I haven't used the Spanish in that time. I've lost my vocabulary in the language. I'm still familiar with its grammar and usage, and when I do try to tip my toes back in, pick it up very quickly. But I could no longer hold a conversation in Spanish.

On the other hand, I've recently decided I should try learning German. We've started to do more international travel, particularly in Europe. I'm poor with language (both my native tongue and other languages), so was completely lost with anything except English and Italian (close enough to Spanish for me to not be completely lost!). I really dislike that, but I particularly like Germany (I'm a car person - we own a Porsche, we race cars, we drove the Nürburgring Nordschleife while we were there last). So German seemed like an appropriate next language to work on learning.

**Posted by Davina** January 11, 2013 3:36 pm

A nice tricky language to learn! My Italian is improving daily through listening to CDs in the car and working through a course book. Thank you BBC. See not only Sherlock to thank them for.

**Posted by Mary Me** January 11, 2013 11:12 pm

Being active in an english speaking forum is a good chance to improve one's english.
Now I'm looking for some stuff I can watch in english; I'll get me 'The Office'

**Posted by biscuitbear** January 11, 2013 11:33 pm

Yay I get the first vote for Chinese/Japanese! I loved foreign languages when I was at school, did German first then English then a little Spanish then Japanese. Also a bit of Latin. Never used German though I studied it the longest, it's all gone now, can't speak it anymore. I did live in Japan for 7 years so I can still speak it even though I came back 11 years ago.

Sam wrote:
For everyone who has English as a second language - how did you start learning and what made you want to continue learning it? I would love to know

In France we start our first foreign language in earnest the first year of middle school (junior high school) and our second foreign language the third year. When I was young, if you were a good pupil you did German first because English was considered "too easy". But I started memorizing lyrics in English before actually starting English classes, I remember learning the words to "Jesus Christ Superstar". There was never any question for me of not continuing to learn it because I always loved foreign languages and travelling.

**Posted by Mary Me** January 12, 2013 3:37 pm

I must say, the reason that I can interact with people in english, isn't the school.
The reason is me being active in english speaking forums and me watching movies and interviews in english.
Our english class is very useless. I mean, teacher asks a question and most of the answers begin with "Ja, also ich denke..." And our teacher is not very consistent when it comes to vocabulary query.
Example?
Teacher: "English word for Abtreibung?" (abortion)
Student: "To make the baby away?"
Teacher: "Right. Next."
I sat there and was like Da faq?