# TBBT questions **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 13, 2017, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tbbt-questions/777004 "2017-01-13T02:33:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tbbt-questions/777004/21 "2017-01-13T15:59:18Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Interestingly, his name was misspelled (in Cyrillic) on his spacesuit’s name tag. It was not printed the way a Russian would do it. So, it was a DIY project. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tbbt-questions/777004/22 "2017-01-13T16:13:14Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Leonard and Sheldon evidently know Spanish: “Bueno muy amigo!” That means “Good very friend.” Of course, it’s about on par with Howard’s Russian. When he asks Penny something he had learned from a scratchy old record, then asks her if she’s ever been told she’s been beautiful in flawless Russian, “I want to shout ‘She still hasn’t!’” ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tbbt-questions/777004/23 "2017-01-13T16:23:54Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > According to wiki, Howard knows at least 7 languages to some degree or another if you count Klingon. We’ve seen him speak English, Klingon, Russian, Mandarin, French, Arabic and Farsi. Plus ASL, Japanese and ASCII. His French is fluent, but people in-universe have commented on his poor Mandarin and Russian. Indeed, the guy in the Chinese restaurant (the incomparable [James Hong](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Hong)) goes so far as to call Howard “Your little friend who thinks he speaks Mandarin.” Amy speaks Ubbi Dubbi, and taught it to Penny. Amy has also invented a language of her own, which has two different words for “spoon.” Sheldon was definitely a visiting professor when he was in Germany. He said so himself, correcting Penny’s assumption that he was studying abroad. Despite that, he didn’t seem to have picked up much German, otherwise he wouldn’t have been so surprised by that enema! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tbbt-questions/777004/24 "2017-01-13T16:31:13Z")
I don’t know…_einlauf_ probably isn’t a vocabulary word an American physicist would know before encountering one. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tbbt-questions/777004/25 "2017-01-13T18:19:29Z")
Wouldn’t Howard speak some Hebrew and Yiddish? ---
**Author:** ![Corner\_Case](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/corner_case/32/234_2.png) [@Corner\_Case](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corner_Case)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tbbt-questions/777004/26 "2017-01-13T18:44:46Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > I don’t know…_einlauf_ probably isn’t a vocabulary word an American physicist would know before encountering one. 😉 Maybe he heard it as “ein”-“laugh” and thought the event to which they were inviting him would be funny. And I’m sure it was - just not for him. > [@notfrommensa](#): > > Wouldn’t Howard speak some Hebrew and Yiddish? Perhaps when ordering pork ribs to go with a brisket? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tbbt-questions/777004/27 "2017-01-13T19:00:30Z")
Well, he knew enough Hebrew to get through his bar mitzvah. How much more than that we haven’t seen yet. Pork ribs, bacon cheeseburgers…Howard isn’t the most observant Jew in the world, that’s for sure. Except when he wants to be. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tbbt-questions/777004/28 "2017-01-13T19:00:56Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > Amy went to Harvard. Leonard went to Princeton. Howard went to MIT, and it sounds through an oblique reference the Raj may have gone there too, possibly after a college in India. Harvard is, arguably, the second finest university in the whole of Cambridge, Massachusetts. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tbbt-questions/777004/29 "2017-01-13T19:08:55Z")
> [@Corner\_Case](#): > > Maybe he heard it as “ein”-“laugh” and thought the event to which they were inviting him would be funny. And I’m sure it was - just not for him. Actually (and I am deeply ashamed of myself for knowing this!), the word Sheldon used was _Darmspülung_–literally “intestine rinsing.” Interestingly, while _Einlauf_ is the medical term, and might be unfamiliar, _Darmspülung_ is the kind of thing you might be able to work out if you have a smattering of German. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tbbt-questions/777004/30 "2017-01-13T20:26:44Z")
> [@notfrommensa](#): > > Wouldn’t Howard speak some Hebrew and Yiddish? Someone Howard’s age who grew up outside New York or an isolated Orthodox community, would doubtfully know Yiddish. It’s sadly a dying language. Now, it’s likely his mother did know Yiddish fairly well. Howard is definitely an Ashkenazic Jew. Also, few American Jews who have not lived in Israel or taken up serious study of Hebrew actually speak it. I don’t speak it as in, “form novel sentences,” but I can read and understand biblical Hebrew. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tbbt-questions/777004/31 "2017-01-13T20:42:09Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > That means “Good very friend.” Bueno \*\*mi \*\*amigo? :dubious: 😕 ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tbbt-questions/777004/32 "2017-01-13T20:43:53Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > I don’t know…_einlauf_ probably isn’t a vocabulary word an American physicist would know before encountering one. 😉 **E** inlauf. German nouns are always capitalized. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tbbt-questions/777004/33 "2017-01-13T20:53:06Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#): > > Indeed, the guy in the Chinese restaurant (the incomparable [James Hong](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Hong)) goes so far as to call Howard “Your little friend who thinks he speaks Mandarin.” Howard or Sheldon? :dubious: 😕 ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tbbt-questions/777004/34 "2017-01-13T21:05:22Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Howard or Sheldon? :dubious: 😕 Howard. It’s in “The Dumpling Paradox,” where Howard starts dating Penny’s friend from Nebraska, meaning that they can’t properly split the dumpling order since they no longer have four people. :eek: Hong’s character greets them with “Hi, fellas. Where’s your little friend who thinks he speaks Mandarin?” ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tbbt-questions/777004/35 "2017-01-13T21:08:42Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#): > > Howard. It’s in “The Dumpling Paradox,” where Howard starts dating Penny’s friend from Nebraska, meaning that they can’t properly split the dumpling order since they no longer have four people. :eek: Hong’s character greets them with “Hi, fellas. Where’s your little friend who thinks he speaks Mandarin?” I remember at least one episode where Sheldon drove Hong up the wall with his mangled Mandarin, too. Something about tangerine chicken, I think. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tbbt-questions/777004/36 "2017-01-13T21:34:37Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > I remember at least one episode where Sheldon drove Hong up the wall with his mangled Mandarin, too. Something about tangerine chicken, I think. That happened, too. The result of Howard’s attempting to teach Sheldon Mandarin. We saw from the subtitles that Sheldon ended up speaking gibberish. Whether this was because of Howard’s poor instruction, Sheldon’s poor learning, or Howard’s shaky grasp of Mandarin in the first place, is something we may never know. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tbbt-questions/777004/37 "2017-01-13T21:36:37Z")
Probably all three. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2017, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tbbt-questions/777004/38 "2017-01-21T12:47:45Z")
> [@bobkitty](#): > > [The Big Bang Theory Wiki | Fandom](http://bigbangtheory.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page) > > Be prepared to waste a lot of time there 🙂 Egad, was that written by a 12-year-old? I read the Amy entry, and half the Sheldon entry, and I couldn’t take the awful writing anymore. Thanks anyway. The information does at least seem to be accurate. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tbbt-questions/777004.md?page=1)