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tim.mccravy
Newbie
United States
Joined 5780 days ago
19 posts - 21 votes
Speaks: Spanish
| Message 57 of 118 01 February 2009 at 6:17pm | IP Logged |
It fascinates me how the stereotypes for Spanish differ between the US, Europe, and South America. A dutch acquaintance once told me that in Europe, Spanish is sexy. Its always seemed to me that a person speaking Spanish with a very thick Mexican accent always sounds drunk, and Argentinos sound excited, always very, very, very excited. They could be talking about a scientific study of boredom itself and sound exciting.
1 person has voted this message useful
| ChristopherB
Triglot
Senior Member
New Zealand
Joined 6316 days ago
851 posts - 1074 votes 
2 sounds
Speaks: English*, German, French
| Message 58 of 118 01 February 2009 at 7:52pm | IP Logged |
furyou_gaijin wrote:
French: great for shouting verbal abuse at people
German: some of the world's most amazing poetry is written in it |
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Thought that would be the other way round!
1 person has voted this message useful
| qklilx
Moderator
United States
Joined 6186 days ago
459 posts - 477 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: Korean
Personal Language Map
| Message 59 of 118 02 February 2009 at 6:01am | IP Logged |
lynxrunner wrote:
| who wants to memorize 9,001 hard-to-draw characters? |
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In Japan it's 8001. Veeery similar comparison, and like you said, lots of "alphabets." Somehow though I don't hear people complaining much about Chinese being hard except in speaking and writing.
Edited by qklilx on 02 February 2009 at 6:03am
1 person has voted this message useful
| Sennin
Senior Member
Bulgaria
Joined 6034 days ago
1457 posts - 1759 votes
5 sounds
| Message 60 of 118 02 February 2009 at 2:24pm | IP Logged |
lynxrunner wrote:
| Russian is for secret communists and intellectualisterinators. It looks like English, but with backwards R and N. |
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It... looks like English? That's the strangest thing I've ever head.
Putting visual resemblance aside, there is something in common between Russian and English that sets them apart from all other languages. It's not just the size of the countries or the number of speakers but rather some... special status. Other languages just don't have it, not even Chinese or Spanish.
lynxrunner wrote:
| Dutch is "uglier" German, as if the language couldn't get any worse. |
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ROFL ^_^. I rather like it but it is far beyond my vocal capabilities.
lynxrunner wrote:
| French is hot; so hot that simply speaking it makes everyone else's temperature increase. If you speak it fluently, you are intelligent and sexy beyond measure. Otherwise, you're just trying to vaguely impress others with your high school knowledge of the language. It's nasal and involves lots of coughing, but it's still romantic. |
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The winner takes it all... enduring a difficult path -> obtaining a big reward
furyou_gaijin wrote:
| French: great for shouting verbal abuse at people |
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I have first hand experience, Parisians love shouting. Either that or I'm extremely annoying (which I am but Brits tolerate me better ;p). During my short 2 day stay in Paris, I managed to get a lot of it.
Some bus driver at the airport shouted at me for not believing him that "this bus doesn't go to the hotel" after I entered it two times. My efforts to explain that I didn't recognize the bus resulted in more fierce shouting.
Some minor shouting occurred in Paris but I was completely innocent this time.
On the way back to the airport, a taxi driver shouted at me, 'cause I told him "je ne suis pas sûr" when he asked me on which terminal is my plane. I expected a polite discussion on the subject but he didn't give me the opportunity to speak much ;p.
I can't fail to notice that people start shouting at me when I try to use French and are rather polite if I stick to English; Go figure...
Edited by Sennin on 02 February 2009 at 2:42pm
1 person has voted this message useful
| Lindsay19
Diglot
Senior Member
United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5821 days ago
183 posts - 214 votes
Speaks: English*, GermanC1
Studies: Swedish, Faroese, Icelandic
| Message 61 of 118 02 February 2009 at 5:45pm | IP Logged |
lynxrunner wrote:
These aren't my stereotypes; they're what I have observed of other people's thoughts about them.
Learning English in the United States is the obvious thing to do. It's a cold, professional, distant language that only becomes vaguely interesting when it gets down to slang. You either sound like an American or a Briton, It sounds like the speaker has a lisp.
Spanish is practical, but you studied it in high school only because it was the only language available. It sounds pretty, but you relate it to illegal immigrants and feel angry that they aren't learning your language or whatever. There are too many conjugations, and why can't those Spaniards get rid of that darned "rr" sound?
French is hot; so hot that simply speaking it makes everyone else's temperature increase. If you speak it fluently, you are intelligent and sexy beyond measure. Otherwise, you're just trying to vaguely impress others with your high school knowledge of the language. It's nasal and involves lots of coughing, but it's still romantic.
Italian is like Spanish, but awesome. I mean, it's what Spanish would be if Spanish wasn't associated with illegal immigrants. You might have studied it in high school; if you did, you're almost definitely awesome. It's not useful, but hey - it's Italian, man! You probably know some Italian immigrants.
Portugese is "ugly" Spanish, and you'll only study it if you like Brazil (what exactly is Portugal, anyway?) or have a brazilian girl or boy friend. In your mind, it's just Spanish meets French meets German, resulting in Spafrerman (also known as Portugese). You don't really think seriously about it.
German is screaming at people with a sore throat. You're probably either a secret Nazi or attempting to be "cultured" if you try to learn it. You're also probably insane since you've heard the stories of how German is "difficult". It's got inefficiently long words and too many guttural sounds.
Dutch is "uglier" German, as if the language couldn't get any worse. There's no point in learning it when it's so similar to German and there aren't really any advantages to picking this lesser known language unless you marry a Dutch person.
Russian is for secret communists and intellectualisterinators. It looks like English, but with backwards R and N. It's also notoriously difficult to pronounce. Come to think of it, you're probably doing it in hopes of meeting one of those legendary Russian girls dating websites always talk about. Its raw sound is pretty in a weird way, but you'd never admit it to anybody.
Greek is for those who love mythology. It's cool, but you don't know much about it other than you learned the Greek alphabet in elementary.
Chinese is "the language of the future", but you would rather it be Spanish because, hello, who wants to memorize 9,001 hard-to-draw characters? There's also that "singing while talking" thing which totally throws you off, and then there's the fact that it's rarely offered as a high school course. If you learn it, you probably are a business(wo)man or head over heels for Chinese culture.
Japanese is for weaboos and insane people. Learning it would be awesome because you could play video games early, amaze everyone with your pronounciation, and generally be hailed as the second coming, but actually learning it is such a drag. They have what, fifty-eight alphabets?
Hebrew is for Jewish people. It's read from right to left - gosh, they must be insane! Sometimes you mistake it for Yiddish, though you probably know more Yiddish than Hebrew.
Arabic is for brownnosers who want to try and take advantage of the current situation. "I know this weird language! You wanted that, right?" You know that it looks pretty, but hearing it makes you feel ill.
Anything else is for "weird people". |
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That's a great list. I have you say you hit the nail on the head about Spanish and Italian ;P
1 person has voted this message useful
| Lindsay19
Diglot
Senior Member
United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5821 days ago
183 posts - 214 votes
Speaks: English*, GermanC1
Studies: Swedish, Faroese, Icelandic
| Message 62 of 118 02 February 2009 at 5:51pm | IP Logged |
TreoPaul wrote:
Several folks have commented on German's harsh sound. When I first took up German I
was convinced it sounded like a bad cold with throat clearing and coughs.
However, as I listened more and more, the language now sounds very sweet to my ears,
and as "normal" as English.
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Very true ;-)
1 person has voted this message useful
| Jar-ptitsa
Triglot
Senior Member
Belgium
Joined 5898 days ago
980 posts - 1006 votes
Speaks: French*, Dutch, German
| Message 63 of 118 02 February 2009 at 7:04pm | IP Logged |
In Belgium, when we think of Spanish, we don't relate it to illegal immigrants, but we relate it to Spain (good weather, the holidays, ancient buildings and nice things) I think. the illegal immigrants and criminals' language is Rumanian.
1 person has voted this message useful
| Satoshi
Diglot
Senior Member
Brazil
Joined 5823 days ago
215 posts - 224 votes
Speaks: Portuguese*, English
Studies: German, Japanese
| Message 64 of 118 03 February 2009 at 3:21am | IP Logged |
Rumanian here is more related to Dracula-ish subjects, ehehehe.
1 person has voted this message useful
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Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages
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