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Language stereotypes | ||
Tags: Stereotypes | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| ennime Tetraglot Senior Member South Africa universityofbrokengl Joined 5904 days ago 397 posts - 507 votes  Speaks: English, Dutch*, Esperanto, Afrikaans Studies: Xhosa, French, Korean, Portuguese, Zulu | Message 81 of 118 19 March 2009 at 11:27am | IP Logged | |||||
Indeed Danish is easy to distinguish, especially in writing. Then again I speak Dutch fluently so might not be objective (as if any of us are ^_^). Anyways, it is FUN to hear people try and pronounce the clusters of consonants in Dutch... Funny, living in Korea, my fluents Dutch is kinda seen as exotic by my friends. However as it is useless in their eyes doesn't get really that much attention English is THE language that everyone has to study hard, but few actually manage to speak reasonably... Koreans have this love hate relationship with it. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| skytk Diglot Newbie Singapore Joined 5727 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes Speaks: Mandarin, English* Studies: Japanese | Message 82 of 118 21 March 2009 at 12:12pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Singapore perspective:
French: Cultured, romantic, arrogant and sounds condescending Italian/German/Spanish: Viewed as exotic languages on this side of the globe Mandarin: Boring, old-fashioned (compulsory in our education system) Korean: Teenage girls obsessed with korean drama serials and guys trying to impress those girls Japanese: Otaku. Apparently, native English speakers from places like the US, UK, Australia etc. find English spoken by Singaporeans difficult to understand. If you have a chance, listen to sinagporeans conversing in English. People have told me it sounds totally unintelligible. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6439 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 83 of 118 21 March 2009 at 1:58pm | IP Logged | |||||
I've only heard a little Singapore English; I've found it largely (not totally, but mostly) unintelligible. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| onesteptwostep Groupie United Kingdom Joined 5773 days ago 49 posts - 50 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, Japanese, Korean | Message 84 of 118 28 March 2009 at 4:45pm | IP Logged | |||||
Yeah, it's unintelligible to an extent. Difficult but not impossible to understand. If you listen hard enough you can pick things up, though I imagine you'd need to know a good deal of Singaporean slang to understand it completely. Anyways, from a general British point of view: French: Boring, as it's compulsory for the first few years in most secondary schools, and really damn hard when it comes to grammar. German: Violent-sounding. Only yelled, not spoken. Almost always linked to Hitler. Russian: Same as German, only with Stalin instead. Italian: Impressive when spoken, due to the speed and the rolled r. Very romantic. Lots of the boys in my form cannot say 'spaghetti' or 'pizza' unless it's in a thick Italian accent... I imagine it's because they think they sound cool. Spanish: Easy, but only learned by those forced to (in school). Chinese: Impossible. Consists only of 'phwoar' and 'yang' sounds. Anyone who can write it is a genius. Japanese: Exactly the same as Chinese. Arabic: Complicated, weird-looking, violent-sounding. Carries extremely negative connotations. Polish: Impressive when written and even more impressive when spoken. Considered useful due to the large amount of Polish immigrants here. Latin: For nerds and bookworms only. Korean: 'What's that?' I disagree with the majority of these, and I think some are quite unfair representations... though I can see where some of the opinions stem from. It's a shame, really. :/ 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| MäcØSŸ Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5809 days ago 259 posts - 392 votes Speaks: Italian*, EnglishC2 Studies: German | Message 85 of 118 28 March 2009 at 7:13pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Here in Italy:
English -----> Stupid language, expecially American English French ---> Gay if spoken by men, sexy if spoken by women German ----> Difficult, harsh, nazi and strange (because it has noun declensions like Latin) Russian: ----> VERY difficult Spanish: -----> Beautiful sounding language Chinese: -----> VERY difficult, VERY useful [and, of course, people in Italy are unaware of the existence of different chinese languages] Japanese: ----> Manga lover Arabic: -----> If somebody studies it, then either he is a communist or a convert [like for Chinese, most Italians are unaware of the presence of many dialects] Romanian ---> As for Arabic, it's studied by communists [since is the language of immigrants] Swedish ----> Spoken by beautiful blonde girls Hindi -------> VERY useful, dumb movies, everybody uses it in India Persian -----> Does not exist, Iran is inhabited by Arabs Naturally I completely disagree with these stereotypes and I get really upset when I hear them Edited by MäcØSŸ on 28 March 2009 at 7:15pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 6142 days ago 2150 posts - 3229 votes Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian | Message 86 of 118 29 March 2009 at 9:57pm | IP Logged | |||||
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My cousin and I have compiled this list from the point of view of the average American (we don't fall into this
category, BTW): English - "learn it or die" French - romantic, beautiful, chic, snobbish Spanish - illegal immigrants Italian - food, musical, beautiful Greek - "isn't that a dead language?" Chinese - way too hard to even attempt, if you learn it, you're a freak of nature Japanese - same as Chinese Korean - same as Chinese/Japanese Portuguese - "huh?" German - Hitler, ugly, vomit Russian - communists! Hindi - "blah blah what?" Arabic - terrorist, ugly language, looks like chicken scratches Now for our OWN opinions: English - ugly, hard, dumb, not logical Spanish - easy, simple, for underachievers French - romantic, beautiful, weird spelling Portuguese - awesome language, way better than Spanish Italian - beautiful and "sleek" Greek - AWESOME language (we're biased, though, our family is Greek) Russian - one of the coolest languages there is, SOOO beautiful Arabic - fascinating language and culture, love the sound [AWESOME!!!!! less so than Greek though] Hindi - cool writing system, interesting country, language, and culture Japanese - great sound, cool writing system, interesting grammar Chinese - hard, difficult tones, difficult writing system, very interesting Korean - hard, cool alphabet, weird-sounding language 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| sprachefin Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5746 days ago 300 posts - 317 votes Speaks: German*, English, Spanish Studies: French, Turkish, Mandarin, Bulgarian, Persian, Dutch | Message 87 of 118 30 March 2009 at 6:51am | IP Logged | |||||
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I could not avoid commenting.
Here is my list: English- Monotone, easy, reformed, lazy, annoyingly necessary French- Rough, gives you a sore throat after practicing for a bit Italian- annoying Spanish- Short, rapid fire, beaches, Madrid Portuguese- Amazing, a must in the future Russian- A declensions system even difficult for a German, rolling words, cold country, strangely lovely people, a must on the language learner's list Chinese- A fast tempo, a roller coaster of pitches, a collection of dashes and characters on a paper Japanese- Rapid fire, makes you want to learn the language, absolute monoglots Arabic- Beautiful, flowing, melodic, deep, varied, curved script connected in an endless song, a chant that sings out to a whole part of the world Farsi- A DIFFERENT language with a familiar Arabic word here or there, an empowered ancient civilization, a misjudged society Hindi- Cheesy, emotional, heartbreaking movies, spicy food, crowded, hot, and unbelievably bright streets Dutch- A small German child speaking with an impediment of an inexperienced speaker, lovely country, fast speech, AMAZING polyglots Danish, Swedish, Norwegian- A jumble of bumps and drops in tone, vikings, cold Hebrew- A flowing, fast, religious language, the way that a prayer's sharp guttural sounds can be turned into a comforting breeze of words, noises that hook you in, penetrating your mind and giving into the weakness that this must be learnt in the future if not immediately Indonesian- Simple, very different, and soft, the way the speaker's words just flow through your ears and sounding like nothing you have heard before, only if it is your first time hearing this beautiful language Greek- A rapid, beautiful language, whilst it takes forever to unlock its charm Latin- An annoying dead language whose follower's undying love keeps it alive forever as the language of education, knowledge, and all romance languages Wow, quite a list. I hope that you read through them all. I find this to be such an interesting thread as anyone can contribute no matter what language they learn or what language they speak. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Louis Triglot Groupie Italy Joined 5730 days ago 92 posts - 110 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish | Message 88 of 118 30 March 2009 at 7:33am | IP Logged | |||||
That was a beautiful description of Hebrew! Very tempting! :D Now I'll give stereotypes of a few languages from my area, Boston, in America: Spanish: The language of the illegal immigrants. If you speak their language, you'll get a discount when your lawn is mowed. Italian: Unnecessary vowels are added to the end of every word. Talking with your hands is a necessary aspect of the language to be learned! German: Masculine, harsh, and an unnecessarily complex grammar. French: Nasally, quite flamboyant, only to be learned for showing off purposes. Russian: The language used by the 'bad guys' in military, first-person shooters. The alphabet looks like the Latin alphabet rotated or viewed through a mirror. Arabic: The equivalent of Russian during the Cold War. Portuguese: The language spoken by people who wave green and yellow flags through the streets and like to play soccer (football). Spanish, but not really. Icelandic (the language I'm currently teaching myself, which is why I put it here): "What?" Edited by Louis on 30 March 2009 at 7:34am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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