|
 |
Language stereotypes | ||
Tags: Stereotypes | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| Satoshi Diglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5823 days ago 215 posts - 224 votes  Speaks: Portuguese*, English Studies: German, Japanese | Message 89 of 118 30 March 2009 at 8:47am | IP Logged | ||
|
Alright, MY stereotypes (I do not intend to offend anyone, just think of this as comic relief):
Spanish: Portuguese spoken by someone who just bit their tongue (variation: Portuguese spoken by someone who can't properly open their mouth).To speak it you just add Is, UEs and turn all the "ãos" into "ions" and "Xs" into "Js" (queres/quieres, podes/puedes, radiação/radiación and baixa/baja). Not worth your time as you can understand it without even trying to (you can even claim you speak it even though you never read/listened to/spoke it in your life). Japanese: the only language that rivals English in media existence. If you know English, you have acess to 70% of the world's resources (whatever they may be: technical stuff, entertainment, literature, music, you name it), knowing Japanese brings you another 20% of it (due to the massive Japanese cultural production, and I do not refer only to Anime and Manga). Portuguese: I never really cared about it as a language before I started learning other languages. Worship me, after all, I can make all my vowels nasal without even thinking. I don't really care about carnival and beaches and football, but I am glad I have acess to the great literature (which, in my opinion, rivals giants like France's, Russia's or the English one. Unfortunately, even lusophones have little interest in it, I really wouldn't expect the world to know the richness of it). Also I find it a blessing that I am able to hear the language of the poor -- and sometimes iliterate -- people. I am yet to find a language in which the common, poor speach is so beautiful and rich in metaphors and neologisms as Portuguese (not that I know many languages, and the 'poor variant' of them, for that matter). English: too normal. Everyone speaks it and knowing it is no merit at all. It is a pre-requisite for all serious people. You need it to have access to 70% of the world knowledge, as I previously stated. Korean: cool alphabet, nice-sounding, seems a great language. Russian: Literature. And vodka bottles, if you are into it. Finnish: Beautiful language. Doesn't seem to have such a great literature, but there is always Kalevala. If you are a music addict, they have it all, and they have it good. It sounds great and looks weird (but in a good way) when written. They are the European version of the Japanese: depressed, cold (pun intended) and introverted. Norwegian: all right, I got it. You are evil and you worship Satan, now stop pretending to sing. German: nice music, seems to be a great cursing language. Great literature and philosophy. Greek: mythology, poems, philosophy and civilization. Now, what exactly is this "Greece" thing? Chinese: No way! The kind of language you will study all your life and never fully learn it. Give up, you won't make it (oops, my Finnish self is showinp up). Also, why the hell all words are a combination of "shing" and "(y|w|u)ang" sounds? French: Requires kiss-like lip-movements to speak it properly. It just sounds wrong and snobbish. Yeah, that's it for now! No offense intended. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Snesgamer Groupie Afghanistan Joined 6611 days ago 81 posts - 90 votes Studies: English*, German, Spanish, Norwegian, Scottish Gaelic | Message 90 of 118 06 May 2009 at 8:15am | IP Logged | ||
|
English: Most who speak it probably learned it growing up, boring, no culture behind it, people are arrogant and can't learn foreign languages.
French: Learner wants to show off how "cultured" he/she is, typically arrogant German: Possible Nazi sympathizers, rude, cold, and stand-offish people, racist, harsh and ugly language, people are like machines, having no emotions, and do nothing but work all the time, people are intelligent to a fault Russian: Seen one too many James Bond/spy movies. Italian: Just wants to pick up girls. Spanish: Easy A, wants to pick up on Spanish or Latina girls. Chinese: Wants to break into the growing Chinese economy Japanese: Anime freak who spends most of his time watching DBZ, Naruto and Bleach; most likely attends cosplaying events and only knows words such as "kawaii". Arabic: Terrorist symphathizer, harsh and "scary" language. My personal opinions? English - Interesting array of dialects, many of them far more varied than the dialects of other languages (ranging from commonplace like American English to among the most beautiful in the world like Scots or Early Modern/Elizabethan English), fascinating linguistic history, language of the most beautiful poetry on Earth, interesting from a linguistic point of view in that it can be fun to pick out words and trace which language they originated from. French - Overrated language, definitely NOT the "language of love" as so many people call it. On men, can sound kind of effeminate (picture a French butler going "oui! oui!") German - Extremely underrated language, noble and ancient sounding, language of much of the world's most intelligent literature, organized. Russian - Haven't heard enough to really make a good judgment, people are poor, but are extremely hard workers and are extremely intelligent for their level of poverty, I picture their country with all its beautiful architecture surrounded by beautiful patches of snow. Italian - Probably the nicest-sounding Romance language (though that language family isn't my favorite), essential for understanding much of the world's art and literature, beautiful country, nice rides on gondolas in Venice, one of the world's finest cuisine cultures! Spanish - Too common, boring, where I live it's mostly the Mexicans speaking it, so the local cholo (gangster) culture almost completely ruins it for me, language of a people who overbreed and who speak it in high nasal tones. Whenever it is taught in schools here in California, it usually takes top precedence in the language department, sometimes forcing out other more interesting languages in the process, so I kind of have a grudge against it. I guess you could take it that it's nowhere near my favorite language. Chinese - I'm sure it's useful, but its usefulness is way overrated. Yeah, statistically it has the most speakers, but most of those are jammed into one country. I haven't heard it spoken too much myself, so I can't pass further judgment. Japanese - Honestly, I know only about 1 or 2 people who've ever taken this language with genuine interest in Japan's real culture. Most seem to take it because they don't want to rely on fan translations of their favorite anime shows or video games. I myself had a short time where I wanted to learn it - for the same reason listed above. I do like it's character/kanji system - adds a type of personality to the language missing in many others. Arabic - a harsh language originating and spoken in countries that are dry, dull and lifeless, with cruel governments who will execute you at the drop of a hat. These are all my own personal stereotypes - I don't necessarily believe them all, but they are the first images that come to my mind. Edited by Snesgamer on 06 May 2009 at 8:35am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| cordelia0507 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5838 days ago 1473 posts - 2176 votes Speaks: Swedish* Studies: German, Russian | Message 91 of 118 06 May 2009 at 11:22am | IP Logged | ||
|
I've got some news regarding Swedish as a means to meet tall blonde women:
A guy who has a limited vocabulary, strong accent* and makes grammatical mistakes is not that attractive! Plus, the tall blonde women tend to speak quite good English anyway! (I should know...) If anyone is really learning a Scandinavian language for this reason they are misguided - I've actually met a few people who practically admitted as much, although not in this forum, thankfully. I know that many men consider it sexy when women have an accent. I don't think this is generally true for women, at least not in Europe. *With regards to accent, I'd make an exception for Finns, Germans and Russians because their accents sound cool/attractive (macho, lol!) when they speak Swedish. According to me! (Seriously, I have nothing to contribute to this extravaganza of stereotyping etc. Entertaining, but lots of very strange views and dangerously close to offending people of certain nationalities.) Some posters really need to stop watching Hollywood movies and travel some more! Edited by cordelia0507 on 06 May 2009 at 11:48am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Tyr Senior Member Sweden Joined 5782 days ago 316 posts - 384 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Swedish | Message 92 of 118 06 May 2009 at 1:20pm | IP Logged | ||
|
I don't get the Swedish as tall blonde women thing...Thats far, far, far more the Dutch than the Swedes. Most of the blondes in Sweden seem to be dyed such and they're generally not that tall....
Weird you'd say you like the Finns. My Finish friends always complain that Swedish women really don't like Finns so they have to work extra hard. But I'd disagree on women not liking accents. Its what always grabs me women- Americans leap at me for it. Edited by Tyr on 06 May 2009 at 1:21pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| cordelia0507 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5838 days ago 1473 posts - 2176 votes Speaks: Swedish* Studies: German, Russian | Message 93 of 118 06 May 2009 at 4:14pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Who are you calling short and dyed??????
2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5766 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 94 of 118 06 May 2009 at 4:47pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Cordelia, if you read closely you can see that some people state their personal opinions, whereas others write down what seems to be the general consensus in prejudices in their own environment. You might also notice that some people seems to write about what is though about learners of a certain language whereas others stereotype speakers - and sometimes it seems to be mixed up as well.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Tupiniquim Senior Member Brazil Joined 6083 days ago 184 posts - 217 votes Speaks: Portuguese* Studies: English, Russian | Message 95 of 118 06 May 2009 at 5:40pm | IP Logged | ||
|
. Edited by Tupiniquim on 31 July 2009 at 11:20pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Tyr Senior Member Sweden Joined 5782 days ago 316 posts - 384 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Swedish | Message 96 of 118 06 May 2009 at 7:16pm | IP Logged | ||
The Swedes are reasonably blonde and they're not midgets but they're pretty similar to back home really in those respects. The tall, blonde bomshell steryotype far more aptly fits the Netherlands. 1 person has voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
