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Language stereotypes | ||
Tags: Stereotypes | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| furyou_gaijin Senior Member Japan Joined 6386 days ago 540 posts - 631 votes  Speaks: Latin* | Message 49 of 118 31 January 2009 at 10:13am | IP Logged | ||
What a great list!!! :-)))) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| furyou_gaijin Senior Member Japan Joined 6386 days ago 540 posts - 631 votes Speaks: Latin* | Message 50 of 118 31 January 2009 at 10:26am | IP Logged | ||
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French: great for shouting verbal abuse at people German: some of the world's most amazing poetry is written in it Russian: too often mutilated by native speakers with an ugly accent and abominable grammar Italian: easy to fool oneself pretending one is fluent when one has only scratched the surface Spanish: can't help thinking they've all bitten on their tongue and contracted a throat disease Chinese: much easier than most people think Japanese: easily the most complex language in existence Arabic: in my next life i'll definitely spend some time learning it... Edited by furyou_gaijin on 31 January 2009 at 10:27am 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 51 of 118 31 January 2009 at 11:07am | IP Logged | ||
Hahaha That is so true! I mean, I am really sorry to say such a rude thing, but whenever I bite my tongue and try to speak (Portuguese, obviously) I sound just like a Spanish-speaking person. The way they talk kinda "inwards" and the "L" and hissing "C" sound they do... they all kinda sound like a bitten tongue. 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 52 of 118 31 January 2009 at 11:37am | IP Logged | ||
Have you looked at Korean? I'm hard-pressed to think of any ways that it's simpler than Japanese (other than the writing system), and it's complicated in many of the same ways (ie, the grammar and politeness systems). Edit: being fluent hardly is scratching the surface, whether or not the language in question is Italian. Edited by Volte on 31 January 2009 at 11:39am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| lynxrunner Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States crittercryptics.com Joined 5922 days ago 361 posts - 461 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish*, French Studies: Russian, Swedish, Haitian Creole | Message 53 of 118 31 January 2009 at 5:57pm | IP Logged | ||
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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". 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Romullo Newbie Brazil Joined 6047 days ago 20 posts - 30 votes Studies: English | Message 54 of 118 01 February 2009 at 10:52am | IP Logged | ||
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I'll try to figure the overall stereotype among most people:
English: It's a must, or you thrive in English or perish in any other language. Spanish: An emerging language, easy useful, but without the chic factor of other romance languages such as French and Italian. French: The ultimate chic, but somewhat decadent and highly perfectionist, there's no broken French, either you speak it well or you are made ridicule. German: Has to do with science, it's not that beautiful language, but useful in Central and Eastern Europe along Russian. Italian:As opposite to German, it's beautiful and artistic, if you work in furniture industry, design, painting.. so Italian is a must. Portuguese: Regarded as a dialect of Spanish, big but not worth learning unless you wanna get by in Brazil. Russian: Old fashionad language of the bipolar world, it has lost its importance but it can be the password for E. Europe and much of Central Asia. Japanese: For those who want to impress, lost must of its economic importance since the 80's and now it's more popular among anime lovers. Chinese: It's the hype, the tool to make money at the rate of the chinese growth, but it has a high price of having to memorize thousands of characters wich make up the absurd chinese writing. Arabic: Wheter you are a muslim who wants to read the koran in the original, or a Mid East scholar, not so beautiful language. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| rabyte Triglot Groupie Germany Joined 6030 days ago 44 posts - 46 votes Speaks: German*, English, French Studies: Spanish, Hindi | Message 55 of 118 01 February 2009 at 5:03pm | IP Logged | ||
Hm, since I'm back from a year abroad my mum keeps on telling me that I'd have a lisp when speaking German. OMG 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tim.mccravy Newbie United States Joined 5780 days ago 19 posts - 21 votes Speaks: Spanish | Message 56 of 118 01 February 2009 at 6:12pm | IP Logged | ||
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""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. ""
LOL that's good. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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