The Perceived Beauty of Foreign Language

[muhu]

Haha. I want to learn Japanese too (who wouldn't after playing Shenmue?) but I'm highly under the impression that I won't be travelling when I'm older or even come close to contact with Japanese people in real life. That's just pathetic me though.

[Peter]

No, no, no. Pathetic is creating 20 fake email addresses, to make fake accounts. To pose as a 15 year old boy on a video game forum.

Now THAT'S pathetic. Not in a "haahaa, im gonna troll the internet way", I mean in a proper real life, "I need to see a doctor" way.

[Mr357]

Oddly enough, I really like Indian and Pakistani accents, and don't even get me started on English and Russian girls. On the other hand, I can't stand listening to Spanish or French, and Brazilians ruined Portugese for me.

[Riku Rose]

Give me a bird with an Eastern European accent and I would murder my mother if she asked.

[muhu]

Give me a bird with an Eastern European accent and I would murder my mother if she asked.

Your opinion.

I would just like to say that this statement is extreme and I'm not sure if you are true to this. C'mon man, you would not murder your mother over this. I can see the sarcasm and the banter around this but damn. I just wanted to state.

[ConanTheKing]

Give me a bird with an Eastern European accent and I would murder my mother if she asked.

Your opinion.

I would just like to say that this statement is extreme and I'm not sure if you are true to this. C'mon man, you would not murder your mother over this. I can see the sarcasm and the banter around this but damn. I just wanted to state.

Never underestimate a man driven by passion.

[Monkei]

English (British more than American), French and Spanish seem the most beautiful to me. I'd like to improve my skills in all of them, especially the two latter ones. I also like the sound of Dutch and Japanese. And Italian, kind of. Maybe, I guess.

French is for wannabe intellectuals.

So is the use of words like "obgleich", no?

[streetwaves]

Oddly enough, I really like Indian and Pakistani accents, and don't even get me started on English and Russian girls. On the other hand, I can't stand listening to Spanish or French, and Brazilians ruined Portugese for me.

Frankly, I've always thought Portugal's Portuguese sounded quite fucked up and weird.

[Vyse Hazuky]

There's a reason languages sound like they sound, even accents within a same language. Another peculiarity is how easy or how difficult it is for certain native language speakers to pick up other specific languages.
As for percieved beauty... I imagine that's subjective, as the answers here show, but they depend on its musicality: the range of different sounds and the way they're expressed... In that sense, you could design a language that would fulfill your most desired sound characteristics...

[Esppiral]

I really, really like the British english, on the other hand american english ( I know there are different accents) overall sounds very nasal and a bit disgusting to me tbh.

As for other languages, I absolutely love German and Finnish ( 2 places I've been living for a little while), funny enough those are 2 of the most "hated" languages, also French sounds absolutely disgusting to me too.

As an Spaniard, I can't stand Latin American Spanish it sounds really off to me, its like a soap opera all of the time. xD

I used to love Japanese too, but somehow I got tired of the way they "overact", it still holds a place in my heart though.

I don't know about other languages, but being Spanish (Europe, most foreigners think Spain is a latin american country lol) ) the difference with latin-american spanish can be pretty big, to the point I sometimes don't understand what they are trying to say lol.

Does this happens with other languages? I've heard the differences between Portuguese from Europe and Latin America have pretty big differences too.

[Vyse Hazuky]

^It has to do with how syllables are vocalized. Brazilians (in general) have a harder time understanding Portuguese because the portuguese close vowels a lot more. They usually run portuguese TV or movies with subtitles. However, northern portuguese accents open vowels a lot more so they have a better time understanding it. On the other hand the Portuguese can understand Gallego a lot better than Castellano.

In German as well, all Germans have a very hard time speaking to the Swiss when they're affecting their swiss accents, even southern Germans...

[Esppiral]

Yes I remember seeing a gallego talking to a Portuguese, each one was talking in their respective language and they seemed to understand each other without problems I was like WTF? xD

[Riku Rose]

Everyone should just learn English.

[Vyse Hazuky]

^Everybody seems to be learning English, but at the same time it's not English anymore, isn't it? It's a sort of degraded version where everyone can understand each other to a point but can't really express themselves to full extent.

[amiga1200]

Everyone should just learn English.

^^ truly a sobering and TERRIFYING thought.
if everybody spoke in 'sigil' (or legalese) where would the english run to?
where would we go to get away from it, on holiday? (weird! some go on holiday to be with more of their own ilk, i thought it was to get FAR FAR away for the duration?! shows what i know?!)