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What foreign language sounds the best/worst for you?

posted 7 years ago by [deleted]
12 replies | jump to latest

For me, I fell in love with Spanish in the late 90s with artists like Ricky Martin, Jennifer Lopez, Enrique Iglesias, Marc Anthony, etc. When they'd break into spanish I was like 'wow.'

But now I understand spanish having learnt it and it's not a 'sound' anymore, it's a language.
So maybe portuguese or French. I love French when I hear children speak it. It's a real shock on the few occasions I've heard French children speaking in Australia and hearing that language is beautiful.

My worst I would say Chinese. It's a very up and down language because of the tonality built into each word that changes its meaning. So if I'm on a bus and there are Chinese chatting its annoying.

Japanese by contrast, has flat tonality and equal syllables, so its very smooth.

[–] yawkee24 (629) 7 years ago

I don't like any language I don't understand, speak to me in English or don't speak to me. capire?

[–] [email protected] (6247) 7 years ago

I always loved Spanish and couldn't wait to take it in high school. My freshman year the teacher we had used to say, "Spanish is the language they speak in heaven."

She used to go berserk if we didn't pronounce it right. She'd call us "Gringos!"

French is beautiful too. But so much harder to spell. I know a few words and can understand it a bit. Such a romantic sounding language.

I took German in college. Always wanted to learn it. It has a very commanding sound. if you want to boss someone around, speak German!

I love Italian also. I used to be a flight attendant and spent a lot of time in Rome. I was always hungry when I was there. Finally I realized that it was because Italian is such a delicious sounding language! Everything sounds like food, even the signs on stores seemed like food to me. I could read some of it because of all the years of Spanish I had. (4 in high school, 4 in college) Most of it wasn't food related but even street signs made me hungry.

I also took Latin. Of course no one really knows what it sounded like because it's a dead language. But no matter how you pronounce it, you sound smart when you threw in a Latin phrase or two in the conversation, either that or really pretentious. ha!

I developed an interest in Japanese after I saw the miniseries Shogun. It's such a cool sounding language. I bought a home study course and I was doing pretty well with it. But I didn't keep it up. I had no one to practice with, just the book and tapes.

Hawaiian is so pretty too. I've been to Hawaii and I love the sound of it. It's such a musical sounding language since it only has eight consonants. All those vowels sounds are like music.

[–] ShogunofYonkers (78608) 7 years ago

Very interesting
I admire your experiences
Thx...made me think:)

[–] actionkamen (23176) 7 years ago

I took German in college. Always wanted to learn it. It has a very commanding sound. if you want to boss someone around, speak German!

Ikr? German sounds like no fun.

[–] [email protected] (6247) 7 years ago

Sometimes it isn't!! I spent some time in Germany and most of the time people sounded mad. ha,ha It's just a very guttural language.

[–] actionkamen (23176) 7 years ago

I think some languages sound better for singing or poetry, some others better for speaking.

Chinese Mandarin is beautiful in a song, better than Japanese or Cantonese to me, but for talking it's pretty bad. Not as bad sounding as Thai though. Thai has extreme nasal sounds and even more tonalities. Crazy.

Japanese is quite better, but how most people talk in real life is very annoying. They use lots and lots of long "eh" sound like every 2 seconds. Watch any Japanese person interviewed in Youtube and take a shot everytime you hear "eh" you'll be drunk in no time.

My favorite sounding language is British English. When I watch car reviews on Youtube, hand down they are best delivered in British English. They make everything good sounds better, and every bad things sound way worse. While being fun all the time.

But then I understand English. For best sounding language I don't understand it's, too, Spannish. Whether it's in a song or someone talking, Spanish just sounds beautiful. Even cursing in Spanish sounds beautiful.

Italian is a close second. Fun fact: Any random Italian word sounds "fast." Add an Italian word emblem to your car to make it more awesome, like "quattroformaggio," "gli stivali" or "tagliare." I'm sure it will increase you car horsepower and also make it's interior more luxurious.

While the worst sounding language for me is German. When I watch foreign laguage movies, I prefer to watch them in the original language. Except for German laguage movies. For them I prefer the English dub if available. I think German is very dull sounding, very serious, and devoid of any fun.

[–] Stratego (31085) 7 years ago

"While the worst sounding language for me is German. When I watch foreign laguage movies, I prefer to watch them in the original language. Except for German laguage movies. For them I prefer the English dub if available. I think German is very dull sounding, very serious, and devoid of any fun."

That's just weird...

[–] [email protected] (6247) 7 years ago

actionkamen- LOL quattroformaggio?? Maybe on a pizza, not on my car!

[–] actionkamen (23176) 7 years ago

Still sounds fast.

Or maybe fats.

[–] ShogunofYonkers (78608) 7 years ago

Excellent post!
I dont find any language 'the worst' sounding because languages interest me but i get it...some are more fluid/sexier/easier on the ear than others
I like the American Middle-Atlantic States inflection of English...really puts me at ease
Spanish and French are equally sexy imo...quite hot really;)
HM: the Khoisan 'click' language of South Africa...what must that bedroom talk sound like???

[–] croft_alice (12180) 7 years ago

Danish,japanese,chinese.But love british and scotish accent.

[–] [deleted] 7 years ago

polish sounds like a harsh language