The Perceived Beauty of Foreign Language

[Thief]

I've always been fascinated to listen to people speak in languages other than my own. There's an interesting quality that can only be found in voice -- beauty in foreign sounds.. sounds to be somehow more than just nonsense noise. And while listening to these sounds, certain languages I find to be much more beautiful than others -- for no real reason other than I do.

Personally I'm especially attracted to the German language, I love to listen to people speak in German. I oftentimes hear people speak how German is an ugly language... and I couldn't disagree more. I think oftentimes when people come to this conclusion it's simply a result of that particular person having little exposure to the language. Maybe they've only seen World War II movies consisting of yelling nazis -- or maybe they've seen some sort of german caricature that is similar. But actual spoken German is beautiful, in my opinion. I'm also quite fond of Spanish.

One language, while I'm sure it's beautiful in its own right, that has always sounded real off-putting to me, is French. I often hear people tell me that this is one of the most beautiful languages, but I just don't hear it. It has always sounded very ugly to me. I can't even tell you why -- other than it sounds very throaty and weird. Not to say that it actually IS an ugly language, but perhaps I just need to study the language more and grow to like the sound of it. These are very superficial feelings considering I don't speak the language.

Anyway, any thoughts on languages you enjoy the sound of?

[Axm]

it's simply a result of that particular person having little exposure to the language.

I studied German in School and have been to Germany twice and still think it's an ugly language. Anyway my list would be:

Like:
Spanish
Italian
Slavic languages in general

Dislike:
German
Dutch
Tagalog
Thai
Arabic

Sounds funny to me:
Brazilian Portuguese
Urdu
Mandarin
Cantonese

[danny]

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[Rakim]

I like German too. I've studied it very very little but it has always had a warm, home-y sound to me. I prefer Castilian Spanish for pretty much the same reason. That's not to say I dislike Latin American Spanish, though.

[Amir]

Did French at uni and love it, am pretty fluent, but I also really like German, making slow progress on Duolingo.

Watching a few YouTube videos on Japanese, too.

[danny]

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[amiga1200]

nietzsche?
fantastic.
my ethical code was drawn from that, truly a visionary of the human psyche.
...
can't say i find 'beauty' in foreign languages, but obvious practical use.
they serve a purpose of communication.
where i live is as 'multicultural' as it gets. (aka; BALKANIZED)
would be nice if the natives i lived besides took the language, and culture seriously.
as for others, no comment!

[Axm]

Hearing other asian languages from tourists here in Japan, I certainly have my preferences. I really want to go to China one day but ya..not for very long could I manage that.

[Three Blades]

I'm thinking of actually going to Pyongyang some time in the next few years. I heard it's super weird and creepy and people aren't even allowed to look at you when you're out in public. I don't speak a word of korean though so I might want to get on that... then again, there's tour guides and guards watching travellers at all times, so maybe I don't even need to

My only worry is whether it's gonna appear in my passport that I went there. Because if it does, what is the japanese government gonna say when I try to come back? I don't wanna have to explain myself in an interogation room for 5 hours on re-entry.

[Peter]

Im a little tentative about learning Japanese. It just gives me this daunting feeling with there being so much to learn. I didn't want to do it on my own so have enrolled in night classes starting in September. I think it's better that I am taught by someone else rather than try to learn on my own.

[danny]

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[MiTT3NZ]

Never really thought that about a language, but do about Russian/Slovakian (etc etc) accents. And Scouse n Geordie accents (birds only) Certain areas of Scotland n'all (y'know... the calming type)

[streetwaves]

I love Brazilian Portuguese and can speak a bit of it. I have to agree on French, I took that too and many of the sounds are downright ugly. It sounds okay sometimes.

German is nice, and definitely something I'd want to try down the road. I'm currently taking Japanese. It's not inherently "difficult" per se, but it's difficult in that English is so incredibly different so it takes more getting used to.

[Yokosuka]

Italian by far !!!!!!

Special credits to Japanese with Hokuriku region accent.

[ConanTheKing]

I remember in University on night outs I would go to the ladies and say "J'mapelle bibliotheque" which translated as "My name is library" but they didn't know that, they just thought it sounded cool as I pretended to be a foreigner that couldn't speak English. They loved it.

Im a little tentative about learning Japanese. It just gives me this daunting feeling with there being so much to learn. I didn't want to do it on my own so have enrolled in night classes starting in September. I think it's better that I am taught by someone else rather than try to learn on my own.

It's not as bad as it seems if you are learning for basic purposes such as tourism or light conversation. I've been studying with a tutor for five months and already I can hold basic conversation, I've been able to successfully order food at Japanese shops near where I live no problem.

What is concerning though, is what does it do for the student? With Japan's notoriety at being hard to immigrate to it might not hold much value like French which can also be used in many places outside of France such as parts of Canada or Africa. Or Mandarin, if you can speak English and Mandarin you can speak to over half of the world's population.