I do, what do you think?
Korean has really, really strange phonology. It's not harsh for hearing but there's a bit of an initial shock.
I can't tell the difference between cantonese and mandarin orz. Both sound agreeable though, the sound of tones is overall pleasing.
Japanese, too, is pleasing. What strikes me most about it is its prosodic qualities. It isn't an intense shocking thing, but it's very much there and strange.
Japanese used to sound cool to me, but then I learned to speak it and now I can't hear it anymore. It's a language instead of a string of cool sounds :(
Mandarin sounds really nice, especially some girls have voices to die for. Cantonese grates on my nerves after a while.
Korean was really weird at first nida, but after watching a lot of films I'm used to it now nida. All their sentences seem to contain a lot of the same sounds though nida.
>>1
I like the sound of Cantonese quite a lot. Mellower and more fun than Mandarin to me. Weirdly enough, when hearing it in the background in a place with a lot of ambient noise, like a bus or train (which I do all the time, because I live in a largely Cantonese-speaking area), it occasionally sounds like indistinct Thai, which I speak. It's funny, though, because Thai and Cantonese don't actually have very similar phonetic inventories or tone systems. I think it's just that they're both tonal languages with final consonants. So I find myself straining to hear what they're saying, then eventually realize it's Cantonese. I've since started to learn Cantonese, so this is less often a problem than it once was.
Korean I'm not so into--it sounds rather hissy and mushy to me. Too many sibilants and not enough noticeable sentence stress. Japanese is alright, and I speak little bit of that, too, but I find the hyper-feminine childlike intonation that some women employ quite grating.
>>I can't tell the difference between cantonese and mandarin orz.
You could, suprisingly easily, if you knew what to look for. Two easy ways to tell: there's no 'sh' sound in Cantonese, and barely any final consonants in Mandarin syllables: just -n or -ng, both of which sound more or less like nasalized final vowels in fast speech.
For more subtle differences that require some sophisticated eavesdropping and a good ear, Cantonese has more tones, syllable-initial ng, and a small majority of sentences end with the utterance 'ah,' which serves, among other things, to soften questions.
Oh, and completely subjectively, I find Cantonese sounds, well, a little less harsh than Mandarin. But you may disagree.
Japanese sounds really nice to me, it's nice and simple and quick. Korean has some odd vowels. And the tones almost always turn me off in Chinese, but some girls just have the voice to pull it off.
>>5
I'm pretty sure I won't find many Mandarin speakers in Chicago, but I'll try to guess next time I hear Chinese being spoken. =P
>>I'm pretty sure I won't find many Mandarin speakers in Chicago
Probably true, unless they're recent arrivals, or in town for business. Cantonese is the lingua franca of the majority of Chinese communities in the U.S..
Japanese sounds really nice, and because they generally speak it so fast, it sounds really cool and challenging too. Korean sounds very harsh to my ears.
And Chinese sounds really similar to Korean. Except it sounds a little bit better, not so harsh. And Cantonese is very loud. But that can also be because many Cantonese speakers speak louder than speakers of other languages.
I think Cantonese being loud is just the speakers' problems... The restaurants here are always so loud because of all the Canto-speakers screaming at each other.
I think Cantonese uses a lot of slang and isn't as "elegant" as Mandarin. You can see this most clearly in contrasting Cantonese with Mandarin songs, I think.
I speak both Cantonese and Mandarin and I know a lot of Korean and Japanese speakers. If I had to pick one to be the most elegant sounding I think I would pick Mandarin, and Cantonese as the strongest when it comes to phoenetics.
And Cantonese has some of the best curses :)
I think Cantonese has the ability to be the most annoying human language.
>>10
Southeast Asian languages are pretty competitive with it, though.
>>12
All of them? But Khmer, Malay, Vietnamese, and Thai all sound completely different! Which one or ones do you loathe so strongly?
>>13
They all sound pretty nasally -- maybe not Malay, but Vietnamese and Thai certainly. But Cantonese takes the cake, I think.
What!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Korean sounds harsh? Never thought so, prob. b/c my native language is Korean.
:(
I like how Japanese and Mandarin sound. Esp. Mandarin has a sing-song tone to it, as long as you don't speak too loud.
THEY ALL SOUND THE SAME :(
Well, at least Japanese and Korean.
Thai, Cambodian, and All the Indian languages sound really funny - sounds like cat scratch to the ears. I find Cantonese and Vietnamese to sound more "masculine" like - loud and direct - i.e. Cantonese - Diu ne lo mo (fuck your mother), Du ma may (vietnamese version). And Mandarin - sounds really feminine - especially native speaking Mandarin guys sound really feminine. Japanese/Korean - sounds kinda the same - but soft on the ears.
Japanese sounds like a guy doing a five minute long tongue twister mixed with vocal exercises.
What!!! Chinese sounds like two dogs fighting, it sounds horrible.
Mandarin sounds nice, especially Taiwanese Mandarin. Japanese sounds way cool! Cantonese sounds ok when it's spoken calmly and softly ~
Korean and Japanese are the best out of the international music section.Chineese sounds horrible
Japanese sounds really cool. Korean sounds a bit odd. Cantonese... no.
Japanese is most definitely the most bad ass sounding language there is. Nothing beats precisely undulating pitches.
Japanese is probably the best sounding one, Mandarin comes second and I just plain dislike Korean.
i speak mandarin, and since ive grown up with ALOT of koreans, i find that the korean language soulds really nice... but i especially think japanese is the best... but after learning the language, its not as great anymore and i find japanese really choppy and retarded... i like korean the best... i often try to speak beijing mandarin, since im half shanghai/taiwanese, to make it sound more like korean... i dont know, someone tell me if beijing madarin sounds more like korean... btw i think cantonese and veitmanese sound the exact same, except canton sounds worse... but they bnoth sound horrible and annoying...
I think japanese sounsd retarded. I respect the language and wouldn't mind learning it. But in the middle of a sentance they have to throw in an english word and add "-o" or "-u" to the end.
>Korean
Wat
I hate nigger lol
im korean, but i've lived in china,beijing/shanghai for 10 years... :)... i dont know... the first time i heard it, it sounded like "sha, zhe, bu, shi, zha" use alot of tongue rolling... then i started to like it, sounds smooth and i listen to mandarin music really often... songs like S.H.E, jolin tsai, wilber pan, lee hom, sissi dai, jay chou but im glad korean music is getting so popular... boa,big band, suju... oh and mandarin suju-m but anyways since im korean, go korea, best language!
I think most people here like Japanese only because they watch a lot of anime. It's really not that nice of a language.
I hate japanese. grammatically.
I think Japanese sounds like French. And hearing French feels like there's somebody licking through your face..brrr.
I like Cantonese because I believe it has preserved more features from Middle or Ancient Chinese than Mandarin such as the final consonants. However my family actually speaks the dialect of Toisan/Hoisan which is a little bit different from Standard Cantonese.
>>33
My Cantonese teacher accused many of her students of speaking with a Toisan accent--she heard Toisan everywhere! Toisan's a LOT different from Cantonese, though. Only five tones, and a voiceless lateral fricative!
Cantonese sounds terrible to my ears, the hideous ping-pong noise is too much.
The reason I wanted to study Japanese was because I thought it sounded beautiful.
The reason I got into anime was due to the studies.
Can't stand Mandarin. Sounds like people can't use their mouths quite right.
And that thing where Beijing speakers throw the "r" on the end of things is probably the most annoying thing ever.
CANTONESE PEOPLE ARE ALWAYS ANGRY around here. So I can't compare it with Mandarin, since they only switch to Mandarin to be all gentle with us foreigners.
Mandarin sounds like you've got something stuck in your throat and you're pushing the sounds through your teeth. Cantonese sounds more laid back and expressive.