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.
Who the fuck are you cunts to say which language is the worst, you cunts probally dont even speak another language apart from your fuckin engrish
in this thread asian people and a few white nerds
Japanese is entirely unlike French, even our Quebec French. The phonotactics differ greatly.
French is more harsh, mainly because of the "r" (voiced uvular fricative). Japanese just flows on the tongue.
Japanese is ok but there's too many final u for my taste.
Cantonese is annoying, VERY ANNOYING.
Mandarin varies, depends on dialect.
Korean sounds kinda like Beijingian.
>>41
This is a thread about opinions. Please respect everyone's point of view. I'm sure you hold somethings close to you which others do not agree with.
no. i learned japanese so i could play visual novels.
>>37
i agree with him french are language that sounds more class
whereas japanese and cantonese you can only show-off to your friend that you can go other country without language problems
No I don't think they sound cool at all. German is the coolest language in my opinion. I also only learned Japanese so I could play there visual novel, but I don't particularly like the language.
Do any of you guys REALLY know any of these languages? I mean can you really explain its structures, writing and sound systems. Can you read newspapers written in any of these languages, or at least able to read cook books?
I'm very doubtful.
"i agree with him french are language that sounds more class" - - how can you really say that, without TRULY mastering, well both French and Japanese or Cantonese.
For those think Japanese sounds really quick - you're all kidding, right? You only feel like that because you don't know the language, LOL.
No wonder American, especially those with Anglo-German decent tend to be so ignorant when come to foreign languages.
Korean sounds horrible to me.... sounds like ppl are gonna fight each other sometimes.
Other times it sounds really whining and grates on my ears.. when ppl speak korean around me i can't concentrate.
Japanese and Chinese are ok I guess although neither sound great.There's one chinese language that is annoying I think cantonese but not entirely sure.
Italian is the most beautiful sounding language.
Of the Chinese languages, Mandarin sounds stuffy and stuck-up while Cantonese sounds choppy but is the language of the people.
我真的觉得韩语、广东话和日语听上去给人的感觉丝毫不一样。应该是和各自的文化底蕴有关吧。我会听广东话。每次听到都觉得很温暖、很舒服。像极了当地人。日语让我觉得很小心严谨，发音很短促。很利落。但是很难让我觉得舒服。韩语，我真的不想多说了。我一度很喜欢，但是了解的多了，就越觉得韩国人有些奇怪的狭隘。实际上，我现在一点都不喜欢。
>>53
您是否讲广东？ (Sorry, this is a machine translation... Are you a native speaker of Cantonese?) Also, why do you not like Korean anymore?
i like korean and japanese.
to me chinese just sounds loud and annoying
All the lauguages are nice,
No one can say which is nice or bad.
To me, there are all the same.
Random intervene! Woohoo!
As a person who can speak chinese, mandarine, english and malay, I could give some honest opinion, LoL. (From the combination of the language i know, you should know which country I originate from, LoL.)
Cantonese, even within citizen and between cantonese, we admits that cantonese somehow felt like it sounded more rude compared to all other languages, LoL.
There are times where I felt korean and japanese are similar to chinese/cantonese.
For example, japanese: sekai (world) is cantonese (saekai)
Korean: junbi (ready) is cantonese (junbei)
These are just examples of their similarity.
Not to mention that japanese uses kanji and korean uses hanja, which is same as chinese/cantonese.
Cheers!
> There are times where I felt korean and japanese are similar to chinese/cantonese.
> japanese: sekai (world)
> Korean: junbi (ready)
No wonder since Japanese and Korean have gotten a lot of loanwords from Chinese.
I have to say, I think out of the Asian languages, Japanese and Korean sound the most pleasing and similar to each other. I have to admit Chinese (both Mandarin and Canto) gets on my nerves. From shopping in Seoul and Toyko, and hearing Japanese and Korean, it sounds nice! but then I hear Chinese and well...I want to get out of the store as soon as possible. I also find that Chinese-Chinese people are more rude than the average Asian...
Boy those, "Shur, Shu, Chi, SHUh" sounds really grate my ears.
Viet, and Thai are not so pleasant either...
Mongolian is aite.
~Italian and Spanish (Spain) not Mexican or Puerto Rican... sound beautiful.
I am Canadian, and I have dated girls of three nationals: Koreans, Japanese, and Taiwanese. From my experience, I must say the sound of the language most depends on who it's spoken by and it also reflects the attitudes and zeitgeist of the country. Japanese are extremely polite; their language doesn't even have offensive or expletive words. They never raise their voice unless they have to. On the other end of spectrum, there's mainland chinese, who don't have regard for what others think in the public. So one might perceive them as annoying and rude, but it's just part of their culture. In the middle there's a mix of both: Korean. I've stayed in Japan for about half year, and when I first arrived in Korea, I couldn't really make out whether they were speaking Japanese or Korean. As far as Cantonese is concern, I used to hate it, but I like it better than mandarin.
ma po dou fu! away!!!
I LOVE KOREAN~ Japanese is cool too. Cantonese gets a bit weird at times but is rather interesting to some extent. ^^
At first I thought that japanese is very strange and complicated, after the first 6 months I started to vomit just thinking about japanese(not because it was complicated) but now I find japanese the best language ever existed.
cantonese is one of the ugliest languages i've ever heard.
wow I can't believe there's ppl that actually enjoy listening to Korean?? I don't know about you but to me Korean has the distinction of being both extremely rough and angry while at the same time being incredibly whiny. I don't even know how that's possible but it is.
Cantonese sounds awful to me as well.
Japanese sounds too femenine for my tastes. But overall I would say Japanese and Mandarin sound the most "elegant" however you want to put it.
And don't even get me started on those SE asian languages like tagalog, or Thai, Vietnamese etc.
Overall to be honest asian languages just aren't that nice sounding.
>>63
What? That doesn't seem to make any sense.
A fire broke out on a ship. The captain, wanting to make the passengers dive into the ocean with smoothness, said:
to the English, "A true gentleman would dive in a time like this"
to the German, "The rules say to jump overboard"
to the Italian, "The lady of fine proportions just went overboard"
to the American, "If you jump, you will be a hero"
to the Russian, "The bottle of vodka was swept away; it's still within reach"
to the French, "Please do not go overboard"
to the Japanese, "Everyone else has already made the jump"
to the South Korean, "The Japanese has already made the jump"
to the Chinese, "Those fish look pretty tasty"
to the North Korean, "Now is your chance to seek asylum"
Sailor: "Captain! The Korean still remains!"
Captain: "Leave him alone."
Sailor: "Why do you say so!"
Captain: "He will be nothing but trouble if he survives. I'll be demanded compensation for wetting his clothes"
>>And don't even get me started on those SE asian languages like tagalog, or Thai, Vietnamese etc.
This kind of thing always surprises me. OK, you don't like the way any of them sound. That's fine. But I find it strange that it seems appropriate to you to group them together. Ignoring the fact that we're talking about three unrelated language families, they don't even have similar phonetic inventories... essentially, they sound nothing like one another! First and perhaps most obviously, Tagalog's got no tones. Thai and Vietnamese both have tones, but very little else in common. Viet's mostly monosyllabic, which makes the rhythm of speech completely distinct from that of Thai. The vowel systems are also completely distinct--Vietnamese has four vowels not found in Thai, and Thai has at least three, perhaps four, not found in Vietnamese.
I love Mandarin, especialy when it is pronounced by scholar officials in historical drama.
korean is definitely the best language. daehanmikguk saranghae!! i have been learning it for a while but its still soo hard xD japanese is second. i do find chinese a refreshing break from korean and japanese though
i think korean sounds cool but the women somehow always sound a bit whiny to me.. the pop music is super popular (maybe thanks to the prettyboys though)
japanese sounds pretty badass if you ask me, although some of it is just funnily pronounced english :P probably one of the coolest languages out there
mandarin makes people sound wise and confucius-y and cantonese is really choppy but is probably one of the more modern/trendy languages (like jap) because of the ever-changing slang and stuff. ive heard that if you leave hong kong for a year then the way you talk will be kind of old fashioned. i think chinese might be the hardest to learn though..
i love japanese!im learning it right now, its pretty cool. somehow i love how korean sounds, sometimes it reminds of french LOL and kpop is just so awesome all the hot singersxD the music is pretty gooood.. chinese idk i prefer japanese and korean:)
i am sitting to this korean couple who one of them is my roomate. I think They are talking normally though, but it sounds to me like they are in big fight, I can't concentrate of my studying much, Korean language is too harsh, annoying, and lack of manner which is nothing to be praise of at all.
Whether or not a language sounds pretty or ugly is determined largely by the way in which a person speaks. With that caveat in mind, I think that Japanese sounds nice, that Korean sounds slightly less nice, and that Chinese (either mandarin or cantonese, not like I could tell the difference) sounds really ugly. It's hard to listen to Chinese without thinking, "How the FUCK do these people make these sounds?!" If I learned the language, I'd probably think differently, but Chinese is one of the most alien-sounding languages I've ever heard.
German can also sound nice to me.
i'm finding it hard to understand the reasoning behind why people dislike cantonese or any other language. you'd have to be some kind of retarded, epileptic monkey with sensitive hearing to find any language harsh, ugly or unbearable. To base your thoughts on a language on bad experience alone is very short sighted.most famous asian actors origniated from Hong Kong(cantonese) films, by some people's logic, their movies should have been too unbearable to watch because of the terrible and immensely ugly language.
Whoever thinks Korean sounds harsh is seriously straight retarded.. First of all, Korean and Japanese are similar in that the language itself when spoken is pretty monotone.. Chinese in any form is the most obnoxious language ever. All the hard accents in the language are in no way soothing, or nice. Mandarin is by far the only Chinese dialect that is easier on the ears. If you think Chinese is harsher than Korean, you do not know what you're talking about.
Korean is different in that there is a different set of vocab to distinguish formal conversations between younger and older people to address respect.. Hence the inclusion of "ni da" at the end of each sentence.
No joke, I overheard a conversation between my Chinese friend and his mother.. We thought that they were fighting and getting into an argument about something.. Come time to ask him what the hell that was all about, all he had said to his mother was that he wouldn't be home too late, and that he loves her..
BTW, this was in Canto.. nobody can possibly call chinese "graceful" in any sense.
I think Chinese sounds like a can being thrown to the stairs. Koreans and Japanese sound hell a lot better than that dirty language.
ima korean but i think english sounds awesome
It really depends on who is saying it, and the tone of voice. Take Japanese, for example, the voice of a gentle character sounds beautiful, while the voice of an obnoxious character sounds ugly, even if it is the same language.
The only objective way to compare them would be to have the same person say the same thing in the same manner for each language.
to be honest, there are many chinese dialects, Cantonese is one of the chinese dialects, i can speak , Fuzhou dialects, which is Min Dong dialect, Min nan or known as "Hokkien" in south east asia. or known as "Hoklo" or "taiwan-oe" in taiwan. Other than that Hakka , Teochew , Shanghainese and more. Cantonese are just one of the dialects so are Mandarin. Due to various language in China , they choose Mandarin as their official language instead, but some can speak their native languages. Some of the Japanese word are similar to chinese, For example , (天才) Genius= Japanese - Tensai/. Mandarin - Tien Chai. Phone - Hokkien or known as Taiwanese "DienWa" Mandarin " Tien Hua" Japanese " DenWa". World - Hokkien or Taiwanese " Sekai " Mandarin " SeJie" Japanese " Sekai " There are more sound similar to Japanese.
mandarim is the official dialect so i think you should learn mandarim first.
Eh Japanese sounds decent, but Cantonese sounds awful
Russian is the best sounding language though
nidul jigm sibal morago sala gorinya
well
basically
Cantonese sounds bit harsh
Mandarin sounds softer than Cantonese but still harsh
Japanese sounds whinny but soft
Korean sounds mono--- with the same tone
they all sound cool since they are all foriegn to me
I think that all the language sounds cool if a person with a really cool voice and tone speaks the language. But in my opinon I dont really like chinese when its spoken by people who just keeps on babbling and whos really loud. I, mostly heard the japanese language from animes so i cant really tell if its cool but i know one thing for sure that most of the girls in japan tries to make their voice cute or somthing and it sounds realy annoying. Koreans are just normal to me since its my second language.
cantonese sounds better than mandarin
korean is the shiz
KPOP FTW
For me, Korean sounds the best. It has enough vowels to let it sound smooth and when I was in Korea for two months, I literally just sat in cafes alone to listen to their language. It was that good! It is like those romance languages but, an asian one haha!
Japanese was one of my favorite languages before I heard Korean.. I came to realize that the language was too light and there was really no "fun" in the language... But it still is one of the most beautiful languages!
Mandarin was really weird to me at first but when I got used to it, it sounded alright with all the rolls in sentences... like sherrr lol...
Cantonese... no offense... but I really don't like... this language.. I mean I tried liking it.. I tried and tried and tried but it is just.. too harsh.
Btw I am austrian :-)
I agree that Cantonese doesn't sound as romantic or smooth as other languages, but for some reason I love listening to guys speak Cantonese. I think they sound genuine? Or manly? I can't quite put my finger on it..
中国人那么喜欢吃？我可不这么认为，只不过是中国人的饮食做得很棒罢了。说实话，我自己并不太在意吃的东西，不是那么讲究。
其次关于语言的听觉感受，我觉得我的母语——普通话——在正式场合的发音真的很棒，但是在日常生活中人们并不这么说话。我觉得粤语很好听，很柔软，女孩子讲起来嗲声嗲气，很讨人喜欢。再说日语，日语感觉急促但是却流畅，看似矛盾，其实不然。日语还有一个有意思的就是——我这种不懂日语的人，有的时候看日语文章，很多话竟然可以理解它的含义。韩语吗……韩语有的时候听起来像是超级一样，发音很重的感觉。朝鲜人正式场合说话实在太夸张了！韩国人首尔口音我觉得还不错，因为最后的尾音总是喜欢转来转去，很柔美，去掉了韩语的一丝硬朗。
另外，中国由于地方太多、人口太多，所以方言太多，从而造成的普通话的口音也有很多，比如我来自孔子的山东省，一个山东省的方言就有多种，相应，人们说普通话听起来也就稍微有些不一样。比如说青岛人讲话，我个人感觉和法语就有点像。而这只是北方口音，如果是南方的话，天呐，那可了不得了，为什么这么说呢？因为南方的方言简直就是外语！而且是很多很多外语！有些人l和n是分不开的，有些人是有th的音的，这些只是最小最小的例子。其实整个语音系统就是完全不同的，发音方法也是不同的。所以，当人们在讲通用的普通话的时候，其声音效果自然就会不一样。
多说一点就是，中国各地方的文化实在是很不一样的，所以，如果你用一个中国人、一群中国人的表现来总结全体中国人的共性，实在大错特错。就像在我的家乡，春节的习俗十分传统和隆重，但是在有些地方，这些常见的习俗完全看不到影踪。再比如我在讲笑话的时候，很多南方同学完全觉得没意思，而事实上，对我来说并不是这样。
如果您有什么问题，可以咨询我：nst@ishanting.com
by the way, i dont think mandarin is gay... or womanly... well, i just think the taiwan-way-mandarin is a little girllike... i also dont like beijing accent, it's too... cynical... and funny. i think the best accent is the standard. it's masculine, but not too much and also gentleman.
i am just curious if people in the world can make difference between Chinese, korean and japanese on the sound.
I am a native Japanese and I think Korean and Japanese sound somehow similar. Even for me (although rarely) it occurs when some Korean speaks bit far from me, I must focus on him to be sure if he is some Japanese from our north land or Korean.