Which language do you like most/is the most fascinating?

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Which language do you like most or is the most fascinating for you and why?

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From the languages I've learned, French has some fascination and also Japanese, but I just started with Japanese.
In both cases it has probably to do with the pronunciation and also with the complex way of spelling/writing.
Also both are very clear in their pronunciation, it's difficult to explain what I mean with that.
But in English for example you stress the letters very often and speak them very soft with minimal mouth movement, you don't do that in French or Japanese and also not in Italian for example. You also speak Danish very soft though, what I'm also learning. Languages like that make it more difficult for me to understand when hearing them, but I learned it in English, but it took some time. But my accent in English is still worse than my accent in French or Italian, even though I speak English far better.

Last edited by Raziel on 26 Nov 2013, 6:44 am, edited 1 time in total.

First French, because it has that elegant sound to it. The other's I'd say would be Russian, german and Danish. Oh and the typical British accent is also really nice. I don't really know why i chose the last ones, but i just like them.

^It's interesting that you should say that. I guess I know what you mean when it comes to Japanese and French being 'clear' in their pronunciation, though spoken French can also mash a lot of words together and drop some syllables. But there is very little confusuon in the pronunciation of words, if you've figured out the basic rules of pronunciation, you can pretty much pronounce every new word you encounter. While English has words where it's not always clear how you should pronounce it until you've heard it. (E.g., 'plough' doesn't rhyme with 'trough' etc.)

I am really fond of Portuguese. I think it sounds gorgeous both when it's spoken and when it's sung. I've been listening to a bit of fado and bossa. The difference between Portuguese from Portugal and Brazilian Portuguese seems to be about as big as between UK English and US English. I like how the future tense will integrate an object pronoun like 'te' or 'me' into the verb itself, i.e. between thestem of the verb and the ending. I don't think Spanish does that, I know it doesn't happen in French.

I did not know you were learning Japanese, how did that come about? I myself have been considering learning a bit more about Japanese, since I started watching some old anime (namely Gurren Lagann and Ghost In The Shell 2nd Gig) and I can't stand that my understanding of the language doesn't just automatically improve by wtaching the subtitled shows.

As I said earlier, I am learning Indonesian, and am enjoying it very much, but I wouldn't call it the most fascinating language. It's pretty straightforward, it's grammar is simple enough, and there's a lot of room for improvisation for speakers of the language. It's fairly easy to make yourself understood even if you only have a basic knowledge. I find that, in certain respects, it's distant relative Filipino is more complex.

At one point in my life, I spoke French and German quite well (fluent if not native speaker) and I have a good working knowledge of Spanish.

In contrast to those, the language I wished I'd learned is Japanese. I actually took a couple of night courses a few years ago, and I agree that in standard Japanese, if you hear a person say something you've learnt, you will probably hear and understand it. But Japanese is such a cool language and I can't entirely explain. BTW I am not naïve regarding the rough spots in Japanese culture and I probably would not want to have been born and raised in Japan except as a member of the social elite.

I also took a course in Mandarin Chinese but never developed much affinity for the language. In contrast, years ago I taught myself a little Cantonese and thought that was a really cool language (again, hard to explain why).

I like Finnish, because it is pleasing to the ear

Yes I guess that's what I mean.



Portuguese and Greek are next on my "wish list" of languages I really would like to learn. I really need to like a language to be willing to spend a lot of time on it.



I personally think that Japanese is a really nice language to learn, but I know that everyone has a different "taste" when it comes to languages...
A fiew years ago, I propably wouldn't have been willing to learn it, it's hard to explain why that changed.
Actually learning "Japanese" was more or less a very spontanious decission...
I was already listening to some Portuguese videos, but it kind of buged me somehow that it is a Roman language again like French or Italian and I had the feeling of learning something different. So I was reading more subconsiously into some other languages and came across a Japanese learning page on the internet and spend a view days on it, figuring out the basics and ordered a book. That's how I came to learning Japanese...


It just somehow "stuck".
But I still wanna learn Portuguese, but maybe it's not the right time right now. Also I have some negative thoughts that really bothers me and thinking about Japanese somehow helps, so that I'm occupied with something different...! But this also has to do with the fact if you "have to" learn a language or if you just want to. With Danish for example, what I'm learning at university, I'm not able to learn it, when I'm too messed up, but with Japanese it's different and one of the reasons I wanted to learn a new language was, to have a nice occupation I guess and I was already "addicted" to different languages in the past...!



Yes, Japanese is also like that, you are able to speak it even with little knowledge BUT it is still highly complex in it's very own way. So I guess it's a language you can keep learning and learning and learning...
Especially when it comes to Kanji and so on.

German is my favorite language. I just find it easy to read, write, speak, and understand when it is spoken. I can't think of any commonly ignored vowels, consonants, or syllables. Plus I enjoy German history and culture.

Second is Spanish, for the same reason as German. Only it seems often spoken faster than German, so I find it harder to understand when spoken.

Third is French. I find it more challenging to understand when spoken. When I am first learning a language, when I hear it spoken I first visualize the word spelled out in my head, and for some reason I find that difficult to do with French. Once I learn French words, phrases, or sentences will enough to bypass the visualize phase and can go straight from hearing to understanding, I am fine with it.

I would say English is the most interesting language hands-down. What makes it so difficult to master is that it has borrowed so extensively from other languages, which does make it interesting, if very confusing for the non-native speaker. As a librarian, I can say that over eighty percent of the world's scientific literature is published in English, regardless of where that research was done (with most of the rest being done in German). It should also be said that English is the lingua franca of this website, which caters to a very international crowd.

English is the language that seems to rule the world nowadays but does not mean it's the most interesting language, allthough I do see the benefits of the use of one language when it comes to international communication and interaction.

Having lived in Sweden for 12 years, when I would go to Danmark, I found the language not soft at all. Both languages are VERY similar, but I thought Danish was the most guttural of the Nordic tongues. Swedish is NOT what you hear people try to imitate on TV with that sing-songy accent (Hej, I'm Yonny Yonsson). That's more Norwegian. As far as difficult languages go, I vote Finnish, which is not connected to ANY other language. Dutch is nice - somewhere between English and German

Last edited by tourettebassist on 26 Nov 2013, 12:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.

That depends on how you wish to define "interesting". English has by far the largest vocabulary of any language, which seems to me would preclude boredom or having to overuse words. And if there is a foreign word for which English has no equivalent, English has no qualms about borrowing that word. Unlike the French language, which has a group trying to maintain its purity from foreign influence, English welcomes foreign terms, which become part of English.

I respect your opinion but what makes you think that English has the largest vocabulory. That is such nonsense!
You seem to use the French language as the only comparison and therefore deny the existence of a vast number of other languages.

Please tell me which language has a larger vocabulary than English (good luck).

As far as the French language goes, I only used that as an example. It is true of most other languages as well.

If you can't do any better than this, my statements stand.

You seem to be totally convinced that English has the largest vocabulary. That means you must be familiar with every other existing language in the world. That is quite admirable librarian, I'm impressed!

You seem to be totally convinced that English has the largest vocabulary. That means that you must be familiar with every other existing language in the world. That is quite admirable librarian, I'm impressed!

Pokerface, I'm still awaiting which language has a larger vocabulary than English. If you can't produce one, are you going to have the character to admit you are wrong? I must admit I'm not going to hold my breath despite the link below:

http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/in ... 502AAT63vT

There is only 20000 true words in the Swedish language. Ever other word is 'borrowed or modified. The Vikings did a lot to make English what it is today, after all, a 'eng' is a field in Nordic. England - land of fields