Which Asian language sounds the best in your POV？ (move, speak, people)

[Dangerous-Boy]

Originally Posted by attisbons

I can't disagree entirely. But I'm talking more in terms of the sheer number of overseas Chinese living in various countries all around the world. Statistically speaking it's much more probable to hear two or more Asians converse in Cantonese or Mandarin than to hear any of the other E.Asian languages say in remote places of Europe or Africa. But the Chinese diaspora is huge. The only other Asian group that rivals the Chinese is the Indians.

That's more my point.

So that brings me back to my question, given the more exposure of the Chinese languages (relatively), why do people not perceive as positively?

red flag, authoratarian government, occupation of tibet, language is tonal, characters are not roman, and hong kong cinema has been dead since 1995. Can't really use wushu, wing chun in the UFC.

[Greysholic]

Originally Posted by attisbons

I can't disagree entirely. But I'm talking more in terms of the sheer number of overseas Chinese living in various countries all around the world. Statistically speaking it's much more probable to hear two or more Asians converse in Cantonese or Mandarin than to hear any of the other E.Asian languages say in remote places of Europe or Africa. But the Chinese diaspora is huge. The only other Asian group that rivals the Chinese is the Indians.

They aren't even particularly popular in those countries.

Only cultural output gives a language the pretty reputation, diaspora doesn't. There's a reason why French and Italian are widely regarded as the fashionable and sexy languages and German is often tied to the Hitler rant from Der Untergang even though there are way more German descendants in America. Same goes for Japanese and Chinese languages. Chinese movies, music, and tv shows have been and will continue to be absolute crap (in the foreseeable future anyway). It's just the way things are.

[tangelag]

Originally Posted by madrone2k

This reminds me of a joke told to me by a friend who loved studying German when we were both teenagers. It concerns a discussion between native speakers of different languages on this topic, using the English word "butterfly" as an example. The Spaniard suggests that "mariposa" is most beautiful. The French person, papillon. The Chinese suggests húdié. The Japanese, batafurai. Finally, the German says in frustration, "und vas is wrong mit Schmetterling?"

This used to be my fav language joke, but once I told it to someone who had studied German and, boy, was he offended. Clearly he didn’t get it. LOL🦋

[tangelag]

Originally Posted by madrone2k

This reminds me of a joke told to me by a friend who loved studying German when we were both teenagers. It concerns a discussion between native speakers of different languages on this topic, using the English word "butterfly" as an example. The Spaniard suggests that "mariposa" is most beautiful. The French person, papillon. The Chinese suggests húdié. The Japanese, batafurai. Finally, the German says in frustration, "und vas is wrong mit Schmetterling?"

Also, correct me if wrong, I was told Schmetterling meant ‘smash a bug’.

[attisbons]

Originally Posted by tangelag

I think Korean is beautiful sounding in song. I used to be very biased toward Spanish as the most beautiful language period. Now not so much ...



https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CbNmRJCkwQs

The Korean sounds a bit like Spanish here, interesting enough!

[MultiLingo]

Japanese and Taiwanese sounds best in my POV

[madrone2k]

I don't want to offend our German-speaking friends by quoting the old computer-room sign that starts (more or less) with "Nicht touchen das blinkenlighten ..." or something like that. I've read that some offended young German dudes came up with their own parody of English, which I'd be delighted to hear. All in the spirit of fair play.

I once had a boss who was a native German speaker. Upon hearing me say that I would like to learn German (which was an honest statement), he asked "why would you do that?". I was puzzled to hear that. Later, I heard that he had been forced to join the Hitler Youth as a teen.

[Sandpointian]

Misleading given the different people speaking.

If I limit to women speaking (which to me is more pleasing to my ear), it would be

Taiwanese Mandarin

Japanese

Korean

[UrbanLuis]

Originally Posted by Greysholic

Chinese movies, music, and tv shows have been and will continue to be absolute crap (in the foreseeable future anyway). It's just the way things are.

Why is that? How come we don't hear about many movies coming out of Taiwan? Or they simply not as popular?

[MrJester]

Of course, alot of people are going to take issue with Chinese as being to harsh on the ears. But take a close look at Shanghainese. Strangely enough, it sounds more like Japanese than other Chinese dialects. It only has two tones (it's a pitch-tone system), similar to Japanese.