Languages

[tinyjo]

dotty and I were discussing language learning in the pub on Tuesday (she's lending me French books) and she came up with some interesting points. Firstly, she said that she thinks of English as one of the best languages for communication - there are always several ways to say the thing you're trying to say so even someone with a limited vocabulary can sometimes say a lot. She also said that English was one of the easiest languages to learn and one of the most pleasant to speak, particularly rhythmic and flowing. This seems to be a very different perspective to the one English people have about our own language. We tend to think that it's difficult to learn because of the many shades of meaning to words and the fact that the spelling rules are more like guidelines. When asked to name a beautiful language, I tend to think of French or Italian, closer to the Latin stem, musical.

On a related note, I've been absolutely terrible at doing any french writing thus far but I am determined (honest) to do more. I've decided that I'm going to try and write something every friday lunchtime based on one (or more) of the word of the day words I've received by email. You never know - it might work!

Comments

[zoo-music-girl.livejournal.com]

I'm weird, I love German. I think it sounds beautiful. All my attempts to learn it have been awful though, and I find Romance languages much easier.

About English language

[dotty.livejournal.com]

Yep. As specified in your entry, I totally maintain my theories about why English is better and why it is easier. Music today is valid only if sung in English. The only "foreign" blabbing you occasionally hear is either about a) Ibiza clubbing trance/dance rythms for summer b) about a "romantic" Spanish/French/Italian sentence for that special St Valentine's feeling. In an English music culture, other languages are not allowed much so this is one of the downside of it. When French has got between 70 or 80 000 words, Occitan roughly 150 000 words, English is much easier, even in its grammar, as opposed to the rest of world languages.

Re: About English language

[jinty]

I know this was a long time ago, but after all I've been away...

Without impugning your preference for English and your theory that it's easy to learn because there are so many ways of saying things (which I think is a nice point), I can't agree that English is now the only language for music. It very much depends what sort of music you're talking of. For pop, punk, rock -- yes. Rock in portuguese always sounds a bit fundamentally daft. But samba and bossa nova sound equally daft in English -- Sting's translation of 'Insensatez' into 'How Insensitive' is a butchering of a great song. And Brazilian party music is delightfully full of really really basic double entendres that are so straightforward they're almost single entendres, and it goes with the language too.

Also -- Fado from Portugal -- if it's Portuguese (as opposed to Brazilian) it has to be mournful. So even within a language there are regional/cultural distinctions.