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Forums - General - What do you think is the best language?

 

Your favourite language?

English 131 37.11%
 
Japanese 51 14.45%
 
Korean 4 1.13%
 
Italian 18 5.10%
 
Spanish 43 12.18%
 
French 21 5.95%
 
Russian 13 3.68%
 
Swedish 4 1.13%
 
Chinese 6 1.70%
 
Other (Post! :D) 61 17.28%
 
Total:352
Chris Hu said:
Slimebeast said:
Chris Hu said:
pezus said:
IIIIITHE1IIIII said:
Mr Khan said:
IIIIITHE1IIIII said:

Well, I have to praise the English system of always using "The" and having a "a/an"-system that actually makes sense.


...but my bias is far too strong. Svenska äger! (Swedish FTW!)

But English also has an incredibly arbitrary system for prepositions: In, on, for, from, and at are all very hard for non-English speakers to grapple with.


Really? Well, at least I had no problems learning English prepositions. Can't say I have seen others struggling with it either, on noticeable levels.

That's so minor compared to the struggles one has to go through when learning some more complicated languages.

English is very easy in general (compared to most other stuff I've seen), I'll give it a plus for that.

English is the easiest Germanic language and its a lot easier to learn then the second easiest Germanic language German which used to be my native language.  Its also a lot easier then Spanish which I studied for a couple of years.

German and Spanish are generally considered much easier to learn than English though.

In theory maybe, but in reality no way German and Spanish have much more complicated grammar rules then Engish.  Not to mentioned that most words in German and Spanish are a lot harder to pronounce.

I dont see how German or Spanish  pronounciationfor is more complicated than the English one. I speak spanish french german and english  some japanese some polish and some irish.

English is one of the most complicated languages when it comes to pronounciation because it is a mix of alot of languages with most of it still being germanic or french.    German and Spanish almost have the same pronounciation.   You just say 90% of the words the way most of the world would write them..   French is totally hard because  almost every word is written  different from how it is pronounced.    Monsier   Mademoiselle   etc.

Or try to pronounce this:

Je mange   tu manges   elles mangent   (its all the same  LOL)


English not as much as French but even English has a strange pronounciation. Just look at  Super Mario which mutated into  Soopurr MERIOH.  or Future which mutated into somethinge like FEW CHURR (ch as in chill   Urr as in purr)

Lets say   LATIN would be the perfect language.  You can be sure  spanish people will have no problem to pronounce the words correctly  same goes for germans most of the time. French or English speakers will have serious problems because english has no real R anymore etc.  Arabic also has somewhat similar pronounciation to German Latin or Spanish. Even Japanese people know how to pronounce A E I O or U better than English speakers etc.   

Sure every language has its own stuff like the German  ST / SCH thing or the spanish LL etc.  Japanese lacks alot of western letters etc. English has TH and French tries to avoid cacophony.  But todays English  has a pronounciation that differs much more from the "global" standard than German or Spanish.


WHAT IS THE BEST LANGUAGE?

IMHO English is the best language. Its already a mix of germanic and roman languages. 
For  Germans Norwegians etc this should always be the first language to lean if they plan to learn  french italian spanish etc. Because the English vocabulary has alot of latin/french words. 

And for people from Spain Italy France etc  it should be the first language to leanr when they want to learn German, Swedish, Dutch etc... because English has a ton of Germanic words (its a germanic language)

Would be nice of English would have some  more Chinese/Japanese  and Slavic words so it could be the PERFECT LANGUAGE.



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thewayofthepath said:
Chris Hu said:
Mnementh said:
Chris Hu said:
Mnementh said:
Chris Hu said:

You really can't say that English is not very poetic when some of the most famous poems and poets are in English and where written by people that had English as their native tounge.

Most famous poems and poets? Hmm, I think Goethe, Schiller, Lessing, Heine, Fontane, Tucholsky, Keller, Mörike, Brecht, Kästner, Brentano, Büchner, Bürger, Droste-Hülshoff, Eichendorff, Enzensberger, Herder, Fallersleben, Morgenstern, Ringelnatz are among the most famous poets, and the poems they have written among the most famous poems. But they didn't write in english - they made their works in german.

The language for the famous novels on the other hand seems to be russian.


German is a more poetic language but their are just as many famous poets and  poems that are written in the English language.  William Shakespeare who considered the greatest writer in the English language by many was just as much a poet as he was a playwright.  Also for what the English language lacks in poetry it makes up for by being very lyrical.  I highly doubt The Beatles or the majority of all muscial acts during the last 60 years would have been as big if they didn't write and sing their songs in English.  Even today your best bet to make it big in the music industry is by singing in English.

I doubt that German is an especially poetic languages. At the time poetry was popular, one of the cultural central points was in germany. It's the same with your example: pop-songs are usually in english (that is not longer true if you look for classical songs). The biggest market at the moment speaks english. And it is unusual to synchronize music (like it is done in some countries with movies). But sometimes - 'House of Rising Sun' sung by Manfred Krug with german text is as good as the original.

Its more poetic then English for sure but its not very lyrical and only goes well with a few genres of music.  English is more lyrical then poetic it also helps that English was the main language behind most musical genres that emerged in the last 100 years like rock and roll, pop music, rap, r&b etc. etc.  Not only do a lot of foreign groups who are not native English speakers sing in English to be more popular but also because the genre they sing in sounds better in English.


Sorry, but no.  English is not lyrical by any stretch of the imagination.  For example, it's very easy to break Japanese syllables into musical notes because of the syllabic nature of the language.  But doing the same (correctly) in English requires a dictionary, even for native speakers.

Well the majority of very popular artist around the world would disagree with you.  I doubt The Beatles would have become the most famous band of all time if they would have sung in any other language besides English same rule applies for pretty much all top musical acts of the last 100 years.  Of the 70+ albums that sold over 20 million copies only one was not in English that album being Romanza by Andre Bocellci but even it features one track in English.  I also highly doubt that ABBA, a-Ha, Poets of the Fall, Scorpions, Modern Talking or Europe, would have been as popular if they would have sung only in their native language instead of English.  Not only is English very lyrical but its one of the more poetic languages also.  Rap music wouldn't exist if English wasn't very poetic.



Chris Hu said:
thewayofthepath said:
Chris Hu said:
Mnementh said:
Chris Hu said:
Mnementh said:
Chris Hu said:

You really can't say that English is not very poetic when some of the most famous poems and poets are in English and where written by people that had English as their native tounge.

Most famous poems and poets? Hmm, I think Goethe, Schiller, Lessing, Heine, Fontane, Tucholsky, Keller, Mörike, Brecht, Kästner, Brentano, Büchner, Bürger, Droste-Hülshoff, Eichendorff, Enzensberger, Herder, Fallersleben, Morgenstern, Ringelnatz are among the most famous poets, and the poems they have written among the most famous poems. But they didn't write in english - they made their works in german.

The language for the famous novels on the other hand seems to be russian.


German is a more poetic language but their are just as many famous poets and  poems that are written in the English language.  William Shakespeare who considered the greatest writer in the English language by many was just as much a poet as he was a playwright.  Also for what the English language lacks in poetry it makes up for by being very lyrical.  I highly doubt The Beatles or the majority of all muscial acts during the last 60 years would have been as big if they didn't write and sing their songs in English.  Even today your best bet to make it big in the music industry is by singing in English.

I doubt that German is an especially poetic languages. At the time poetry was popular, one of the cultural central points was in germany. It's the same with your example: pop-songs are usually in english (that is not longer true if you look for classical songs). The biggest market at the moment speaks english. And it is unusual to synchronize music (like it is done in some countries with movies). But sometimes - 'House of Rising Sun' sung by Manfred Krug with german text is as good as the original.

Its more poetic then English for sure but its not very lyrical and only goes well with a few genres of music.  English is more lyrical then poetic it also helps that English was the main language behind most musical genres that emerged in the last 100 years like rock and roll, pop music, rap, r&b etc. etc.  Not only do a lot of foreign groups who are not native English speakers sing in English to be more popular but also because the genre they sing in sounds better in English.


Sorry, but no.  English is not lyrical by any stretch of the imagination.  For example, it's very easy to break Japanese syllables into musical notes because of the syllabic nature of the language.  But doing the same (correctly) in English requires a dictionary, even for native speakers.

Well the majority of very popular artist around the world would disagree with you.  I doubt The Beatles would have become the most famous band of all time if they would have sung in any other language besides English same rule applies for pretty much all top musical acts of the last 100 years.  Of the 70+ albums that sold over 20 million copies only one was not in English that album being Romanza by Andre Bocellci but even it features one track in English.  I also highly doubt that ABBA, a-Ha, Poets of the Fall, Scorpions, Modern Talking or Europe, would have been as popular if they would have sung only in their native language instead of English.  Not only is English very lyrical but its one of the more poetic languages also.  Rap music wouldn't exist if English wasn't very poetic.

Well, 400 million views of "GANGNAM STYLE" would like to have a word with you

LOL! Just kidding.



I'm glad that massive Youtube views usually don't generate big album sales because if that where true then Justin Bieber would already be one of the best selling record artist of all time and that would be terrible.



Sam3o said:

Well, 400 million views of "GANGNAM STYLE" would like to have a word with you

LOL! Just kidding.

"Gangnam Style"

Spot the English. 



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Whatever it is, it's probably not English. Grammatically, English is a very difficult language to learn. So many exceptions to rules, and it's just crazy, and homophones just make it even worse.



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I have to say English as i don't the others well or at all. I can say a couple words in Spanish, Russian, Chinese and Italian though but not enough to start a conversation lol



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Sal.Paradise said:
Sam3o said:

Well, 400 million views of "GANGNAM STYLE" would like to have a word with you

LOL! Just kidding.

"Gangnam Style"

Spot the English. 


I would love to see a song that is completly in a foreign language get 400 million views.  But most people still prefer their music in English.  Take me as an example I grew up in Germany as a native German speaker but even before I knew a good amount of English I prefered my music in English and so did most of my country men the time I lived in Germany 1972-1988 the majority of songs that where popular and high on the music charts where in English.



pezus said:
NintendoPie said:
MANUELF said:
Its not surprise that english is winning even though no one knows how to write a word the first time they heart it because english is like a teenager girl in her days, is so voluble is confusing (This only aplies to the spoken part, writing is significantly easier)

How is the spoken part confusing?

A great inconcistency between pronounciation and the written form. Some sounds are just...illogical.

Well I guess it's different for a person who has spoken it his whole life. :P



NintendoPie said:
pezus said:
NintendoPie said:
MANUELF said:
Its not surprise that english is winning even though no one knows how to write a word the first time they heart it because english is like a teenager girl in her days, is so voluble is confusing (This only aplies to the spoken part, writing is significantly easier)

How is the spoken part confusing?

A great inconcistency between pronounciation and the written form. Some sounds are just...illogical.

Well I guess it's different for a person who has spoken it his whole life. :P

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