What do European languages sound like to speakers of Chinese languages? Mushy? Blended together? Indistinct? What does French sound like, for example?
Would it be a good idea to learn French & Italian togeth
Chinese: my native language, sounds very beautiful, maybe partly because of patriotism.
French: I love French most, innately full of nobilities and softness, especially singing a song, maybe the special language of Romance group.
Italian: I love French secondly, innately full of magnificence and melodious voice, especially singing a song, maybe the closest language to Vulgar Latin.
Spanish: As a whole, it's very rhythmically but a little noisy to my ears, and it has less fascination and less importance than either French or Italian. Although Spanish is so widely spoken in Latin America (Brazil excluded), unluckily, Latin America wouldn't be of great interest for me. And in fact, English, instead of Spanish, has been always, and will be always the only official language in USA. Does any countries of Latin America could keep up with France or Italy? Only within Europe, the amount of Italian speakers is even more than Spanish speakers, and also in Latin America, such as in Argentina or Brazil, there're also many Italian Speakers there. This is perhaps why I prefer Italian to Spanish.
French: I love French most, innately full of nobilities and softness, especially singing a song, maybe the special language of Romance group.
Italian: I love French secondly, innately full of magnificence and melodious voice, especially singing a song, maybe the closest language to Vulgar Latin.
Spanish: As a whole, it's very rhythmically but a little noisy to my ears, and it has less fascination and less importance than either French or Italian. Although Spanish is so widely spoken in Latin America (Brazil excluded), unluckily, Latin America wouldn't be of great interest for me. And in fact, English, instead of Spanish, has been always, and will be always the only official language in USA. Does any countries of Latin America could keep up with France or Italy? Only within Europe, the amount of Italian speakers is even more than Spanish speakers, and also in Latin America, such as in Argentina or Brazil, there're also many Italian Speakers there. This is perhaps why I prefer Italian to Spanish.
Sorry, I have to correct an error, as below:
Italian: I love " Italian " secondly, innately full of magnificence and melodious voice, especially singing a song, maybe the closest language to Vulgar Latin.
Italian: I love " Italian " secondly, innately full of magnificence and melodious voice, especially singing a song, maybe the closest language to Vulgar Latin.
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What do European languages sound like to speakers of Chinese languages? Mushy? Blended together? Indistinct? What does French sound like, for example?
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Good question.
Please, could "L'italofilo" or any other chinese guy give an answer about it?
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And in fact, English, instead of Spanish, has been always, and will be always the only official language in USA.
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I wouldn't be so sure about the future...
What do European languages sound like to speakers of Chinese languages? Mushy? Blended together? Indistinct? What does French sound like, for example?
>>
Good question.
Please, could "L'italofilo" or any other chinese guy give an answer about it?
<<
And in fact, English, instead of Spanish, has been always, and will be always the only official language in USA.
>>
I wouldn't be so sure about the future...
kew,
I English is the one that is making an inroad in Mexico, Central America, and Puerto Rico instead of the other way around.
You see, in Costa Rica alone majority of its citizens can converse in English and yet there are only few Americans or Britons are staying there. In addition one can see lots of signs in English particularly in areas frequented by tourists.
I English is the one that is making an inroad in Mexico, Central America, and Puerto Rico instead of the other way around.
You see, in Costa Rica alone majority of its citizens can converse in English and yet there are only few Americans or Britons are staying there. In addition one can see lots of signs in English particularly in areas frequented by tourists.
Thanks for your thoughts, L'italofilo.
Sometimes I think our starting language and our early exposure to some things color our perceptions of languages.
Sometimes I think our starting language and our early exposure to some things color our perceptions of languages.
Originally, I had decided to study German & French, instead of Italian & French, before I got to meet 2 Italian friends, mainly because it would be of great help to learn German well in Mainland China, particularly when you want to have more opportunities to work for one of German companies, or go to Germany to study further at University. In other words, learning German well would be a necessary for holding a bright career, at least in China or Japan. And now I've already got a good job, and don't need to consider German as a must, so I would like to choose French & Italian as my great interests. As for me, learning a language is not only for getting a good job or getting a promotion, and I really feel happy to be able to learn French & Italian together.
To Italianofilo:
In my humble opinion, French and Italian is no the right decission. Well, in some sense yes it would, because if you learn two romance languages you will understand the rest fairly well without studying them. The downside is that they are very similar, so be prepared to avoid mixing both languages because you'll inevitable tend to do it. Take into account that French and Italian share 89% of lexical similarity. If I had t choose two romance langages, I would pick up two ones with lower lexical similarity. For example French and Spanish share 75% of words. On the other hand German would be the right decission because of the reasons you cited . If I were you , I would pick up German. On the other hand, you seem to be highly interested in Romance languages, then choose Fr+It if it pleases you so much. Live is short, so enjoy it.
In my humble opinion, French and Italian is no the right decission. Well, in some sense yes it would, because if you learn two romance languages you will understand the rest fairly well without studying them. The downside is that they are very similar, so be prepared to avoid mixing both languages because you'll inevitable tend to do it. Take into account that French and Italian share 89% of lexical similarity. If I had t choose two romance langages, I would pick up two ones with lower lexical similarity. For example French and Spanish share 75% of words. On the other hand German would be the right decission because of the reasons you cited . If I were you , I would pick up German. On the other hand, you seem to be highly interested in Romance languages, then choose Fr+It if it pleases you so much. Live is short, so enjoy it.
<<"The other day I was watching this show called, ¿Qué dice la gente? (Mexican version of Family Feud), so there was this Italian family and the host asked this guy, how do you say ¿Qué dice la gente? in Italian? and the guy said ¿Qué diche la yente? (or something like that), but It sounded so similar, if I was a basic Spanish or Italian speaker I would propably get really confused.">>
<<Not quite. First, there are no "Y's" or "J's" in Italian. Second I think it would be closer to something like "quella gente dice?" because I know the word order would be different and more similar to Portuguese and the pronunciation of "gente" would be closer to Br.Portuguese then to Latin American Castellano (with the exception of the Rio Platense variation of Castellano).>>
JGreco is right, Italian does not use J, K, W, X, or Y. However, I believe the guest typed the phrase using Spanish spelling to convey an Italian prounciation, in which case, the guest is correct. "Quella gente dice?" does not make sense in Italian. If you are making the statement, rather than a question, you could say "Quello che dice la gente."
The question "Che dice la gente?" is valid in Italian and is pronounced /ke ditʃe la dʒɛnte/ in IPA, which sounds something like "Kay DEE-chay la JEN-tay" in English. So, the Spanish spelling "Qué diche la yente?" is pretty close to the Italian pronunciation if the "y" is pronounced as the J in English.
<<Not quite. First, there are no "Y's" or "J's" in Italian. Second I think it would be closer to something like "quella gente dice?" because I know the word order would be different and more similar to Portuguese and the pronunciation of "gente" would be closer to Br.Portuguese then to Latin American Castellano (with the exception of the Rio Platense variation of Castellano).>>
JGreco is right, Italian does not use J, K, W, X, or Y. However, I believe the guest typed the phrase using Spanish spelling to convey an Italian prounciation, in which case, the guest is correct. "Quella gente dice?" does not make sense in Italian. If you are making the statement, rather than a question, you could say "Quello che dice la gente."
The question "Che dice la gente?" is valid in Italian and is pronounced /ke ditʃe la dʒɛnte/ in IPA, which sounds something like "Kay DEE-chay la JEN-tay" in English. So, the Spanish spelling "Qué diche la yente?" is pretty close to the Italian pronunciation if the "y" is pronounced as the J in English.
<< Would it be a good idea to learn French & Italian together?
Or French & Spanish together? Or Italian & Spanish together?
Thank you very much for your suggestions(detailed reasons)! >>
No. Because they're quite similar and you'll end up mixing things up.
Or French & Spanish together? Or Italian & Spanish together?
Thank you very much for your suggestions(detailed reasons)! >>
No. Because they're quite similar and you'll end up mixing things up.
Gast,
I think it depends on the person. I studied French and Spanish at the same time and other people (i.e. Barry Farber) have done the same. It may be tough for a "rookie" to take on Spanish and Italian at the same time, but again, it depends on the person. I feel that French and Spanish sound different enough that someone with a good ear shouldn't confuse them.
I think it depends on the person. I studied French and Spanish at the same time and other people (i.e. Barry Farber) have done the same. It may be tough for a "rookie" to take on Spanish and Italian at the same time, but again, it depends on the person. I feel that French and Spanish sound different enough that someone with a good ear shouldn't confuse them.
"would present much fewer problems than vocabulary. Grammar and vocabulary are fundamentally different"
WRONG
"I wouldn't recommend learning Spanish and Italian together. They're similar enough that it's easy to get them mixed up."
LIKE FRENCH AND ITALIAN
"French's phonology, morphology, and orthography are pretty different from the other languages, whereas Spanish and Italian are very similar in those respects"
For an Italian speaker is not a great deal to learn French phonology
"However, I can only speculate, as I haven't actually tried learning any languages in detail other than Spanish and Japanese. "
So it would be better not to give wrong advice....
This is the old stuff of people believing that Italian and Spanish are similar... This stuff is hard to die
Italian and French are similar in the SAME way that Spanish and Italian (I mean the level of similarity), you will meet different problems but the same amount of problems!
WRONG
"I wouldn't recommend learning Spanish and Italian together. They're similar enough that it's easy to get them mixed up."
LIKE FRENCH AND ITALIAN
"French's phonology, morphology, and orthography are pretty different from the other languages, whereas Spanish and Italian are very similar in those respects"
For an Italian speaker is not a great deal to learn French phonology
"However, I can only speculate, as I haven't actually tried learning any languages in detail other than Spanish and Japanese. "
So it would be better not to give wrong advice....
This is the old stuff of people believing that Italian and Spanish are similar... This stuff is hard to die
Italian and French are similar in the SAME way that Spanish and Italian (I mean the level of similarity), you will meet different problems but the same amount of problems!
So it would be better not to give wrong advice....
This is the old stuff of people believing that Italian and Spanish are similar... This stuff is hard to die
Italian and French are similar in the SAME way that Spanish and Italian (I mean the level of similarity), you will meet different problems but the same amount of problems!
I totally agree. The difficulty of French is a myth and Spanish is not easy at all unlike most people think in this forum. Clichés are hard to die
This is the old stuff of people believing that Italian and Spanish are similar... This stuff is hard to die
Italian and French are similar in the SAME way that Spanish and Italian (I mean the level of similarity), you will meet different problems but the same amount of problems!
I totally agree. The difficulty of French is a myth and Spanish is not easy at all unlike most people think in this forum. Clichés are hard to die
Spanish is not that easy. You must learn difficul sounds such as LL, Z, R , RR and J.
Pronunciation is quite easy, the grammar and syntax are even harder than French in my view