cmt

I hate it when people write "it's" when they mean "its," and I just did so above (the second "it's&quot, ironically, just where I was saying how much I like English. Eek!

Barb_in_Ga

My favorite is Italian because it has such a beautiful sound and was so easy to learn to pronounce. Although I only learned enough to assist me in my trip last year, I really wish there was an opportunity to use Italian more often. Perhaps the English, Spanish, and French, who have planted their languages in so many more places in the world, were never truly as satisfied with their world as were the Italians.

French is a lovely language, but ever so much harder to properly pronounce the vowels and dipthongs. I will say, I am very glad I had brushed up on my French for my trip to France over the last 2 weeks. I found everyone to be very gracious and patient with what I know must be a very American accent.

The more gutteral sounding languages do not appeal to me, but every language is a marvel of sound and meaning. I would love to be conversant in many more tongues.

joanie1225

Ilove the sound of Italian and I am going in Sept. so trying to learn a little. Next I like French

LVSue

Actually, Powell, I think the English language is replete with French words because of William the Conqueror's little sortie over there in 1066. I think Portuguese sounds lovely, kind of like a softened mixture of French and Spanish. There's a kind of "zh" sound that is very soothing like waves brushing the shore.

Sue4

I love the French language. I just wish I could learn to speak it fluently. I spend much time studying it, and listening to tapes. I love to take my 4-mile walk every morning with the French chanteurs and chanteuses (Charles Trenet, Yves Montand, Charles Aznevour, Piaf, Jean Sablon, Jacques Bruel, etc)! My major purchases in Paris (besides Mephisto shoes) are French CD's.

kismetchimera

Italian,
Spanish,
French are my favourite's languages...I love to read Spanish poetry, especially Pablo Neruda poems..He is so passionate in his writings, but unfortunately when I read the same poem in the English language, somehow the passion and the despair of his thoughts are lost in the translation.

Clifton

I really enjoyed listening to Gaelic in the west of Ireland. That's something you just can't hear anywhere, even on foriegn film, etc. A very lyrical sound to my ears.

venexiano

Not crazy about Italian since it's my mothertongue I love speaking English, and travelling to English-speaking countries, I just feel like I'm at home. I hate bragging but I just seem to have learnt it so well that when I'm in England or in America I would never even think of speaking Italian. I just like it so much more than my own language *g* But Italian does sound nice when you hear it spoken, I'll give you that (except Venetian dialect which I do not like at all).
I also like Spanish a lot, a lot more than French in fact (though I appreciate French more than before, now that I learn it at school). To me Spanish sounds a lot more masculine than the other Romance languages, I just love the sounds of it. I hope I can learn it one day.
French to me is sort of more feminine, what with those "u"'s and "oe"'s and those "r"'s (but I'm good at pronouncing it since I have the "r" from my German - my other mothertongue).
German may not sound the nicest but I don't mind it at all.
I am fascinated by Russian. Those sounds, that way they speak it...it's just fascinating. Another one I'd like to learn.

And there is yet another language that I like, because I think it's funny: Hungarian! My auntie is Hungarian so I know a few words but when I went to Budapest last Easter I just loved the way they talked ! I actually even started to understand a few more words when people spoke to me. Very funny, but awfully difficult too, since it has next to no resemblance to any other language (except maybe for Finnish, but only the grammar is similar).

Katherine

Brazilian Portuguese...I just love the way they talk...

cmt

Is Brazilian Portuguese VERY different from European Portuguese? Part of the reason I'm asking is because, even though I absolutely detest language tapes or learning a language from machines, since I don't know the sounds of Portuguese, I was thinking of getting some Portuguese language tapes if I can find them used and cheap. I did see some offered, but they were for Brazilian Portuguese. I'm thinking of going to Portugal, not Brazil.

marktynernyc

My kick off for my travels would have to be Budapest 2000 - even though I visted paris twice in the mid 1990s. I was so taken with Budapest I sought out a Hungarian tutor for a year. I also studied Italian for a year. In college I studied French and German. In high school - Spanish.

I still have a strong affection for Hungarian and Italian - both have a tonal - roundish - quality to them - they both sound wonderful. And if pressed - I would say Hungarian over Italian (not sure why).

I also love how Mexicans speak spanish - so lyrical.

And yes - Brazilian Portuguese is different from continental Portuguese - the tapes should differeniate.

dovima

I found Dutch to be very endearing, although rather impenetrable to a first-time listener. Love the way they attach a "je" at the end of nouns to make an affectionate diminutive, like the "jointje" I overhead someone refer to one evening, tee hee.

lillehavfrue

"And there is yet another language that I like, because I think it's funny: Hungarian!"
"Very funny, but awfully difficult too, since it has next to no resemblance to any other language (except maybe for Finnish, but only the grammar is similar)."

Hungarian is in the same family as Finnish and Estonian. I don't remember how Hungarian sounded, but Finnish is hilarious to listen to. And I have a problem with Finns speaking English because I can't resist cracking up!

Carola22

Dutch is my native language, and for me it's the language for everyday, down-to-earth, common-sense remarks and thought. English is my language of preference for romantic thoughts... German sounds very harsh to me. I love the sound of Italian, much more than Spanish - that sounds so harsh and guttural.

krish

My favourite language is Tamil,the greatest classical language of South India. Its literary heritage is wonderful, with the Sangam poems among the greatst achievements of mankind.

jor

English, as spoken by anyone but redneck Texans.

Treesa

I love French, especially the rolling rrrs. Can't do that. I speak Spanish since I lived in Peru and went to school there and I do like Castilian Spanish. It facilitates learning a little bit of Italian and French. I love the Greek language too (I think I was Greek in another life because when I hear it spoken I seem to understand it on a different level). Weird...

justalittlebit

Norwegian, Portuguese, and Italian. And Gaelic for some kooky reason.

I don't like British English much anymore. It has gotten a bit sloppy, and I find the tagging of "r" to the end of each word that ends with "a" very annoying. It's ideA not ideaR. I don't like Bush-English either.

yesmar82787

topping

EnglishOne

Justalittlebit - that sounds like a South Eastern/London/Thames Estuary local accent to me, from what you describe (ideaR etc). I probably sound like that to 'non-locals'. Have you heard Yorkshire accents or North East dialects (I hesitate to say 'Geordie' as I don't know if they like that tag up there!). They are so very different from one another.

Anyway, I really dislike the German accent, the reasons are echoed in the above posts. French is great to listen to, because I can 'pick up' on the conversation, as I rely on my school-french from some 20+ years ago! Out of interest, do you folks from the USA learn any foreign languages whilst at school? IMO, we start learning a foreign language way too late in our school years (or we did in my day, anyway) and that's why we are generally very poor at them

Does English sound 'gutteral' to non-speakers? I've always wanted to know that....

Another language which is facinating to listen to is Swahili