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What does Chinese sound like?

  Tags: Stereotypes | Mandarin
 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages Post Reply
11 messages over 2 pages: 1 2  Next >>
lindseylbb
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Speaks: Mandarin*, Cantonese*, English
Studies: Japanese, Korean

 
 Message 1 of 11
02 November 2012 at 8:37am | IP Logged 
I know Spanish sounds aggressive and lke fighting to English speakers, but when I mentioned it to a Japanese he
said Manderin sounds the same, too...
I was, I dont know. I kind of aware that Manderin is not a gentle and soft language but still...
So what do you think? How does Manderin sound for you? What about Shanghaihua and Cantonese?
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comeauch
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Canada
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Speaks: French*, English, German
Studies: Dutch, Japanese

 
 Message 2 of 11
02 November 2012 at 1:34pm | IP Logged 
Mandarin and Cantonese used to sound "angry" to me. I think it's due to the tones,
especially the last one in a sentence, which generally falls in English or French. Every
other final tone (especially the high one) sounds a bit aggressive when you're not used
to it. Apart from that, I prefer the sound of Cantonese, it sounds more melodious to me.

Also, that's totally subjective (and stupid), but since that's what you ask for: I always
feel like half the language is composed of variations of "shu" and "chu" (zhu? yu? hu?)
and that almost every sentence ends with "la"/"ra" lol.
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Lucas C.
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Speaks: EnglishC2, Polish*
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 Message 3 of 11
02 November 2012 at 2:43pm | IP Logged 
like a dog (according to my mum)
like a cat (according to my dad)

To me, it used to sound like a bunch of arbitrary sounds. Not in a sense that I wasn't able
to understand the meaning, which is a case with any language I don't speak, but rather I doubted if
there were any words and sentences in what I heard.

Edited by Lucas C. on 02 November 2012 at 2:49pm

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Vegemighty
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Speaks: English*
Studies: Mandarin

 
 Message 4 of 11
02 November 2012 at 3:14pm | IP Logged 
I was once hanging out with some hunanese guys at a bar here in Chengdu and I did my impression of what Chinese sounded like, and they told me that my fake chinese sounded like Sichuanese. I wonder if I were talking to a local Sichuanese if they would say I sounded like a Shanghaiese or Cantonese speaker.

Personally, I find that sichuanese always sounds like yelling. Maybe its only that the people here are just very excited always. Foreigner speaks perfect Sichuanese
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Medulin
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Studies: Norwegian, Hindi, Nepali

 
 Message 5 of 11
02 November 2012 at 6:27pm | IP Logged 
Mandarin sounds like catspeak ;)
Cantonese sounds like angry catspeak. ;)

Edited by Medulin on 02 November 2012 at 6:27pm

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Bao
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Speaks: German*, English
Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin

 
 Message 6 of 11
02 November 2012 at 6:50pm | IP Logged 
Rather cute, due to the tonality. My former flatmates and I used to be rather amused by one of our Chinese neighbours fighting with his girlfriend because even angry Mandarin sounds cute to German ears.
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NickJS
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United Kingdom
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264 posts - 334 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Russian, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese

 
 Message 7 of 11
02 November 2012 at 11:44pm | IP Logged 
I love the sound of them all, I find that Mandarin sounds very formal - but quite noble sounding too, especially in certain contexts (if you get what I mean).

The Mandarin spoken in Taiwan is very gentle sounding I find.

Edited by NickJS on 02 November 2012 at 11:45pm

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chenshujian
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Speaks: Mandarin*, English
Studies: French

 
 Message 8 of 11
06 November 2012 at 2:55am | IP Logged 
Saying another language you don't know a shit about sounds like fighting is just bullshit.
It is stupid, arrogant and ignorant.



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