Hey guys, we need to speak Italian ...

I'm Irish with a French girlfriend. What do I win?

hudie (upward tone on each part [HU DEEYE]) - Chinese, sounds quite pretty here actually

babochka (ridiculous due to proximity to babushka - grandma) - Russian

"The awful German Language" is an essay from Mark Twain (if I remember correctly)

He has a total different opion about the sound of the language.

An interesting and funny piece to read by the way. He also addresses the neverendinggermanwords in there. Hilarious!

Anything French sounds good. Anything with an European (except British or German) accent sounds good.

anything with an ascent that is not english but is from Europe area or Australia

In terms of English accents, the generic one I'm most delighted by is South African. I rarely hear it in NY, let alone wherever else I go, but have a conversation in Johannesburg or Cape Town was much easier on the ears than accents that dot the eastern US seaboard.

Point/Counterpoint � workplace � education � sex � europe

http://www.theonion.com/articles/eur...-americ,11552/

Vosotros (the informal second person plural, roughly equivalent to "you guys" or "y'all" in US English) is very commonly used in Spain. In general, I would say that Spanish as spoken in Spain is less formal (i.e., using t� rather than usted) than in many countries in Latin America.

As far as I know, vosotros is not commonly used in Argentina. Perhaps you're thinking of vos? Vos is an informal second person singular (i.e. "you"), which is used instead of (sometimes in addition to) t� in a number of Latin American countries

Not having heard it much hereabouts (since college Spanish taught by a Basque lady) in the original "Old Spanish diluted to TexMex" spoken by "Old Guard" immigrants, 1914 or so, most from San Luis Potosi, or in the new wave of less-well educated arrivals from all over rural Mexico, it seems to remain in regular oral use in Spain. But then local usage has a lot to do with social/economic realities. I've a relative handful of Mexican American friends (a couple of guys with whom I started to Junior High 60+ years ago, a few former employees, an old lab tech whose sister worked for my parents, a retired judge and his son, the DA (both of whom rarely speak Spanish, at least in public) and a funeral home manager I've known for 50 years or so, with whom I'd use "tu" forms, or expect them to do so. "Usted" seems generally applied beyond family/friends/children.

How words or speech sound can be misleading....There's a little town near Valencia, once garrisoned by the International Brigade, Albacete, which I've heard and read being referred to as "Caga y Vete!", not very complimentary.

Then there's my screen name, bestowed upon me about 1958, while I spent a couple of months in Cordoba, VC, Mexico, with a family. The then 60ish mother in law, noting that I was rapidly balding at 18, then unusual, immediately started calling me the Spanish equivalent of "Curly". The "Sinverguenza" came later, "Shameless Rascal" or thereabouts, based on my conduct around the sheltered young women of her acquaintance. Young women in Mexico's smaller cities/towns in 1958 led very cloistered lives.

Man, I don't know about that. I have heard some pretty horrendous family squabbles in Portuguese, and I can assure you it did not sound good. (and not angelic either)

It will get you far ... very, very far.

A close second is a dark haired, blue eyed, Irishman ...

Speaking of foreign languages, as a Canadian it took me three thrips to ATL to figure out that "y'all", which I had understood to be a contraction of "you all", was actually often used in the singular: as in one person greeting another, "How're y'all doin' this mornin'?" The plural of "y'all" seems to be "all y'all", as in one person greeting several others: "How're all y'all doin' this mornin'?"

I'll cast another vote for Malay. The initial greeting on boarding an MH flight is pure music:

Tuan-tuan dan puan-puan, selamat datang ke Penerbangan Malaysia...

The usual destination airport is even better:

Lapangan terbang antarabangsa Kuala Lumpur.

I well remember being in France once with an elderly relation. I made to pay the entry fees to a museum when the woman behind the desk said very quietly to my companion, "Monsieur a peut-�tre plus de soixante ans?"

It occurred to me that if we'd been in an Anglo-Saxon country the woman would probably have screeched at him, in a stentorian voice that everyone around could have heard, "Are you over sixty?" The French way seemed much more gracious somehow.