What images come to mind when you think of various languages

Porthos

What images come to mind when you think of various languages? Fab did a thread on this subject a couple of months ago on antimoon. What sort of thoughts, emotions, colors, geographical scenery, etc., come to mind when you think of various languages?

To narrow them down, let's choose between the following languages:
English
German
Dutch
Swedish
Norweigan
French
Italian
Spanish
Portuguese
Russian
Japanese

Aquatar

That's a fun one, i'll start off with colours.

English PINK
German GREEN
Dutch YELLOW
Swedish RED
Norweigan BROWN
French BLUE
Italian WHITE
Spanish RED
Portuguese BLUISH-PURPLE
Russian GREY
Japanese GREYISH-GREEN

Don't ask me why these came to mind. English, my mother-tongue, was the hardest though

Porthos

Okay, I'll do just the colors too, but I want to branch out and do the geographical scenery and other images.

English - light red
German - dark green
Dutch - orange
Norse countries - pink
French - blue
Italian -
Spanish - fiery red
Portuguese - light green
Russian - crimson red
Japanese - blueish-grey

Here are a few examples of what I'm talking about for those of you who haven't participated in this before:

Italian - pasta, wine, Roman ruins, renaissance architecture, sport cars, fashion, luxury clothing (prada, armani), colognes (Acqua di Gio, Dolce & Gabbana), cafes, opera music, mafia

Spanish - colonial style architecure, fiestas, fiery red colors, sunny beaches, passion, Latin American dance and musical styles like Tango, salsa, mambo, catholicism, tropical weather, and arid deserts

Portuguese - tropical jungles/rain forests, cafes, explorers, sailing, sunny beaches, green colors

French - blue or purple, Napoleon, Louis XIV, musketeers, romance, sex, art, fashion, colognes and perfumes, cosmetics, wine, high-class Parisian streets and shops, coffee, outdoor cafes, fancy French restaraunts and waiters in tuxedos, French riviera, rolling hills and vineyards, creme brule, Roman Gaul, secularism, liberalism, snobbishness, relaxed living, pragmatism

Russian - communism, czarist times, parkas, those layers of warm fur clothes, cyrillic alphabet, pink or red, freezing cold weather and snow, orthodox church, women with high cheekbones, big boned women, and Ana Kornikova

Japanese - robots, shogun, samurais, bonzai charges, guys who always sound intense when they talk, women always giggling, very tiny and petite people, chopsticks, Japanese cars, Japanese architecture, grey and blue, technology/electronics, video games, sushi, kimonos

German - dark green, forest, sausage, masculinity, Nazis, classical musicians, 99 luftballoons, David Hasselhoff, Dirk Nowitzki, beer, autobon (i forgot how you spell that), oktoberfest, cars like Mercedes Benz, BMW, engineering, chemistry, mathematics

Dutch - very tall people, blond haired - blue eyed people, mucus in the throat, windmills, Dutch architecture, orange, merchants, mariners, milk, cheese, beer, pastries, a lot of butter, waffles and pancakes, marijuana shops, canals, protestantism, political liberalism, those Dutch plates and silverware with decorations, cute little dolls and wooden figures

Scandanavian languages - Vikings, pacifism, political liberalism, socialist oriented mixed economies, Volvos, The Hives, freezing winters, forests, glaciers, cute Scandanavian architecture, Danish pastries, Nordic looking people, friendly to Americans, Anglophiles, light blue

English - pubs, cricket, rugby, English rock music, and everthing uniquely American, British Empire, capitalism, money, military might, business, poetry, light red, and many more things

Welsh/Irish/Scottish Gaelic - lush green landscapes, Lucky brand, rock bands from these regions, drab, dreary architecture and art, fish and chips, beer, pubs, overcast rainy weather, bagpipes, and dark haired, light skinned people, or red haired people, kilts, Celtic accents, Celtic ambiance, the sea

Fredrik

Porthos wrote:

Porthos

I also think of them as light blue, if that is any consolation, lol.

Porthos

But Fredrik, why don't you join in and talk about your image association with languages.

Benjamin [inactive]

English
Cannot possibly give an answer for English in general, so I'll have to give a separate one for different dialects.

Received Pronunciation — Posh British English
18th century mansions and townhouses, quaint gardens, smartly-dressed people, high teas and garden parties, and Cathedral closes.

Rural England English dialects
The general image of Merrie Olde England, including half-timbered houses, Gothic script, country pubs, beer drinking, village fêtes, small medieval churches, country dances, bawdy folk songs and tales, and a certain provincialism.

Scottish English
Mountains, lakes, granite, concern for the environment — similar to Scandinavia in many ways.

General American, Northern US and Canadian English
On the one hand, skyscrapers, large detached houses with big gardens, big cars, big business and capitalism, driven by hard work and success. But on the other hand, an immense and varied landscape with vast open spaces.

Southern US English
Flat land, fairly rural, laid back, lots of proverbs and sayings, rather religious, perhaps with a certain naïvety in places.

Australian English
A wild free-for-all (lol), sport, surfer-type men with longish blond hair and big muscles who spend a lot of time shirtless, casual dress in general.

South African English
On the one hand, large detached houses in the posh suburbs of Johannesburg, with 3m-high gates, complete with guards and electric fencing, inhabited by 'posh English people gone wrong' (no offence intended, lol). On the other hand, British colonial-style houses amid tropical vegetation, owned by white people with black servants — rather similar to the sort of environment in which my mother was born and spent the earlier part of her childhood before she came to England.

German
On the one hand, rather similar to the Rural England English one, especially emphasising the notion of Gemütlichkeit. But on the other hand, an economic powerhouse with skyscrapers, industry, large banks, fast but efficient driving on the Autobahns (motorways/highways), high-speed trains, wind turbines...

Dutch
Canals, narrow streets, silly songs, a live-and-let-live attitude and a certain 'reservedness' amongst people.

Swedish / Norweigan
Quite similar to Scotland, brightly-coloured metal houses, sensible, 'right-on', concerned for health, environment.

French
Sophistication, style, long windows with small balconies like in Paris, a certain 'strictness' and inflexibility, cafés, red wine, eating lots of food, but a lack of Gemütlichkeit.

Italian
Fashion, Roman remains, vineyards, olive farms, ice cream, friendly people, very attractive people, a chaotic administrative nightmare but in a nice way.

Spanish
Interesting architecture, including both the Moorish style and the designs of Antonio Gaudi in Barcelona; tapas, paella, mountains, beaches, economic disparity between urban and rural areas, nice landscapes being ruined by British and German tourists.

Portuguese
Nice, but often forgotten. Small yet big. Everything associated with Lisbon.

Russian
Old ladies with big glasses and headscarves.

Japanese
So different that all the others look practically identical by comparison.

fab

I try spontaneaously to associate a color to each language :

English - dark blue
German - brown
Dutch - dark orange
Swedish - light blue
Norweigan - light blue, but more green
French - green
Italian - orange
Spanish - yellow
Portuguese - greenish yellow
Russian - brownish red
Japanese - blue-grey

Don't ask me why...

And for the association with images (I recognise it is huge clichés)

:

English :
business, clean offices, glass skycrappers, red brick and wood architecture, adverts everywhere.

German :
Quiet and VERY clean and cold-hearted cities. efficient offices. Heavy people, generally tall spending their time drinking HUGE quantities of beer.

Dutch :
Tipical north European red brick architecture, nice clean and modern cities along canals. more relaxed people than in Germany, but looking similar and seeming having a great taste for beer.

Swedish :
Very clean and colorfull wood architecture, ikea, modern and minimalist ecological interiors where it is nice to stay for 10 months a year. like Canada, beautiful forests and lakes under tons of snow. Tall blond people, very discreet and reserved.

Norweigan :
A bit like swedish, but with montains and flords.

French :
too difficult, because to me there is no one unique image.

Italian : good moods, good foods, colorful architecture, tomatoes.

Spanish : Desolated lanscapes, endless fiels to the horizon, in which are lost medieval towns and some white mills. Some black bulls and DonQuijotte lost beetwen the empty space. quite serious people who play deeply tragic music. Tapas bar and fiesta specialists by night.

Portuguese : nostalgic old cities lost in front of the infinity of the cool Atlantic ocean, simple people who dream of their glorious past singing fados and eating tons of grilled fishes.

Russian (I'm sorry for Russians, it is not very positive):
sad, cold and poor post-communist endless country. natural beauties destroyed by sovietic regime and now by the avid new richs and mafias.
Depressing grey cities made of stalinien architecture.
beautiful but sad and melancholic musics. fortunally Vodka made to forget the rest.

Japanese
Soft language. Fresh country, with natural beauties. Zen and ultra traditional Asian people, who live in an ultra-modern country made of eletronic everywhere. Shy people who communicate only thank to the videogames and magas.

Sander

It sounds to that most people here do not think of the language, but rather the people, history and country behind it.

fab

Sander

fab

fab

Porthos

Deborah

Here are my musical reactions:

English - Greensleeves
German - beer-drinking songs
Dutch - nothing
Swedish - Hambo (a folk dance)
Norwegian - hardingfele(spelling?) (a traditional Norwegian fiddle)
French - Piaf
Italian - grand opera
Spanish - classical Spanish guitar
Portuguese - nothing
Russian - Tchaikovsky
Japanese - koto (traditional Japanese instrument)

Benjamin [inactive]

Since Deborah couldn't think of any music related to Dutch, how about...

Ik zag een muis!
Waar?
Daar op de trap!
Waar op de trap?
Nou da!
Een kleine muis op klompjes,
Nee 't is geen grap
't Ging van klip klippedieklap op de trap.

I see a mouse!
Where?
There on the stair!
Where on the stair?
Right there!
A little mouse with clogs on,
Well I declare
Going clip clappady-clap on the stair.

Does anyone else know that song?

Deborah

Sander

Loic

My stab at pinning images to languages:

RP English: Bush House, Buckingham Palace, St. John's Wood, Fleet Street, Saville Row, Eton and Harrow. Actually, my impression of RP English is very London-centric.

Scouser English: Don't ask me why, but I always think of Robbie Fowler first. Heavy drinking. Chavs (don't ask me why either). Derelict council houses. Tattooed English blokes.

Scottish English: Sheep farmers. Sir Alex Fergueson.

General American English: CNN. Finance. Very corporate sounding image.

Southern American accent: Religious people of the Southern Baptist denomination. Southern belles with a flirtatious wink. Good honest lads toiling in the fields.

Dutch: Canals. House boats. Actually, I don't have much of an impression when I think of Dutch.

German: Militaristic. Discipline. Soldiers goose-stepping around (very anarchronistic, I know!). Unrestrained drinking especially at Oktoberfest.

French: I have two distinct images: the sophisticiation and culture of Paris v the charm and pastoral way of life in the French countryside.

When I was younger and didn't know better, I associated French with Roman Catholicism in general as the faith here was spearheaded by French missionaries and most missionary schools here have mottos in French. For example, a motto of a well-known convant school here is "Fort dans mon devoir, Simple dans mon Vertu".

Spanish: Speedy Gonzalez. Sombreros. Dancing to the tune of Lambada (It's Brazilian, I know) or La Bamba. People eating tortillas. Actually, my view of Spanish is very Mexican.

Portuguese: No spontaneous images that come to mind. I do not associate Portuguese with Brazil instinctively.

Norwegein: Fjords. M2M. Gorgeous girls.

Swedish: Ikea. Probably always snowing. ABBA. Gorgeous girls.

Russian: Immense. Powerful. The Red Army assembling in front of the Kremlin. Vodka. Caviar. Churches have wierd onion-shaped domes that look more like mosques.

Japanese: Harsh. Cruel. Inhumane. Fanatically devoted to their Emperor. I have visited Japan before so I know that many of the negative stereotypes aren't true. But still, old beliefs die hard and growing up on a diet of Chinese language war films that depict Japanese aggression during the war have made a huge dent on my psyche.

All of you ignored the world's most populous language which is Mandarin. A shocking omission, isn't it?

Northern Chinese Mandarin: Musical. Probably ardent communists in their youth. The Great Wall. The Forbidden City. Bland northern cuisine.

Taiwanese Mandarin: Low-class Taiwanese variety shows (if you've watched one, you'd know what I mean.)

Taiwanese/Hokkien: Triad societies (Hokkien is the lingo among gang members here); tattooed dropouts; coarse personality

Cantonese: Too many images spring to mind. Dim Sum, for one.

Teochew: An idyllic rural past which I am nostalgic for despite not having experienced that utopia I long for.

Hainanese: Coconut trees lazily swaying away. Gentle sea breeze.

Shanghainese: Money-obsessed. Garrulous. Superficially westernised. These are really the characteristics of Shanghainese people.

We've also neglected the second most populous country in the world, India.

Hindi: Cricket. Chicken tikki massala. The Taj Mahal. Buffaloes doing as they please anywhere and everywhere without harm coming to them.

Tamil: Dark-skinned people. Fakirs. Snake charmers. Milkmen. Hindu temples.

Porthos

I always find it interesting that most of us in society are almost programmed as it were into idealizing beauty in the form of blond hair and blue eyes. Many women dye their hair this color in an attempt to emulate this ideal fashion. When you hear most men talk about the world's most beautiful women, you will most likely encounter one mentioning Scandanavian girls, with their "good" looks of blond hair and blue eyes. Could this perhaps reflect the historical trends following the dark ages, when the Germanic conquerors of Europe formed the elite, warrior-noble aristocracy, and were often blond haired, blue eyed? Could this have become the ideal because of that, with this mentality surviving throughout the subsequent generations? Personally, I don't see what people see in blond hair that is so special. I think Spanish, Portuguese, Italian girls etc, are more attractive than Scandanavian girls on average.

fab

Porthos

The mediterranean or Latin American look is starting to become fahionable now, because it is more exotic, but I think it is just a fad. Although a lot of them are very hairy it seems like, Persians have some attractive female members, along with their cousins in places like Afghanistan. These people are NOT Arabs, for those of you who might think that.

It's tough to say what region of the globe has the most attractive women, because, there are so many varities, and it all depends on what you like. I think I tend to favor darker features, so I like Latin-American women who are of primarily Spanish/Portuguese stock, and southern European girls. Of northern Europe, I like that unique "Celtic" look of contrasting light skin, and dark hair and eyes. But I definitely don't like the red hair, pale skin, and freckled look that many girls from the British Isles have. The "nordic" look is also very pretty, but I still favor the more southern look. Of girls of African descent, I think the prettiest ones are those who obviously have a generous amount of European ancestry, like Halle Barry. But I got sidetracked. The point I'm making is that a lot of guys will favor blondes, just because they are blonde, even if the brunnette alternative is prettier all around. I think that is stupid, and too many women dye their hair this color just to fit a media ideal. In other words, I think blond hair is over-rated.

Loic

Lol. Porthos, since one of your interests listed on your profile include pretty girls, it is perhaps inevitable that you'd bring this up.

When I was pinning the image of gorgeous girls to Norway and Sweden, I was really thinking of Victoria Silvstedt and Mrs Tiger Woods nee Elin Nordegren. I did not pause to consider the blonde factor.

Fab: I suppose 'agitated little people' in crowded bustling alleys would be a rather suitable stereotype of southern Chinese in general.

In Northern China, make it loud big people. When I was in the North, almost every Chinese male is at least 1.80 m tall. It boils down to a difference in diet, I suppose. They eat more wheat; we eat more rice.

Deborah

Loic

Why, Deborah? Shouldn't she be chuffed with the attention? I know I would be.

Deborah

Since it was getting so much more attention than she usually got, she was annoyed to discover that men (at least the ones at that party) could be so taken with something so superficial, I suppose.

David

loic, I thought you were an born in Singapore? are you an ethnic Chinese born in Singapore?

Loic

Yes, I am mostly Chinese and I am born in Singapore. However, I have travelled to China a few times and we still have bonds of kinship with our extended family who chose not to emigrate back in the early 1900s.

Walker

greg in noord-frankrijk

Deborah

Fredrik

Porthos

Fred,
I will read the book. It sounds interesting. But the question is, is there an English translation?

Porthos

And I researched that book, but it doesn't fit the description which you speak of.

Fredrik

Yes, there are English translations. It's one of the core works of Thomas Mann. The descriptions you have found might not fit with description, as this is a highly multi-facetted work. Some will interpret it as art theory, others as a treatise of Nietzschian philosphy, others as a love story, others as a coming-of-age novel, others as a warning against fascism or a celebration of fascism, others as Thomas Mann's autobiography and others as tourist promotion of Denmark!

So you'd better just read it yourself.