There were some guys having an argument in another room, and it got increasingly intense. They were speaking some kind of Arabic. I thought they were genuinely mad at each other, but then one of them mentioned an athlete’s name and started listing what sounded like stats.
While telling this story at a party, I said something like “Arabic is a very angry-sounding language.” I noticed someone’s eyes get large, and I didn’t realize until then how racist I had unintentionally been.
Later, I thought more about it. Any language that you don’t understand sounds bad if people are having an emotionally charged conversation. It didn’t occur to me until then how easy it is to be thoughtless and racially insensitive.
I generally try not to be an asshole, but I messed up big time. I have no idea who he was, but I’ll always be grateful to the guy whose eyes got big. He gave me a much-needed reality check.
Arabic speaker here and this sounds like the most harmless statement of all time. I mean you’re right in that it was probably more about the emotionally charged concepts than Arabic as a language, but still, I think this is one of those “white people getting mad at other white people when the minority in question wouldn’t think much of it” things.
People often say that German sounds angry. It has nothing to do with the skin color or religion of the speakers. I’ve not thought of Arabic as an angry language, but I don’t think that’s a racist statement.
If someone from a country has a history of making stereotypes about Arabic men being terrorists then saying their language sounds angry is in line with those cultural stereotypes. If I heard a white person in the US saying that it would come across as racist.
The Klingon language is entirely artificial, it was created to bring an aggressive and war-like alien race to life. You’ll find people referring to it as “Space German.”
Tbf, Mandarin sounds aggressive AF even tho I speak mandarin, every sentence sound like a military command.
Cantoese, on the otherhand, sounds very passive-aggressive and condesending instead.
What I mean is, when I told my mother I wanna jump off a bridge and kms, she told asked me if I want a ride to the bridge, “we can leave right now, the car is outside” (spoken in Cantonese), and then laughs like its funny somehow. Wtf mom?!?
I was born in mainland China and lived there until like I was around like 8, I went to primary school there
Then I immigrated to the US and learned Enlish, I now speak English on a native level, I asked my classmates about it and they don’t seem to hear a foreign “accent”, English has become my primary language that surpassed Mandarin which I haven’t spoken for like 15 years (except for like rare occasions when there’s a Mandarin-only new immigrant kid in school or something, but then I struggle to have any meaningful conversation lol), and Cantonese which which I only speak at home, but since relationship with parents and brother is broken, there’s nothing to be said beyond basic conversation, meaning, no deep discussions like politics or philosophy, since I lack the vocabulary.
I can understand most of a Chinese TV show when listening to it, I just automatically convert the words I hear into mentally hearing it in Cantonese (which uses the same Characters) and I kinda understand like 90% of the plot (there’s maybe like a few words I don’t understand). For HK TV, its in Cantonese and slightly easier.
Chinese (Mandarin) TV automatically feels like the atmosphere is more darker and serious, while HK (Cantonese) TV sounds a little more like comedy and more casual, even for stories like cops shows involving serious crimes like terrorism (the show is from a counter-terrorist perspective). Like its much easier to get over a characters death if its in Cantonese, while a Mandarin Dub over the same thing (e.g. Infernal Affairs, the movie) sound more serious.
Same with songs. Mandarin sounds so dark, Cantonese sounds more fun.
Could be because the the sound frequency of mandarin’s 4 tones vs Cantonese’s 6 tones. Mandarin’s tones sounds like it has a lower frequency, Cantonese’s tones sounds like it has higher frequency. Maybe the lower frequency sounds are associated with adults and therefore “more serious”?
Idk tho… not sure if this feeling is universal, perhaps my brain is just wired differently.
I dunno’, unless I hear shouting and those typical inflections of, “I’m REALLY pissed off”, I’ll only ever think an argument in French is going to lead to rough makeup sex.
I’ll use myself as an example.
There were some guys having an argument in another room, and it got increasingly intense. They were speaking some kind of Arabic. I thought they were genuinely mad at each other, but then one of them mentioned an athlete’s name and started listing what sounded like stats.
While telling this story at a party, I said something like “Arabic is a very angry-sounding language.” I noticed someone’s eyes get large, and I didn’t realize until then how racist I had unintentionally been.
Later, I thought more about it. Any language that you don’t understand sounds bad if people are having an emotionally charged conversation. It didn’t occur to me until then how easy it is to be thoughtless and racially insensitive.
I generally try not to be an asshole, but I messed up big time. I have no idea who he was, but I’ll always be grateful to the guy whose eyes got big. He gave me a much-needed reality check.
Arabic speaker here and this sounds like the most harmless statement of all time. I mean you’re right in that it was probably more about the emotionally charged concepts than Arabic as a language, but still, I think this is one of those “white people getting mad at other white people when the minority in question wouldn’t think much of it” things.
People often say that German sounds angry. It has nothing to do with the skin color or religion of the speakers. I’ve not thought of Arabic as an angry language, but I don’t think that’s a racist statement.
If someone from a country has a history of making stereotypes about Arabic men being terrorists then saying their language sounds angry is in line with those cultural stereotypes. If I heard a white person in the US saying that it would come across as racist.
The Klingon language is entirely artificial, it was created to bring an aggressive and war-like alien race to life. You’ll find people referring to it as “Space German.”
Tbf, Mandarin sounds aggressive AF even tho I speak mandarin, every sentence sound like a military command.
Cantoese, on the otherhand, sounds very passive-aggressive and condesending instead.
What I mean is, when I told my mother I wanna jump off a bridge and kms, she told asked me if I want a ride to the bridge, “we can leave right now, the car is outside” (spoken in Cantonese), and then laughs like its funny somehow. Wtf mom?!?
are you talking from the perspective of a native english speaker?
Depends on what “native” means.
I was born in mainland China and lived there until like I was around like 8, I went to primary school there
Then I immigrated to the US and learned Enlish, I now speak English on a native level, I asked my classmates about it and they don’t seem to hear a foreign “accent”, English has become my primary language that surpassed Mandarin which I haven’t spoken for like 15 years (except for like rare occasions when there’s a Mandarin-only new immigrant kid in school or something, but then I struggle to have any meaningful conversation lol), and Cantonese which which I only speak at home, but since relationship with parents and brother is broken, there’s nothing to be said beyond basic conversation, meaning, no deep discussions like politics or philosophy, since I lack the vocabulary.
I can understand most of a Chinese TV show when listening to it, I just automatically convert the words I hear into mentally hearing it in Cantonese (which uses the same Characters) and I kinda understand like 90% of the plot (there’s maybe like a few words I don’t understand). For HK TV, its in Cantonese and slightly easier.
Chinese (Mandarin) TV automatically feels like the atmosphere is more darker and serious, while HK (Cantonese) TV sounds a little more like comedy and more casual, even for stories like cops shows involving serious crimes like terrorism (the show is from a counter-terrorist perspective). Like its much easier to get over a characters death if its in Cantonese, while a Mandarin Dub over the same thing (e.g. Infernal Affairs, the movie) sound more serious.
Same with songs. Mandarin sounds so dark, Cantonese sounds more fun.
Could be because the the sound frequency of mandarin’s 4 tones vs Cantonese’s 6 tones. Mandarin’s tones sounds like it has a lower frequency, Cantonese’s tones sounds like it has higher frequency. Maybe the lower frequency sounds are associated with adults and therefore “more serious”?
Idk tho… not sure if this feeling is universal, perhaps my brain is just wired differently.
I dunno’, unless I hear shouting and those typical inflections of, “I’m REALLY pissed off”, I’ll only ever think an argument in French is going to lead to rough makeup sex.
lol they were definitely invested in the topic. They were shouting and occasionally slamming things around.