CMHWAK FOREIGNERS - RE: ENGLISH

[Heide]

The French seem pretty reluctant to use English

Heh well in my experience, the French generally dont speak english very well. Its pretty much impossible to communicate with the French on festivals. That, and they seem sort of proud of their language and it does sound kinda cool in songs

my friend had two french exchange students stay at his house (one was black) and i had no idea what they were saying half the time. i met two girls, one from sweden, one from spain, and they had almost perfect american accents.

Generally people from Belgium and everything north of it speak good English (apart from Poland, and Germans tend to suck at it too). Not sure about Spanish people, theyre usually not very fluent in my experience but they can get around at least

It's SO much easier writing lyrics in English than writing them in Dutch, and it sounds really weird if you scream Dutch shit.

We plan on doing at least 1 Dutch song though

Dutch is absolutely horrible to sing in almost any genre apart from popish shit. Shikari managed to do it to some extent but you can hear they still need to rhyme in order for it to work, something that isn't necessary with English. Also, personally, I can express myself much better in English. I assume that applies to a lot of people who write English lyrics despite being foreign. But I think the biggest reason is the language itself not being compatible since I've never seen a Belgian band sing in Dutch(apart from Shikari). A lot of people such as the French or the Japanese are also just horrible at learning English so as a result you hear a ton of screamo and hardcore in their own language.

Yeah, thats what I meant too

[yakbiddalz]

Tell me about it. My sister had a French exchange student at our house a few years back, I don't think she was even trying to speak English. I once read an article about how the French were rated the "world's worst tourists" one reason being the language issue. I've met a lot of Germans who speak flawless English. But in all fairness, French pronunciation is far different.

[Heide]

But in all fairness, French pronunciation is far different.

That's hardly the issue. Dutch pronunciation is way different from English, as is pretty much every European language.
The biggest problem in France and Germany is that TV shows and movies are dubbed with French and German, whereas in the Netherlands (and I think in Sweden, Denmark etc too) all movies are still in English, with Dutch subtitles. Also, in the Netherlands EVERYONE gets English in school for 2 years or more. In France it's an optional course (at least thats what a French dude told me), and in Germany only people attending "higher" levels of education get mandatory English

[yakbiddalz]

But in all fairness, French pronunciation is far different.

That's hardly the issue. Dutch pronunciation is way different from English, as is pretty much every European language.
The biggest problem in France and Germany is that TV shows and movies are dubbed with French and German, whereas in the Netherlands (and I think in Sweden, Denmark etc too) all movies are still in English, with Dutch subtitles. Also, in the Netherlands EVERYONE gets English in school for 2 years or more. In France it's an optional course (at least thats what a French dude told me), and in Germany only people attending "higher" levels of education get mandatory English

Interesting. I'm not too well versed in how the education systems work over in Europe, but English, Dutch and German are all Germanic languages, French is in a totally different language family. that must play SOME kind of a role.

[Heide]

But in all fairness, French pronunciation is far different.

That's hardly the issue. Dutch pronunciation is way different from English, as is pretty much every European language.
The biggest problem in France and Germany is that TV shows and movies are dubbed with French and German, whereas in the Netherlands (and I think in Sweden, Denmark etc too) all movies are still in English, with Dutch subtitles. Also, in the Netherlands EVERYONE gets English in school for 2 years or more. In France it's an optional course (at least thats what a French dude told me), and in Germany only people attending "higher" levels of education get mandatory English

Interesting. I'm not too well versed in how the education systems work over in Europe, but English, Dutch and German are all Germanic languages, French is in a totally different language family. that must play SOME kind of a role.

In origin English is Germanic, yeah, but anyone who speaks both a Germanic language and English knows that nowadays English barely shows any traces of Germanic. I dont think its harder to learn English if your mother language is French rather than a Germanic language, but the situation in the "Germanic" countries are better to learn English (i.e. English spoken TV shows etc)

[chewing tinfoil]

english because flemmish sounds too corny

[Wraith]

english because flemmish sounds too corny

Are you also Flemish? I'm from Blankenberge/Brugge.

[Arkaic]

I wish I can write and speak more of my mother language (Cantonese) so I could start the first skramz band with chinese lyrics.

Even though chinese would sound horribly corny

[iKichigai]

English is easier to write.

[forzamadrid]

English is our country's second language, so it's assumed everyone here is supposed to at least understand it. People assume you're smart or rich when you're good at English in here.