Would you listen to music in a language you didn't understand?

[Jerome]

Hey Gryphon - I can speak Afrikaans - a derivative of Dutch (but I must admit I am very rusty) & English. Know a few words in Xhosa & Zulu. My favourite being 'isitutututu' the first part is pronounced issy - as in 'hissy' fit. The second part is the same as Desmond Tutu- what does it mean? It's the word for a motorbike! (or scooter) Tutututu- is like the sound of the engine - that's how African languages work. They are very expressive & descriptive at the same time. I understand your sentence except for the last word - 'dichtbij'

[gryphon]

Spreek U een beetje Nederlands of is dat een taal dichtbij?

dichtbij means "close to" or next to.( or at a stretch a realated one)

Afrikaans is an old fashioned relative of modern Dutch..........they split away from each other about 200 years ago so have a very common root.

[Jerome]

When I was in Holland I went to a pub (yes it was near the Red Light District - I confess) and because I did not know anyone I picked up the paper (always a good excuse) and tried to read it. I could get the hang of most of the stories of the day, but I could not understand the detail. After the third beer kicked in I could talk in Japanese. Amazing place, Holland! Have to go back before I croak......

[gryphon]

Sounds to me as if you were in Amsterdam!!!!!!!!!!!!

That is at the other end of the land to me ( Although it is not a big county). I live right down at the bottom near Maastricht.

Dutch is not too difficult to learn and is quite logical but it has two problems

• English is spoken with the lips and at the front of the mouth, Dutch is spoken from the throat and diaphragm
  

• There are many dialects and here in the South they are very common. They are as difficult as speaking in Broad Yorkshire ( Which I can as I come from Yorkshire ) but they are so different from village to village.
  
• In the North they rasp and roar with their accents , here in the South we are soft and gentle and our "G" is not strong
  
• In addition , just over the boarder they speak Vlaams which is a Belgian form of Dutch.............and that is fun because it is Dutch /French !!
  
• 
  

[Jerome]

Flemish and Afrikaans seem to be very similar. I was speaking to a friend in Afrikaans years ago and a tourist couple who spoke Flemish and who were walking past stopped to ask us what language we were speaking. When we told them they could not believe it. They understood us perfectly. Small world.

[fresk]

just for the beats and to rhythm.

[Road-Warrior]

I listen to music I don't understand all the time. Mainly Russian and German like Rammstein, Distemper, and Black Messiah. I think it's fun to listen to something you don't completely understand. You get to look beyond the lyrics and look for the message through the music.

[Tiggi]

^ Good way of looking at things !!

[TraceNspace]

I haven't given a lot of music in foreign languages a chance other than Spanish. I speak a little Spanish though so I guess that's why.....

[TechnoKitten]

Yep! I like to listen to Japanese music like j-pop and j-rock and I don't know Japanese. It started yrs ago when I started watching Anime. I liked the music from them.