I’d like to get some people’s opinion on how you feel the Dutch language sounds to you. To me it sounds like an horrifying version of the German language combined with some other language. It’s just horrible sounding.
Wow, Im kinda insulted as a Dutch native to hear my language get called: horrible sounding.
I think that if you get used to it a little bit more you will eventually love it.
Calling Dutch a horrifying version of the German language combined with some other language is just wrong.
Dutch is a language on it’s own, ofcourse it contains influences from other Germanic languages but that does not mean it would be some kind of cheap rip off language.
I hope my opinion was of value to you.
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If I’m honest, Dutch isn’t my favorite sounding language 
I’ve only started learning it recently, and at my first impression the gutteral G was confusing (and a turn-off, if I’m truly honest).
But it probably takes time to appreciate a language. German sounded harsh to me at first, but now that I have so many positive associations with it (favorite German rock bands, reminds me of Berlin & Düsseldorf etc) I really love it. But I’d never claim German was the best sounding language either. (I like the sound of French or Swedish better.)
I would much rather the sound of the Dutch “vlinder” than the German “Schmetterling”! So some Dutch words do sound good! And I also like that Dutch has enough English & German influence that it’s easier for me to learn, plus Afrikaans has many similarities to Dutch, so it feels like Dutch is a gateway to other languages.
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@niek
“Calling Dutch a horrifying version of the German language combined with some other language is just wrong[…] that does not mean it would be some kind of cheap rip off language”
To be fair, he didn´t say that. He said that it sounds like German mixed with something else. I gotta admit that languages like Dutch, Swiss German and Yiddish sound like “bad German” to me, but I´m aware that I´m biased since German is my native language. I guess it´s quite normal to compare unfamiliar things to things that you already know. How do you feel when you hear someone speak German?
I don´t mean to insult Dutch by the way, I´m just…uhm…sharing my observations.^^
@kimojima “Dutch sounds great to me! Have you heard Silvia’s soothing voice yet?”
@niek “I think that if you get used to it a little bit more you will eventually love it.”
You guys have a point 
Getting used to the language and listening to someone whose voice you like can make a huuuuge difference.
@Paule89 I like german, I am busy with my Spanish at the moment but I am planning to pick up some german in a few months.
As someone from The Netherlands I’ve had my fair share of German input with help of mostly School and TV (we never have voice overs, always subs) and since our languages are in the same family it will be ofcourse more easy to pick up than completely unknown languages.
Even though I know German is one of the biggest country’s in the EU and a very important one internationally, I still just feel like people tend to forget that each Germanic language is different.
If you look at Dutch you will see that there are many different influences from languages all over Europe (especially German,French and English) but it will always be Dutch, it contains mostly Dutch words, that’s why it’s called Dutch and not Bad German,Bad French or Bad English. That would be a false claim and it would feel as an insult to my mother tongue.
Me personally I could think of a language as Unusually sounding or something like that… But never Horrible, I think that is an insult to people who might be born and raised with this language and have communicated with that language for so many years.
Every language to me is beautiful in it’s own way, you just have to get to know it.
To go deeper into your question about when I hear someone speak German:
Hey, I understand this word and this word… I wish I could understand the whole context xD
Ofcourse there are people here in The Netherlands that have a little bit of ‘neightbour-war’ going on when it comes to Germany…Mostly based on the Nazi-Germany period ofcourse… But that is not me, Im very tolerant about Germany and all other languages/country’s in general and I think most of us are where I live.
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Thank you for you opinions. I’m sorry niek1337, if I insulted your language. Like someone above said, the g sounds for me are bad. Someday I’ll study a little Dutch to see if I have an interest with the language.
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I love the way Dutch sounds, I really do. What some people consider to be “harsh sounds” to me sounds intriguing. I hope to find the time to get into Dutch one day. I’ve already bought a couple of books and listened to some podcasts but I have not started yet with any serious study plans. I will, though, one day and I really look forward to my first full conversation in Dutch. And, yes, it is by all means a language of its own.
It is quite natural that not everybody feels attracted by the same sounds or characteristics of a language. I have also found that once you meet someone you like who speaks a specific language, you learn to appreciate the characteristics of that language very quickly. Just my own personal experience.
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In Belgium we speak Flemish which sounds quite different from Dutch!
Dutch is a difficult language, but sounds les hart than German, Mij zelf had a difficult to learn it, because I speak Spanish. Ducht some times has not logic and that make it difficult. After a time you wil find a nice language.
It’s true that the Dutch language has a lot of guttural sounds, even more than German. But is this a reason to devalue it or to describe it as horrible? Several years ago, I couldn’t bring myself to improve my Spanish for similar reasons. But now I appreciate it just as much as all the other languages I’ve learned so far. I think, every language has its own musicality, quality and beauty which has to be discovered while learning it.
By the way, as vincentd has already mentioned, Flemish sounds different and a bit softer. Maybe you’ll prefer this pronunciation.
@il
I searched it on the interwebs and found some audio sample for to listen to Flemish. I really prefer it than the normal Dutch pronunciation. What Spanish pronunciation were you studying? There is the Latin American, and then there is also the Castilian Pronunciation. Castilian is the type that is spoken in Spain. I think.