Language Differences and Perceptions

It's interesting to hear what other people have to say about a given language, especially those who have no comprehension of that given language. Today, I indicated to a girl from Spain that I can only decipher the rolled 'r' when people speak Spanish. For the record, she wasn't offended, but rather laughed like she had heard that before. However, I'm sure after class she immediately got on the phone with her family to tell them about this rude American.

With my curiosity getting the best of me, I asked a girl from Japan (who speaks no English) what she hears when she listens to people speaking English. She proceeded to make some sounds involving 'er' and 'reh.' I then asked our professor the same question. She proceeded to plug her nose and make the 'r' sound, in addition to some 'uh' and 'ae' sounds.

Even if we don't have any knowledge of a given language, we all tend to develop general ideas of what we think that language sounds like. For example, I know all of you think that German sounds like people hocking and spitting all the time--and that the French 'r' sounds like a cat with a hairball in the back of its throat. Despite these ideas, the language sounds nothing like this to native speakers. How many of you native English speakers would have described English sounds by plugging your nose?

What I'm trying to get at here is the shear craziness of language. What sounds like random nasal 'er' 'uh' and 'ae' sounds to one person, actually has meaning to another. Similarly, when I hear the rolled Spanish 'r,' people who understand Spanish hear much more, and can actually associate meaning, derive emotions, and communicate back. How amazing is that?