Why on Earth do people think German and Russian sound similar?

[Pull My Finger]

Uhm.. where is your source claiming that ppl think it sounds similar?

You're some kind of a forum censor?

[Sunseeker]

The same reason people think anything: they're stupid.

[Airwaves]

Never in my life have I heard someone say that. I have had an american on vent say he can't understand me because of my Aussie accent. I wanted to facepalm so bad.

[Deleted]

Noone thinks they sound similar... At least the Indo-European speakers.

Wtf made you think of that?

[Deleted]

or portuguese and spanish.

Lol. You understand that these two are very closely related, while German and Russian are totally different families?

[Tekkommo]

or portuguese and spanish.

Now you're just being stupid.

On topic, I've never heard anyone compare German to Russian.

[Deleted]

I've never heard of anyone thinking this.

[lopk]

The same reason people think anything: they're stupid.

Or it maybe has to do with how we're not able to well distinguish sounds that we don't understand.

Or we could be cool and just call others stupid. Suppose it works fine, too.

[Deleted]

Well they sound really distinct. But has many, i haven t heard any1 saying they sounded equal...

[Dendrek]

[videos]

Thank you for this. Both were awesome to listen to. For some reason, the feeling of the film was different with each language for me.

Also, to address the OP, I would never mistake Russian and German. There are languages I've heard spoken in movies that sound a lot like one or the other of these two to me. But there's no mistaking these two. German is much "harder" sounding, while the vowel sounds in Russian seem more fluid. Likewise, both languages have easily recognizable syllables (specific short words or combinations of letters that appear in different words).

[Sunseeker]

Or it maybe has to do with how we're not able to well distinguish sounds that we don't understand.

Or we could be cool and just call others stupid. Suppose it works fine, too.

I don't speak either language and I can tell them apart easily.

[NPEC]

I wasn't aware people did think they sounded similar, first time hearing about it.

Sir you made my day a bit better

i quoted the wrong post i wanted to quote the post under it that says that for someone that dosent speak any of them they both sound like klingon

[Mayhem]

Or it maybe has to do with how we're not able to well distinguish sounds that we don't understand.

Or we could be cool and just call others stupid. Suppose it works fine, too.

you´re stupid!

i can easily tell them apart, probably because german is my mother tongue, not too sure

[Sathnick]

German is my native language but I lived in Moscow for a few years (workwise) and learned Russian during that time. Actually I think for people not used to German or Russian both languages sound rather hard - and thats why they get compared a lot. However, once you get used to both I would say German still sounds kinda hard while Russian sounds much more like e.g. Spanish...it has a totally different "melody" (so to say) then German.

[-aiko-]

These are the same people that think Japanese and Chinese sound the same.

[Sathnick]

Never in my life have I heard someone say that. I have had an american on vent say he can't understand me because of my Aussie accent. I wanted to facepalm so bad.

Admit it - Aussie accent is really hard to understand sometimes...hell you even use different words or words differently

[Yvaelle]

you´re stupid!

i can easily tell them apart, probably because german is my mother tongue, not too sure

And you never get confused and accidentally speak Russian? Just kidding!

[Mayhem]

And you never get confused and accidentally speak Russian? Just kidding!

not as often as you might think ^^

[Noomz]

These both languages have nothing in common in terms of the sound, for instance German is built on diphthongs and Russian doesn't have any, German R is either a short vowel or the guttural one while the Russian R is rolled, etc. We also share nearly nothing in common in other aspects, like grammar. We both have cases but in German they're completely different too. The closest language to Russian grammar-wise would be Latin, but German is as far from Russian as it can get. Here are some songs with both languages:

Because a lot of people are ignorant of languages. No bashing intended, but americans more than others. Europe is diverse in languages, so many of us speak more than one language. It brings a different understanding.

Same reason people can't differentiate between Asian languages and the appearance of Asians; ignorance.
I have no trouble recognizing, thai, mandarin, korean or japanese. Others would simply be unable to tell the difference.

If you aren't exposed to languages, you won't understand them.
But from my experience, people in my own country usually don't have any trouble with it, unless it's Asian countries that are much further away and something we're much less exposed to.

I remember an american guy that me and some other sweds often talked to, who said that his sister thought we sounded russian. We could see the humor in it but, calling a swed russian is...a bit of an insult

[Ravenblade]

First time I've heard of this claim but there is a first time for everything lol. I wonder where you got that from, OP, because when I learned Russian we had to drop everything we knew about our own language. Nobody with even the most simplest grasp for linguistics would claim they are similar. If someone would say Dutch and German are similar I would understand the confusion even though there major differences as well. German contains a lot of words loaned from Slavic and Latin background though. The German word for window - window being actually an English word with Germanic (vindue)/Gothic (windauga) origins by the way - Fenster for instance is of Latin origin: fenestra, the German word for border Grenze is of Slavic origin: granica.