Another interesting conversation with Tweewo. One thing we discussed about was language. I said Mandarin was economical (with the use of 4 tones to distinguish between words with the same "spelling", and even then the same tone can represent different words). Tweewo thought that spoken Mandarin was economical at the expense of sounding beautiful. Then we went on to compare language with women as an analogy. So French was like Ms Universe (stunningly gorgeous); English was like your older sister (pretty but not stunning); Spanish and other assorted European languages were like the girl next door (charming in their own way); while Mandarin was well, like your teacher (functional and well, older). lol.

Despite this, I still think that Mandarin is a beautiful language, especially when sung. :)