Not that my relationship can compete with Matt & Leo in terms of drama but I thought I'd mention that having now been exposed to my BF's phone conversations in Vietnamese for 6 weeks I'm being driven to distraction.

To the untrained ear the Vietnamese language is of course phonically similar to Thai (I don't know about other SE Asian languages but no doubt some cunning linguist (or anal rimmer) will tell us the answer to that)

Anyhoo, there are three issues for me:

1. The language generally sounds like somebody tramping on a cat's tail - it is very unpleasant with all the high pitched screeching that goes on and it increases in pitch proportionately with any hilarity involved to the extent that its like somebody scraping their nails on a blackboard. All the high pitched squealing is even worse I'd imagine than a SGT mod's Skype meeting

2. The fact that (like the Spanish) Vietnamese speakers seem incapable of conversing at a reasonable number of decibels. They basically shout everything at each other rather than converse at a normal level

3. Like other SGT members who have alluded to their advancing hearing loss I too am struggling - but I also have a reduced dynamic range as a result of auditory recruitment. In other words, soft sounds can be too soft to hear but loud sounds which are easily tolerable to others are unbearable. Thus this "cat's tail tramping" is going right through me.

So I wondered - is it just me (or the small sample I listen to) or do others regard Thai and Vietnamese as unpleasant sounding and annoying languages?

And before anybody has a go - I do not have a Glasgow accent - I speak with a lovely, flowing, musical, highland lilt