Favourite Anthems

This forum is to learn about foreign cultures and habits, because language skills are not everything you need as a world citizen...

Moderator:Forum Administrators

User avatar
Levike
Posts:6153
Joined:2013-04-22, 19:26
Real Name:Levi
Gender:male
Location:Budapest
Country:HUHungary (Magyarország)
Re: Favourite Anthems

Postby Levike » 2014-12-22, 17:13

I just listened to the Austro-Hungarian anthem ... no wonder it didn't last long.

Ludwig Whitby
Posts:3664
Joined:2009-03-30, 13:44
Gender:male
Location:Belgrade
Country:RSSerbia (Србија)

Re: Favourite Anthems

Postby Ludwig Whitby » 2014-12-22, 17:39

Levike wrote:I just listened to the Austro-Hungarian anthem ... no wonder it didn't last long.

Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser? But it's the same melody as the German anthem.

vijayjohn
Language Forum Moderator
Posts:27056
Joined:2013-01-10, 8:49
Real Name:Vijay John
Gender:male
Location:Austin, Texas, USA
Country:USUnited States (United States)
Contact:

Re: Favourite Anthems

Postby vijayjohn » 2014-12-22, 21:46

And the tune was used for over a hundred years as Austria-Hungary's anthem. It's just the lyrics that kept changing.

User avatar
Levike
Posts:6153
Joined:2013-04-22, 19:26
Real Name:Levi
Gender:male
Location:Budapest
Country:HUHungary (Magyarország)

Re: Favourite Anthems

Postby Levike » 2014-12-22, 23:02

Ludwig Whitby wrote:
Levike wrote:I just listened to the Austro-Hungarian anthem ... no wonder it didn't last long.

Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser? But it's the same melody as the German anthem.
Which I also find kind of boring.

The first anthem I would change is the Hungarian one which totally sounds like a church song.
The lyrics are literally like a complaint letter sent to God.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oThctK5SLwY

User avatar
mōdgethanc
Posts:10890
Joined:2010-03-20, 5:27
Gender:male
Location:Toronto
Country:CACanada (Canada)

Re: Favourite Anthems

Postby mōdgethanc » 2014-12-23, 4:46

Does anyone like the Chinese anthem? I've tried to like it and it just sounds like communist crap to me. The melody is really annoying and the lyrics are boring and generic revolutionary stuff about rising up and defending the motherland. I think I would shoot myself in the head if I had to listen to it every day.
[ˈmoːdjeðɑŋk]

vijayjohn
Language Forum Moderator
Posts:27056
Joined:2013-01-10, 8:49
Real Name:Vijay John
Gender:male
Location:Austin, Texas, USA
Country:USUnited States (United States)
Contact:

Re: Favourite Anthems

Postby vijayjohn » 2014-12-23, 4:50

mōdgethanc wrote:Does anyone like the Chinese anthem?

You know what? Yes, I do. :lol:

User avatar
mōdgethanc
Posts:10890
Joined:2010-03-20, 5:27
Gender:male
Location:Toronto
Country:CACanada (Canada)

Re: Favourite Anthems

Postby mōdgethanc » 2014-12-23, 5:36

vijayjohn wrote:You know what? Yes, I do. :lol:
I feel like the US military ought to use it for the psychological torture of inmates at black sites in Central Asia. I don't care what the real lyrics are; to me it's just Qilai! Qilai! Qilai! Zhong guo, zhong guo, zhong guo guo!
[ˈmoːdjeðɑŋk]

vijayjohn
Language Forum Moderator
Posts:27056
Joined:2013-01-10, 8:49
Real Name:Vijay John
Gender:male
Location:Austin, Texas, USA
Country:USUnited States (United States)
Contact:

Re: Favourite Anthems

Postby vijayjohn » 2014-12-23, 5:41

mōdgethanc wrote:
vijayjohn wrote:You know what? Yes, I do. :lol:
I feel like the US military ought to use it for the psychological torture of inmates at black sites in Central Asia. I don't care what the real lyrics are; to me it's just Qilai! Qilai! Qilai! Zhong guo, zhong guo, zhong guo guo!

Tsk, tsk. Aren't you forgetting qian jin!? :doh: :lol:

EDIT: Oh, and it doesn't even have zhong guo in it (or any guo for that matter)! It has Zhonghua minzu though. ;) :lol:
EDIT2: I just remembered that I also used to not like it, but...then I guess I just made myself like it? I must be a good Communist citizen. :hmhihi: (That's the first time I've ever used that smiley lol).
EDIT3: Or maybe it's just because I thought it was so weird that the Taiwanese anthem was a speech! :lol:

User avatar
mōdgethanc
Posts:10890
Joined:2010-03-20, 5:27
Gender:male
Location:Toronto
Country:CACanada (Canada)

Re: Favourite Anthems

Postby mōdgethanc » 2014-12-23, 10:17

Taiwan gets a lot of hate on this forum. I don't know why. (Some people think its flag is ugly, as if the PRC flag is anything but a gaudily-coloured eyesore).
Oh, and it doesn't even have zhong guo in it (or any guo for that matter)! It has Zhonghua minzu though.
Same shit, different asshole.
[ˈmoːdjeðɑŋk]

vijayjohn
Language Forum Moderator
Posts:27056
Joined:2013-01-10, 8:49
Real Name:Vijay John
Gender:male
Location:Austin, Texas, USA
Country:USUnited States (United States)
Contact:

Re: Favourite Anthems

Postby vijayjohn » 2014-12-23, 18:44

mōdgethanc wrote:Taiwan gets a lot of hate on this forum. I don't know why. (Some people think its flag is ugly, as if the PRC flag is anything but a gaudily-coloured eyesore).

Eh, pretty much my only beef with Taiwan is that it's awfully Westernized. Seriously, why would I travel all the way across the Pacific Ocean just to watch Animal Planet, play video games, go to amusement parks, and do all kinds of other shit I could do right here? :lol:

To be fair, there are a lot of things about Taiwan that I do like, too (even if I don't admit it to myself often enough). I have no doubt it has amazing street food (or just good food in general). I have really good cookbooks and the best cartoon renditions of certain Chinese classics (with the original text in Classical Chinese! :shock:) that all come from Taiwan, so while I'm definitely not qualified to comment on any other literature Taiwan has, it obviously has that. :D And of course, there's always the indigenous people, who speak Austronesian languages like you'll never find them anywhere else. :lol:

Oh, and the flag (of Taiwan) looks just fine to me. Just a little too much like the old flag of Myanmar, so it used to be hard for me to tell them apart. :P I think I can tell the difference now though. :lol: China's flag just looks boringly simplistic, almost as much as the Soviet flag. EDIT: Or the Vietnamese flag!

vijayjohn
Language Forum Moderator
Posts:27056
Joined:2013-01-10, 8:49
Real Name:Vijay John
Gender:male
Location:Austin, Texas, USA
Country:USUnited States (United States)
Contact:

Re: Favourite Anthems

Postby vijayjohn » 2014-12-23, 22:01

Getting back to the topic of national anthems, here are the anthems of the Kyrgyz SSR and Kyrgyzstan. I love both of them, or at least I love their tunes; they're among my favorite Central Asian anthems (the modern one is definitely my favorite modern Central Asian anthem). Interestingly, both anthems mention the Alatau Mountains, even though these mountains also run through Kazakhstan and none of the other Central Asian anthems (neither the Soviet ones nor the current ones) mention any natural landmarks.

Also, compare the end of the chorus of the Kyrgyz SSR anthem (lyrics, transliteration, and translation mostly courtesy of Wikipedia):
Алгалай бер, гүлдөй бер,
Algalaý ber, güldöý ber,
March forward and flourish
Коммунизм жолунда!
Kommunizm jolunda!
Along the path to communism!

and the beginning of the chorus of the current anthem:
Алгалай бер, кыргыз эл,
Algalaý ber, kyrgyz el,
March forward, Kyrgyz people,
Азаттыктын жолунда!
Azattyktyn jolunda!
Along the path to freedom!

I suppose the similarity in the lyrics isn't all that surprising; "march forward," "flourish," and "along the path to freedom (or communism, in Communist countries)" are all phrases that are found fairly often in national/regional anthems. But even the tune for these parts is somewhat similar in both anthems.

Anyway, here's the Soviet anthem, with the lyrics in Cyrillic script in the video description:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7D8BkbwTMM
This has the lyrics in Cyrillic script and Latin script with a translation into English.

And here's the modern anthem, also with the lyrics in Cyrillic script (in the video itself):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMh2G3nuEFU
And the lyrics can be found in Cyrillic script and Latin script with translations into Russian (also in both scripts) and English here.

User avatar
mōdgethanc
Posts:10890
Joined:2010-03-20, 5:27
Gender:male
Location:Toronto
Country:CACanada (Canada)

Re: Favourite Anthems

Postby mōdgethanc » 2014-12-24, 2:38

vijayjohn wrote:Eh, pretty much my only beef with Taiwan
...is their beef noodle soup?

Naw, jk.
is that it's awfully Westernized. Seriously, why would I travel all the way across the Pacific Ocean just to watch Animal Planet, play video games, go to amusement parks, and do all kinds of other shit I could do right here? :lol:
Yeah, but by that same token, why would I go to the PRC just to drink Starbucks and eat KFC? I'm sure there are lots of things in Taiwan and China to do that are part of the "real" traditional culture.
To be fair, there are a lot of things about Taiwan that I do like, too (even if I don't admit it to myself often enough). I have no doubt it has amazing street food (or just good food in general). I have really good cookbooks and the best cartoon renditions of certain Chinese classics (with the original text in Classical Chinese! :shock:) that all come from Taiwan, so while I'm definitely not qualified to comment on any other literature Taiwan has, it obviously has that. :D
China has a lot of street food, but it looks dodgy as fuck. I'm not eating grilled anything on a stick unless I know for sure which animal it came from.
And of course, there's always the indigenous people, who speak Austronesian languages like you'll never find them anywhere else. :lol:
All 50 of them, most of whom will be dead soon, and their languages extinct.
Oh, and the flag (of Taiwan) looks just fine to me. Just a little too much like the old flag of Myanmar, so it used to be hard for me to tell them apart. :P I think I can tell the difference now though. :lol: China's flag just looks boringly simplistic, almost as much as the Soviet flag. EDIT: Or the Vietnamese flag!
Glad someone agrees these primary-colour kindergartener-designed commie flags are awful. Not like the new flag of Myanmar Burma isn't awful too though.
[ˈmoːdjeðɑŋk]

vijayjohn
Language Forum Moderator
Posts:27056
Joined:2013-01-10, 8:49
Real Name:Vijay John
Gender:male
Location:Austin, Texas, USA
Country:USUnited States (United States)
Contact:

Re: Favourite Anthems

Postby vijayjohn » 2014-12-24, 4:19

mōdgethanc wrote:
vijayjohn wrote:Eh, pretty much my only beef with Taiwan
...is their beef noodle soup?

Naw, jk.

I've never had it (unless you count my dad's attempts to make it himself :P), but I'm sure beef noodle soup is great haha.
Yeah, but by that same token, why would I go to the PRC just to drink Starbucks and eat KFC? I'm sure there are lots of things in Taiwan and China to do that are part of the "real" traditional culture.

I agree that there are an awful lot of things in the PRC that are really Westernized, too. Especially these days, what with increasing commercialization...But somehow I've always suspected that the PRC is not quite as Westernized as Taiwan. Not that any of this necessarily matters though. :lol:
China has a lot of street food, but it looks dodgy as fuck. I'm not eating grilled anything on a stick unless I know for sure which animal it came from.

Well, from what I've heard about food in China these days, even if you did know which animal it came from, you wouldn't know what additives they put in it, how much of the stuff you're eating is really what you think it is, etc. :P
All 50 of them, most of whom will be dead soon, and their languages extinct.

Lol, more like that multiplied by 10,000. :D But yeah, you're right about an awful lot of their languages being moribund, and they do make up only 2% of the population of the island.
Glad someone agrees these primary-colour kindergartener-designed commie flags are awful. Not like the new flag of Myanmar Burma isn't awful too though.

Yeah, I was thinking actually...if you want "a gaudily-colored eyesore," well, there it is! :lol:

User avatar
mōdgethanc
Posts:10890
Joined:2010-03-20, 5:27
Gender:male
Location:Toronto
Country:CACanada (Canada)

Re: Favourite Anthems

Postby mōdgethanc » 2014-12-24, 5:23

vijayjohn wrote:I've never had it (unless you count my dad's attempts to make it himself :P), but I'm sure beef noodle soup is great haha.
Really? Any cheap/shitty Chinese restaurant should have a version of it. It's good.
I agree that there are an awful lot of things in the PRC that are really Westernized, too. Especially these days, what with increasing commercialization...But somehow I've always suspected that the PRC is not quite as Westernized as Taiwan. Not that any of this necessarily matters though. :lol:
Depends what you mean by "Westernized". China may not be as capitalist (though it's getting there) or as developed, but even the official state ideology is a Western import, so there. I would argue (not being Chinese myself or an expert on it) that China has embraced Westernization for most of recent history, aside from the Cultural Revolution.
Well, from what I've heard about food in China these days, even if you did know which animal it came from, you wouldn't know what additives they put in it, how much of the stuff you're eating is really what you think it is, etc. :P
I hear they put lead in their toys, too.
Yeah, I was thinking actually...if you want "a gaudily-colored eyesore," well, there it is! :lol:
If Rambo IV is any indication, hopefully that shitty government won't last much longer.
[ˈmoːdjeðɑŋk]

vijayjohn
Language Forum Moderator
Posts:27056
Joined:2013-01-10, 8:49
Real Name:Vijay John
Gender:male
Location:Austin, Texas, USA
Country:USUnited States (United States)
Contact:

Re: Favourite Anthems

Postby vijayjohn » 2014-12-24, 5:33

mōdgethanc wrote:Depends what you mean by "Westernized". China may not be as capitalist (though it's getting there) or as developed, but even the official state ideology is a Western import, so there. I would argue (not being Chinese myself or an expert on it) that China has embraced Westernization for most of recent history, aside from the Cultural Revolution.

Let's put it this way: I get the impression that being in Taiwan feels a lot more like being here than being in China does. I dunno, maybe I'm wrong, and even if that's true, that's also probably largely because Taiwan is more developed. I'm not saying something more different from what I can see here is necessarily more appealing, but it does make me more curious.

vijayjohn
Language Forum Moderator
Posts:27056
Joined:2013-01-10, 8:49
Real Name:Vijay John
Gender:male
Location:Austin, Texas, USA
Country:USUnited States (United States)
Contact:

Re: Favourite Anthems

Postby vijayjohn » 2015-01-14, 6:40

This is the post-1977 Tajik-language version of the anthem of the Tajik SSR (from which all mentions of Josef Stalin were removed). The tune is exactly the same as the current one, and having listened to the Soviet version just now, I actually think that the Soviet one has waaaaay too much drumming in it. :? It also sounds more dramatic than the current version, though. The lyrics may be found in both Cyrillic script and Roman script along with a translation into English in the video description:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrbi932RrJE
And this is the current Tajik national anthem:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZ6la64d5ao
Lyrics, transliteration, and translation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_ ... Tajikistan

vijayjohn
Language Forum Moderator
Posts:27056
Joined:2013-01-10, 8:49
Real Name:Vijay John
Gender:male
Location:Austin, Texas, USA
Country:USUnited States (United States)
Contact:

Re: Favourite Anthems

Postby vijayjohn » 2015-02-07, 8:33

OK, just one more SSR anthem, and then I'll finally be done posting Soviet anthems in this thread! I promise! (At least I think I promise). (Make sure to read the fine print before signing this contract!).

Don't get me wrong, the current national anthem of Estonia is fine. It's just that it has the same tune as the Finnish one, which for me instantly makes it boring, no offense. :P :para: Besides, the Estonian SSR one sounded nice. :para: :para: Sorry. :oops: Eh, whatever. Seriously, I just have weird musical preferences. Please don't read too much into them or take them all that seriously.

Anyway, here it is; see the YouTube description for the lyrics with a translation into English. It's actually interesting for me to finally hear this particular anthem being sung, because until now, I've only ever heard the instrumental version! The lyrics don't seem to fit the tune as well as I thought they would have:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vE_W18umcZs
And...well, okay, this is the same song, basically, but an actual video (albeit not that great quality-wise) and only the first and last verses, I think. Also, the lyrics in this version of the anthem were slightly modified to glorify Stalin. This happened with pretty much all the SSR anthems, AFAIK; not only did Stalin change the official anthem of the USSR, but also the lyrics of the anthems of the individual SSRs were modified to glorify Stalin:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_ampNFpc_E

User avatar
voron
Language Forum Moderator
Posts:4945
Joined:2007-07-15, 3:29
Real Name:Igor
Gender:male
Country:TRTurkey (Türkiye)

Re: Favourite Anthems

Postby voron » 2015-02-08, 14:05

vijayjohn wrote:This happened with pretty much all the SSR anthems, AFAIK; not only did Stalin change the official anthem of the USSR, but also the lyrics of the anthems of the individual SSRs were modified to glorify Stalin

For the Belorussian SSR anthem I know for sure; it doesn't glorify Stalin (but does glorify Lenin).

vijayjohn
Language Forum Moderator
Posts:27056
Joined:2013-01-10, 8:49
Real Name:Vijay John
Gender:male
Location:Austin, Texas, USA
Country:USUnited States (United States)
Contact:

Re: Favourite Anthems

Postby vijayjohn » 2015-02-08, 17:58

voron wrote:
vijayjohn wrote:This happened with pretty much all the SSR anthems, AFAIK; not only did Stalin change the official anthem of the USSR, but also the lyrics of the anthems of the individual SSRs were modified to glorify Stalin

For the Belorussian SSR anthem I know for sure; it doesn't glorify Stalin (but does glorify Lenin).

Oh whoops, you're right. There are actually a bunch of other SSR anthems that weren't modified either. :doh: Thanks.

Патрислав Андреевич

Re: Favourite Anthems

Postby Патрислав Андреевич » 2015-03-25, 22:50

Here’s official anthem of Pannonian Rusyns. :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMffW8RhgC0
Btw. It’s my video.


Return to “Culture”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 8 guests