Language Log has created a map of what languages are considered by other languages to represent “incomprehensibility”, as in “it’s Greek to me.” Predominantly referring to European languages, Chinese is hands down the big winner. I’d point out, though, that Chinese not only refers to it as “Heavenly Script” for the written word, but as “bird speak” for the spoken word.
This is great. Makes me feel a little better about the recent deterioration of my already shoddy spoken Chinese to know that the rest of the world – on a semantic level – feels my pain. I think this is the kind of thing the Dalai Lama would Twitter about if indeed he were twittering.