What does English sound like?

International Students
1

<p>Hi International people! I'm curious. What does English sound like to nonnative speakers?</p>

<p>For example: German sounds sort of angry to English speakers, and French sounds like you are slurring your words.</p>

2

<p>English!!! Of course.</p>

3

<p>English sounds like hmmmmmmm.. hmmmmmm.. english yeah
well depends actually on what native land you come from and what language so u speak at home...</p>

<p>SM</p>

4

<p>English sounds very professional and dignified to me.</p>

5

<p>haha i have wonderd about this also!</p>

<p>I think french sounds pretty, dutch/german kind of angry (as does chinese sometimes), and i cant even start to make sense of arabic. </p>

<p>I suppose thats just because when i was younger i learnt french, indoneisan, german and dutch, even though i was terrible at them i can understand a very little bit... however arabic is completely from left field. It sounds kind of like a song to me. </p>

<p>I think english must sound really really dull.</p>

6

<p>it depends, really, on the english accent. like most americans, especially new yorkers, who tend to speak the language faster than than the british do, sound like they use their tongue a lot. british english, on the other hand, sounds very dignified and elegant. i don't know, maybe that's just me.</p>

7

<p>lol...Im actually in chile on foreign exchange right now (Im from the US)...I had one of my friends speak his impression of english. It was absolutely hilarious. Had a lot of short percussive words with a lot of T's</p>

8

<p>english sounds really complicated, words are really seperated, it has too much consonant sounds</p>

9

<p>Well i am Australian, i am guessing we sound like south africans and kiwi's.. kind of drunk hehe :)</p>

<p>Its funny as i think the english accent sounsd really pompous. (depending on where they are from in the Uk of course)</p>

10

<p>lol but the "english accent" that most people think of is RP...there are hundred of different regional accents as well though, most of which sound nothing like RP. I speak RP, verging on being a bit rah, you know like "Oh hellllooo how aarrrrre you? Yaaar thanks, I'm just faaabulous" lol, you just can't escape it here in Oxford!!</p>

11

<p>lol. I use to live in manchester for a short period when i was 5... i had the manchester accent and since my familiy use to send tapes to my grandparents i have hard evidence of my accent. When i listen to them now i cant stop laughing, very different to the rah rah version of the english accent :) </p>

<p>Then i lived in holland and got a english cross american accent that stuck till i was about 17 when i lost it completely to the aussie drawl (yuck). I will have to work on getting that accent back haha.</p>

12

<p>I am quite RP but I have a Westcountry 'twang.' Not much but people can tell I'm from Devon. Thing is, people from the Westcountry are disadvantaged as employers dislike the accent as they think we sound stupid.</p>

13

<p>Hmmm, well I'm from Australia, but I'm currently living in the USA, and people don't think my Australian accent sounds drunk (haha!) Maybe that's because I lived in Sydney where everything is strictly city-like, and not so much the "Gday mates, today's a scorcher, ain't it?"</p>

<p>I think the British accent is very brief and like staccatos. Kind of posh too, but in a cool interesting sounding way.</p>

<p>The American accent differs according to which state you're in and whether you're white or African American. E.g. George Bush's texas accent is totally different to Eddie Murphy's.</p>

14

<p>P.S. I'm told that Americans say AUSSIE like posse. They put a lot of emphasis on the 'ss', instead of pronouncing it like auzzie. Is that true??</p>

15

<p>haha, im from sydney too!</p>

<p>I still think we sound kind of funny ...even if less funny than those from darwin etc :)</p>

16

<p>Yes, lots of 'ss' in the Aussie language! Makes me laugh :D Love it!</p>

17

<p>The sound of English differs a lot from country to country; for instance, Americans spreak very fast and not as "clean" as people from England, whose English sounds a bit "arrogant" (since their talking depends more on articulation and less on speed, I suppose :)
I am from Germany and since MTV has conquered our country:), we are in contact with American-English all day... interesting for a German to compare MTV- with CNN-English, by the way...:)
Oh, another interesting fact: In Germany, we almost only listen to English music and our charts are entirely consisting of English artists and their songs.... Globalization, I suppose....</p>