How English sounds to non-English speakers

[Daedalus]

Ever wanted to know what English sounds like if you didn't speak it yourself?

I found this video today that may give an answer to that question:

http://www.trueactivist.com/gab_gallery/how-english-sounds-to-non-english-speakers/

[Evelyne]

That was a pretty interesting video! Thank you for sharing. I found myself trying to understand what they were saying and caught the gist if some of it, I think. I always thought that we'd sound a bit more German, not with the German accent of course, but the words themselves.

[LauraM]

Daedalus, thanks so much for sharing this with us!

I have always been curious about what English sounds like to someone who doesn't understand it.  I think this gives us a good sense of that.  I listened very carefully and, yes, it sounds like English, but most of it is incomprehensible.  The cadence of speech, the vowel sounds, the consonants; it's all familiar, but yet, what they say is largely a mystery to me. 

It was a great experience just to sit and watch it.  It gave me even more appreciation that I already know the language and that it is my native language. 

Thanks again.  

[mareebaybay]

That is a quite intriguing video. I have always wondered how English sounded to non-English speakers. I kind of underestimated English's learning difficulty. In my opinion I think English is the easiest language you could ever learn. Although for some English would be difficult to learn.

[pcgamer]

English is certainly the easiest language you can learn, but then again, I have not learned any other language besides some French.

English used to sound strange in the outset, but as I started getting the hang off it, it started sounding more familiar ad today it's like my own native language.

[lizbeth19hph]

English would really sound strange to non-native speakers especially the accent and way of pronunciation. The language would sound "alien" to them if they have not learned about it properly and not used to it yet.Once we begin learning and improving our language skills, we quite "acquire" the accent and will know the correct pronunciation as well as the correct grammar.

[Bonyi]

I believe it will be the same as when you hear a language you don't understand.

[SarahRTW]

I agree with the others.  That was quite interesting; more so than I expected. There were real words mixed in with the fake-but-real-sounding English.  The main difference is when you don't understand a language, you don't hear the pauses between words. That's why they always sound like they speak so fast.  In this "fakelish" because it's familiar-sounding, we can differentiate between words. 

It also reminded me of when I was in Spain for 4 months.  After a while, I kept swearing I was catching words in English indistinct but actual words.  They sounded like this fake English.  Really, there was no English...just Spanish It was an interesting auditory hallucination

[Rosa]

It is interesting to know that English actually sounds the same to non-English speakers as strange languages would sound to an English speaker. I however, believe that the accent in which the English is spoken has a lot to do with the indistinctiveness. There are countries that speak the English language with much less accent and it is much more clearer. You are able to hear the correct sound of each letter perfectly. Unlike hearing letter "T" sounding like "D" and letter "A" sounding like letter "O".

[calvindwt]

Thanks a lot. It really is how it sounded before I spoke English.

[thekernel]

As a native English speaker, it was interesting hearing all these sounds and pronunciations emulate real words. My mind kept trying to make sense of it! Very peculiar. I wonder, do videos like this exist for other languages?

[Denis Hard]

How English sounds to someone who doesn't speak is how the language that person speaks will be sound to you. Strange.

p.s That fake English sounded so freaking real!

[Litnax]

Wow thanks for sharing.

Used to be a non-speaker and that was how English sounded to me  This brings back some funny memories  :grin:

[Gelsemium]

Indeed, it took me a while to understand what's going on in that video! I think that English, German, French or other language sounds pretty much the same to a person that doesn't speak that particular language, a little like a song on the radio or our voice to a dog, we just make an interpretation of the tone of voice and that's pretty much it.

[Lithium]

This is quite interesting. This is how I've also used to see the English language and it seemed very odd to me. However, now I see what other people feel too.

[Daimashin]

Other than what is depicted in the video, I think English would sound like every other language we don't understand. It'll definitely sound like a language but I'll not know what they mean other than sounds coming out from people's mouth.