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Have you ever wondered what English sounds like? This short film, Skwerl, shows you exactly that. Take a look!
What English sounds like to foreigners
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Not all people are able to use beautiful words in life, there are some people who are able to put the words of their mind into words, you are the only one of them, you have written this post in a very beautiful way.
Studying English at elementary school has some benefits because the speech muscles of children are more flexible and still easier to get new words.
spoken english dvds
I understood a bit until I did not understand it anymore or maybe its my ears stop listing because they where talking rubbish lmao.
Well firstly, it’s American English, which is very different to British English and the way we speak..I managed to understand a few words…I thought it was the American accent I wasn’t understanding…
How did they figure out how to make this? I am FASCINATED!
Isn’t it funny that even though they the actors are mostly just speaking gibberish they still sound so completely American! There’s no hiding those accents.
As an Australian living in California I quite often wonder what I must sound like to other people. My accent is hardly ever recognised as Australian as I don’t sound like the Crocodile Hunter – note to Hollywood: hardly any Australians actually sound like that so please, please stop with the over the top accents Australian characters are given!
I have always wondered if non-English speakers can hear the difference in our accents and work out where we’re from. Even though I get asked where I’m from almost on a daily basis, it’s very rarely people who speak English as their second language asking me. Maybe they don’t pick up the tiny nuances that make our accents sound so different to other English speakers. A Spanish friend here has told me that she can’t tell the difference between the way her Australian husband and I pronounce certain words and how our American friends pronounce the same words. Of course to us there is a huge difference but apparently she just can’t hear it.
Another POV: I asked a British friend (w a straight-up posh accent) what Americans sound like to him, since he sounds completely fabulous to us. He said we all sound like movie stars!
My brain was trying so hard to understand the gibberish. They did throw in a few words though that were intelligible, which made it even worse, haha. When I hear non-English languages, though, I don’t feel like my brain processes their languages like this.
I immediately thought, “Not Americans!” because they are holding their silverware upside down. We don’t eat like that! :)
As a Brit, this sounds Scandinavian to me as they’re pronouncing their ‘R’s in a hard way!
what a great video, It always seems like other languages are spoken really fast, but this make English sound like that too.
I have always wondered this. Might have to post this on my blog too, enlighten a few other English speakers!
Thanks for posting, very funny and interesting too!
Amelia @ UGLY DUCKLING
http://iwasanuglyduckling.blogspot.com
This video made me so happy! AND it does sound sort of German/Dutch. It surprised me. I feel special, English does sound foreign after all.
I had to pause this a couple of times because I was laughing so hard! I like how you can still kind of figure out what they are talking about because they are acting it out so well. I think she wants to have a baby and he thinks it will ruin their lives.
LOL omg I’m sharing this!
ahhhh. this is a little too close to home. I’m living in Japan, but I don’t really speak japanese, I can pick up a word or two while straining to find understanding throughout the whole conversation. strange to feel that way listening to english tho.
It’s so hard to stop trying to figure out what they’re saying! This is terrific.
it sounds terrible! haha i wish i spoke french
On a related note, have you seen Kathering Tate’s language translator video? She’s hilarious.
this was throwing me off so bad.
my brain felt like I was supposed to understand.
Fascinating. I have ALWAYs wondered this…
I too kept turning up the volume and straining to understand! This is often how I feel (as an American living in Germany) when someone talks too fast and doesn’t enunciate their words – the German just sounds like gibberish and I’m left staring at them like an idiot!
Well, American. The different English, Welch, Irish, Scottish, South African, Australian, Kiwi, and other english language accents would make many other interesting movies. But yeah, this is pretty much how American sounds.
we sound so scandanavian! I thought it was norweigen or something with american accents. They kind of sing their words and that’s what it reminded me of. Also, do we really use the “sh” sound so much? Crazy.
When he was a toddler my son spoke fake English all the time. None of the words made any sense, but the cadence, rhythm, and sound was like English. It was his own little private language. He was clearly carrying on a conversation. It sounded like this.
Everyone probably posted this already, but just in case..http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wz04IBZqfFE
whatever they were saying, it totally sounded english to me :D
Greetings from Austria,
Stefanie ;)
This is really weird. And also clever, but I will never know how realistic it is being a native English speaker…
That’s really cool! I have always wondered what English sounds like, too. Foreign languages always sound really fast when you don’t understand them, but English sounds just the same! Great post!
Hilarious!!! :)
I teach English in Japan, so I’m always wondering what I must sound like to my kids. It’s kinda funny to think that English sounds just like Japanese does to me right now, a bunch of sounds blurred together. I am curious if English sounds different to speakers of different languages…
This is awesome, it sounds exactly like my meetings with foreign colleagues – which are held in English.
Blandine in Paris
OMG… I did not understand a word they said!
Hilarious!! I’m laughing so hard. xoxo
ahhh, i LOVE stuff like this! it’s so strange. and kind of makes me feel like a small confused child. it’s like that made up italian music video! freaky.
Have you seen this video? It’s an old song using Italian gibberish to sound like American English.
huh i never thought about this. interestinggg. i like seeing what i actually understand. ha
Hehe I am having dinner at this house on Friday night it’s so exciting to now know a you tube celeb :)
My aunt always teases me when she hears me speak English (I’m Japanese) by trying to mimic my speech in fake English. This cracked me up!
This hurts my brain.
That is so fascinating! We sound weird.
I read somewhere that Kate Winslet (I think) described doing the American accent as speaking words like you were “chewing them.” I had to think about it a bit, but she’s totally right! Brits let words trail off but we Americans have lots more hard stops. To say the word “car” in a British accents is to let it linger, and keep driving through the air. To say it like an American is to put on the brakes and “bite” down on that ‘r.’ Ha, am I making any sense?
I’m American and half the time I can’t understand them when they speak so fast…
I speak English but since I’m very hearing impaired, this is what people always sound like to me–especially in movies/tv shows. It’s almost impossible to figure out what’s being said without captions. So this would probably be a good way to show people what it’s like to be hearing impaired, as well.
Wow! This really does sound like Enlgish! Becuase they kep throwing words in there like “sure” and “way” I kept straining to understand what they were saying. Lol!
This is so strange and interesting at the same time.
Ha! And she’s Australian not American. She studied at the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts. I know this because I was studying there at the same time…small world
Awesome! When this video first started, I thought somehow you had accidentally linked to a version of the video that had been re-dubbed in actual English…until I kept listening, of course :)
When I went to Paris a couple of years ago, we had a waiter at an outdoor cafe who didn’t speak much English (and we spoke almost no French) and when he realized we were American he said, “McDonald’s! Obama! Yes we can!” And I thought it was so interesting that those were the first American words/phrases that he could think of.
PS Valerie’s link is hysterical, and really does sound like English :)
Thanks so much for posting this!! i’ve always wondered what english sounded like to foreigners. English is my mother’s 4th language after french, turkish and spanish and she said that english sounded like a lot of W’s and “sh” sounds lol. For this video I kept making the sound louder b/c although it sounded like english words I couldn’t make out what they were saying. Surprisingly, it kinda sounds a little german.
This was especially interesting to watch as an American living in Madrid and teaching English. And yes, German and English are often comparable. I’ve also noticed just seeing German tourists here that it seems as though their tone and expressiveness also seems similar to Americans.
you should check this out joanna
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZXcRqFmFa8&feature=related
I didn’t get this at all in the beginning, just thought they were speaking English! Then I started listening, and it did’nt make sense. This is exactly what English sounds like to me.
I’m Norwegian, wonder what Norwegian sounds like for foreigners..
And I love French, Spanish and Italian which I do somewhat speak. Also love the sound of Chinese which doesn’t make any sense at all!!
gosh, not impressed. having watched the entire video, trying to give it a chance, i actually feel like i just lost a few precious minutes of my life that i’ll never get back.
(men on film voice) “hated it!”
hahaha my mom has trouble following english conversations in movies– she always says they speak to fast! I always wondered what she was hearing; I’m pretty sure this is it!
I LOVE that you shared this as I was JUST talking about this very idea with a friend recently whose first language isn’t English. Thanks!
This is so true! I’m brazilian and that’s exactly how English sounds like when people speak too fast.
Hahah, that’s hilarious!
this is too funny. thanks for sharing. i have wondered what us English speakers sound like to non english speakers.
Lindsay
haha, Lindsay, that is so cute:)
“When I was in Italy I had an Italian friend who said his favorite languages to hear were German and American english, because they were cute/made him laugh. His least favorite was the UK English.”
So weird! I have always wondered what we sound like to non-english speakers!
That’s so great! I was definitely fluent in fake French when I was little, it never occurred to me that others would pretend to speak English the same way. Duh!
I have been obsessed with the video Valerie posted for a few years, I wish I could get a good mp4 copy of Prisencolinensinainciusol. I think I might also have to learn that dance…
HAHAHA I feel like I’m on drugs now. I could pretty much make out the bad words and a few others here and there… So funny!
That is WEIRD for a native American speaker. It’s like being in Bizarro World. It sounds right but it makes no sense at all. I had to turn it off.
This video reminds me of when I sing along to Sigur Ros songs!
i think i had that exact conversation with my 1.5 year old today! x
Yep, even after 3 years in the US, sometimes English still sounds like that to me! ;D
After a long day at work, I felt I was on drugs listening to this! Very trippy indeed! ~Siobhan
we love making our foreign friends play this game! so funny.
I always wondered about this! So funny haha :)
I was *just* about to comment on how germanic the intonation sounded – but I see you already got there! That is definitely what struck me first. Thanks Jo, I found this video really really interesting.
I am an American and I totally thought I just couldn’t hear the video, I just kept turning up the volume! I wonder if non-English speakers think American English is pretty like i think other languages are? I have this feeling no.
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