Hi, I'm kinda new to TeamLiquid, but I thought this would be a perfect place to ask this question:
I always wondered - what does English sound like to someone who has little to no knowledge of English? English-speakers generally have stereotypes for other languages (eg: German sounding angry, the whole 'l' vs. 'r' thing of Asian languages, etc.)
TeamLiquid has a very nice multinational userbase, so I thought it might be appropriate to ask it here.
since there are so many different dialects and accents of english, i would assume that there is no one single way the language would sound, instead it would sound vastly different depending on where you heard it.
It depends on whether you dominate or not the language. Also, dominate is kind of a miss placed word there, since you don't have to "dominate it" just get a grasp of it, and understand.
A lot of my friends understand when I talk to them in English, but they have hard time speaking/writing it. And well..at the beginning it sounded like a lot of wishy washy and stuff for me. :p
The problem is that almost everyone here speaks english at least decently :/ I don't really remember what I thought before I could speak it, seeing as how I was like 5 at the time..
On January 01 2009 05:44 CaucasianAsian wrote: since there are so many different dialects and accents of english, i would assume that there is no one single way the language would sound, instead it would sound vastly different depending on where you heard it.
+1, i hear chinese (mand? cant?) can be like this to with 3412341341 dialects, I myself am irish so i speak very rapidly, this is best juxtaposed with an american or a canadian from central or west as they speak soooooo slow you often wanna just go ahead and finish their sentence for them (eg. "How... boot... those... maple... leaf's... eh")
This works both ways, people from those places have great difficulty understanding the tones and nuances and of a Newfoundland dialect.
This is such a fucking cool question . To me english always looks and sounds really neutral when I compare it to other languages, but of course that's just my language orientation ^^.
always wondered what british and australians thought about the various american accents, if they're as funny to them as their respective accents are to us
On January 01 2009 05:44 CaucasianAsian wrote: since there are so many different dialects and accents of english, i would assume that there is no one single way the language would sound, instead it would sound vastly different depending on where you heard it.
+1, i hear chinese (mand? cant?) can be like this to with 3412341341 dialects, I myself am irish so i speak very rapidly, this is best juxtaposed with an american or a canadian from central or west as they speak soooooo slow you often wanna just go ahead and finish their sentence for them (eg. "How... boot... those... maple... leaf's... eh")
This works both ways, people from those places have great difficulty understanding the tones and nuances and of a Newfoundland dialect.
Chinese dialects are so different from one another, it would be impossible for two Chinese to speak to each other if they do not know a common dialect. You'd be able to pick out a couple words that sound similar, but not enough to understand. Good thing most Chinese know Mandarin in addition to whatever their local dialect is, if any. It's not difficult to understand someone who speaks English with a different accent than you do.
On January 01 2009 06:24 PanoRaMa wrote: always wondered what british and australians thought about the various american accents, if they're as funny to them as their respective accents are to us
I have always wondered this too, because sometimes I just start laughing when I hear them talk.
According to the 1st video this is what the guys are trying to say in spanish:
"Los jungames pala muenos. Copa del jumos pi zampistas: pi querames, pi pleyames, pey gustarañes. !Pi taballyama, pi codo¡"
I speak spanish and I have absolutely no idea what that even is. Maybe it's one of spains older nations dialects or something like from Catalonia but that is definitely not spanish.
Chinese dialects are so different from one another, it would be impossible for two Chinese to speak to each other if they do not know a common dialect. You'd be able to pick out a couple words that sound similar, but not enough to understand. Good thing most Chinese know Mandarin in addition to whatever their local dialect is, if any. It's not difficult to understand someone who speaks English with a different accent than you do.
On January 01 2009 06:36 Mascherano wrote: According to the 1st video this is what the guys are trying to say in spanish:
"Los jungames pala muenos. Copa del jumos pi zampistas: pi querames, pi pleyames, pey gustarañes. !Pi taballyama, pi codo¡"
I speak spanish and I have absolutely no idea what that even is. Maybe it's one of spains older nations dialects or something like from Catalonia but that is definitely not spanish.
eh? If you're talking about Pisan's video, that guy isn't trying to speak spanish at all. He's merely trying to imitate what spanish sounds like to someone who doesn't understand the language.
Chinese dialects are so different from one another, it would be impossible for two Chinese to speak to each other if they do not know a common dialect. You'd be able to pick out a couple words that sound similar, but not enough to understand. Good thing most Chinese know Mandarin in addition to whatever their local dialect is, if any. It's not difficult to understand someone who speaks English with a different accent than you do.