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ExaltedElegance
United States81 Posts
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. | ||
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Physician
United States4146 Posts
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CaucasianAsian
Korea (South)11575 Posts
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hiroxx
Ireland115 Posts
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funkie
Venezuela9374 Posts
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 | ||
Liquid`Jinro
Sweden33719 Posts
I agree that it's quite an interesting topic tho  | ||
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AdamBanks
Canada996 Posts
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. | ||
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PiSan
United States160 Posts
This is a guy who had a similar question. The video responses have fake english of varying quality. | ||
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Falcynn
United States3597 Posts
On January 01 2009 05:54 PiSan wrote: heh, this one was pretty good (skip to 1:02)*snip* This is a guy who had a similar question. The video responses have fake english of varying quality. edit: put wrong video on accident. | ||
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Nitrogen
United States5345 Posts
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HamerD
United Kingdom1922 Posts
. 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 ^^. | ||
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Dead9
United States4725 Posts
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PanoRaMa
United States5069 Posts
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ieatkids5
United States4628 Posts
On January 01 2009 05:51 AdamBanks wrote: +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. | ||
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Mastermind
Canada7096 Posts
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. | ||
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Mascherano
Argentina1726 Posts
"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. | ||
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AdamBanks
Canada996 Posts
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. who would understand that without subtitles? | ||
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Falcynn
United States3597 Posts
On January 01 2009 06:36 Mascherano wrote: 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.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. | ||
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DragoonPK
3259 Posts
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fusionsdf
Canada15390 Posts
On January 01 2009 06:39 AdamBanks wrote: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m-y-qAbpL0 who would understand that without subtitles? wow I understood that PERFECTLY  | ||
Arrian
United States889 Posts
When you're talking about how a language sounds, it's almost exclusively in the phonetic inventory of that language because such a question is somewhat superficial and exclusive of syntactic analysis. So, for how it sounds, considerations for, say, how quickly it is spoken (which is, in many varieties of English, rather slowly) must also be taken into account. But the inventory of sounds in generalized 'English' are not that unusual, excepting those mentioned above. Some dialects of (particularly Scottish) English have some sounds that are rather unique among English dialects, but very native sounding to speakers of Slavic tongues. English consonants are fairly straightforward and somewhat impoverished in comparison to other languages, so there's a lot shared in that respect. What is remarkable about English phonology is the relatively large amount of consonant fricatives, or sounds that nearly constrict the vocal tract. Of vowels, English is somewhat undistinguished. That's a pretty dry way of looking at it, and from only the perspective of phonetics, but it's something. | ||
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InfeSteD
United States4658 Posts
"washu, washy, wanna wosh fuckin' foshy" I think its the "sh" sound I dunno Chineesse(spanish(hispanics) are very ignorant towards asians, they think everybody is from china, etc..) for us sounds like, wantong tong tong ting tung etc~ | ||
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oneofthem
Cayman Islands24199 Posts
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IzzyCraft
United States4487 Posts
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jello_biafra
United Kingdom6635 Posts
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 Southern accents can be pretty weird sounding but on the whole I find most American accents to be very similar and not that funny because I've heard them so much I guess. In the UK there's a huge variety of accents and I personally find Welsh and Yorkshire accents to be the funniest. As for me I don't know wtf accent I have, I live in scotland but people often think I'm english but I've also been asked if I'm from Australia, Canada or the US so I don't know what the fuck is going on :o | ||
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NuB.xE
United States131 Posts
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AdamBanks
Canada996 Posts
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Hot_Bid
Braavos36374 Posts
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ieatkids5
United States4628 Posts
On January 01 2009 06:39 AdamBanks wrote: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m-y-qAbpL0 who would understand that without subtitles? hahaha nice but, what they were saying were different from the subtitles; the subs translated meaning, rather than their exact words | ||
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hiroxx
Ireland115 Posts
On January 01 2009 07:03 Hot_Bid wrote: i think "American" english doesn't sound weird because hollywood movies are global, and just about everyone with access to a TV has become accustomed to the American accent through movies etc. Yeah this sums it up. Generally though in the UK people sometimes make fun of the American accent because at times it seems so enthusiastic I guess, but I suppose thats because in the UK people are more reserved | ||
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lololol
5198 Posts
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XenOsky
Chile2257 Posts
On January 01 2009 06:50 InfeSteD wrote: I think for us spanish folks, it sounds like "washu, washy, wanna wosh fuckin' foshy" I think its the "sh" sound I dunno etc~ oimg dude you're 100% right | ||
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AdamBanks
Canada996 Posts
On January 01 2009 07:06 ieatkids5 wrote: hahaha nice but, what they were saying were different from the subtitles; the subs translated meaning, rather than their exact words Yea to understand the exact meaning you would have to explain all the metaphors, meme's and even specific grammerical rules that have been assimilated from french, english, Norse, Basque, Spanish, Portuguese, German, French, Irish Gaelic, and Scots Gaelic, and whoever else could build a big enough ship to sail the across the Alantic. | ||
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XenOsky
Chile2257 Posts
On January 01 2009 07:03 Hot_Bid wrote: i think "American" english doesn't sound weird because hollywood movies are global, and just about everyone with access to a TV has become accustomed to the American accent through movies etc. actually it does sound weird to me. i like the way they speak english in england, maybe the beatles did affect me in this way when i was really little | ||
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Tadzio
3340 Posts
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InfeSteD
United States4658 Posts
On January 01 2009 07:03 Hot_Bid wrote: i think "American" english doesn't sound weird because hollywood movies are global, and just about everyone with access to a TV has become accustomed to the American accent through movies etc. Your too smart~ | ||
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freelander
Hungary4707 Posts
I don't have any problem though with people whose English is 2nd language. | ||
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0xDEADBEEF
Germany1235 Posts
British English speakers sound a bit funny but "classy" American English speakers sound very colloquial, "chewing gum English". I never liked that Americans pronounce "can't" like they pronounce "can"... this is confusing sometimes. British speakers pronounce "can't" with a long aaa sound, it's more clear but doesn't sound so badass. Still, I prefer AE over BE in every other case. I absolutely hate German accent when speaking English... for example if you watch a Mondragon interview you'll immediately know what I mean. It's ugly. I always take care not to sound like that when speaking English. In general I like English very much... always did. So it doesn't really sound strange to me... it has almost become as familiar as German since I read and write so much English, and also watch a lot of English movies, and play English games all the time. Oh, and my operating system and programs, even my keyboard layout, is all US English. | ||
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MeriaDoKk
Chile1726 Posts
On January 01 2009 06:50 InfeSteD wrote: I think for us spanish folks, it sounds like "washu, washy, wanna wosh fuckin' foshy" I think its the "sh" sound I dunno etc~ hahaha that is so true. you always hear drunk people trying to speak english that way xd | ||
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LordWeird
United States3411 Posts
On January 01 2009 06:39 AdamBanks wrote: + Show Spoiler + http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m-y-qAbpL0 who would understand that without subtitles? Haha, well, where I live there's a place called Guinea (it's like 30 minutes from where I live) which is a totally different place than my area. The mosquitoes there are rumored to be as large as small birds. EVERYONE who lives there, or has been raised there, talks almost completely like that. Sometimes the Guinea Bubbas (this is what we call them) venture out into our land and that's how I learned to understand it BTW, Hugh Laurie NAILED the American accent, kudos to him. As far as that first video goes, that guy does a really good job sounding those languages, especially if you don't speak them :D | ||
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skyglow1
New Zealand3962 Posts
On January 01 2009 06:28 Mastermind wrote: I have always wondered this too, because sometimes I just start laughing when I hear them talk. We always make fun of strong british accents and strong southern USA accents, but when I listen to the USA guys casting VODs and stuff, nothing really stands out. Strong British accents make the person sound incredibly stuck up and pansy, while strong american accents just sound plain retarded lol. A strong australian accent is also pretty funny to us. Everyone says they love plexa's accent but I don't see what's so distinctive about it haha. The New Zealand accent was developed way back when ppl from britain and stuff started colonising the country, and apparently the mix of Irish + British + French + native Maori children at schools was where the accent came out from, so it's kinda mix of everything and doesn't have anything too distinctive. Interestingly South Island has a much more Irish accent because of the history of gold mines and stuff. It's also a tad "backwards" like southern USA | ||
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Lemonwalrus
United States5465 Posts
I agree about Hugh Laurie, it always shocks me when I remember what his real voice sounds like when I am watching house. Anyways, about speed, a lot of people have mentioned that english is slower than most languages, and that brings up an interesting question to me. Most native english speakers that I know that have learned another language, even when they have been learning the language already for several years and have become proficient at it, still would be incapable of translating at a conversational speed. Infact, my mother, who speaks five languages, and has taught Russian, German, and Spanish for the last 35 or so years of her life, admits that in at least Russian and Spanish, she would need a native speaker to slow down for her to understand completely. My question is this: Is this a side effect of the fact that english is so slow, or do people of all languages have trouble picking up speed with their new languages? I imagine that a bunch of you are english as a second language students, so how long did it take you to gain enough speed in english to follow a conversation with a native speaker? Aside: I work on the south side of chicago, and a side effect of our diversity is that there are a lot of people that don't speak english. The largest group of which (at least in my area) are mexican immigrants that have yet to master english. So I have often found myself (With 3 years of spanish under my belt) trying to hold a conversation with people that know less english than I know spanish, and still it is almost always them attempting english and me just speaking english instead of me attempting spanish (I try, but we usually return to english as they are able to speak it faster to me than I can speak their language to them), so I am curious if this is based on the speed of the languages. Edit: A lot of that might not have made sense, I was in a hurry, sorry. | ||
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HeavenS
Colombia2259 Posts
On January 01 2009 08:19 0xDEADBEEF wrote: Hmm... British English speakers sound a bit funny but "classy" American English speakers sound very colloquial, "chewing gum English". I never liked that Americans pronounce "can't" like they pronounce "can"... this is confusing sometimes. British speakers pronounce "can't" with a long aaa sound, it's more clear but doesn't sound so badass. Still, I prefer AE over BE in every other case. I absolutely hate German accent when speaking English... for example if you watch a Mondragon interview you'll immediately know what I mean. It's ugly. I always take care not to sound like that when speaking English. In general I like English very much... always did. So it doesn't really sound strange to me... it has almost become as familiar as German since I read and write so much English, and also watch a lot of English movies, and play English games all the time. Oh, and my operating system and programs, even my keyboard layout, is all US English. Ahh nice post! this is the type of description i wanted to hear! I too was curious about how others perceived our accent! Also, this is a question to english speakers. Are you guys able to recognize the difference in spanish accents? For example, can you tell the difference between someone from Mexico speaking spanish or someone from colombia or cuba? The reason i ask is because to us spanish speakers the difference is extremely obvious and we're usually really good at telling where someones from by their accent. Can english speakers distinguish it as well? | ||
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SmoKing2012
United States385 Posts
On January 01 2009 09:16 HeavenS wrote: Also, this is a question to english speakers. Are you guys able to recognize the difference in spanish accents? For example, can you tell the difference between someone from Mexico speaking spanish or someone from colombia or cuba? The reason i ask is because to us spanish speakers the difference is extremely obvious and we're usually really good at telling where someones from by their accent. Can english speakers distinguish it as well? Personally, no. Unless they have a really thick, cartoon-like accent.. Can sometimes tell mexican spanish that way, but generally spanish just sounds like spanish. | ||
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sith
United States2474 Posts
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CharlieMurphy
United States22895 Posts
PS- This thread reminds me of the UCB show with the skit invloving the GrandMaster Dialectition. Hilarious. Thread needs more non english people doing other foriegn langauges. I know there are lots of people on here who do not have english as a spoken language (or first language) and should do the best they can do in that as well as other languages. For example, I would be neat to see how chinese speak german and french. | ||
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MuR)Ernu
Finland768 Posts
To me it seemed stupid how you have to pronounce stuff in english. In finnish (and most asian languages too i think) pronounce vowels the same every time, not like , for example the E letter(when, we). In finnish its always the same. When we say A alone, its like "aah" and when it is in a word, its always just "aah". In english its like "hey" alone, and "ah" or even "ooh" in some cases. It was kinda disturbing first. I dont know how it sounded when i didn't know it though. Also at first, i could understand some of the swedish they talk in finland (i used to live in a town with like 60% swedish talking people), but the swedish they talk in sweden sounded just like so different, i couldn't understand it. | ||
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CharlieMurphy
United States22895 Posts
http://www.youtube.com/user/LisL0ve | ||
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HamerD
United Kingdom1922 Posts
Though I doubt it because most foreigners who come here find scottish and northern (mancunian, yorkshire, newcastle, liverpudlian) completely unintelligble lol. | ||
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CharlieMurphy
United States22895 Posts
On January 01 2009 10:17 HamerD wrote: I've yet to find a country with as varied accents as my home country it's ridiculous. Though makes for a really broad spread of voices. But maybe that's just my head playing tricks with me?! I understand for example the difference in northern spanish to southern, but it doesn't seem that much. Maybe if I were spanish it would be absolutely huge and the english different accents not. Though I doubt it because most foreigners who come here find scottish and northern (mancunian, yorkshire, newcastle, liverpudlian) completely unintelligble lol. You Mexico vs Spain ? | ||
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EtherealDeath
United States8366 Posts
On January 01 2009 06:39 AdamBanks wrote: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m-y-qAbpL0 who would understand that without subtitles? The meaning was just impossible for me without subs lols. | ||
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Energies
Australia3225 Posts
It is also amazing how quickly your ears tune themselves to an accent and you start to imitate it, I start talking with an English/Irish/American/Euro-English/Asia-English accent depending on where in the world I am. I was speaking like a fucking retard when I got back from Europe last year since I was talking a lot slower and using smaller worlds. In regards to what I think of the different accents, I love the Irish and English accents, specially if I hear a girl talking with those accents, I fall immediately in love. We use a lot of similar words so I never have any problem understanding them, the American accent I am extremely use to, so its nothing out of the blue, although I also find the souther accent adorable, again with the girls as well. Scottish and Welsh I still struggle with and are two that are not as pleasant on the ears. To be honest the only one I find funny and it really has nothing to do with them being our inferior neighbours, is the New Zealand accent, I just can't take it serious for some reason, although I might not be one to talk. But that is one accent you could never use in a serious situation, like the Indian-English accent. Can you imagine the president walking out in front of press after a tragic event with an Indian accent or a Kiwi one? Albeit if you have ever seen our Prime Minister do a speech he just pronounces words correctly so the accent is heavily diminished. | ||
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Energies
Australia3225 Posts
On January 01 2009 11:05 EtherealDeath wrote: The meaning was just impossible for me without subs lols. There was no problem understanding what he was saying, but a lot of the words were colloquial, so it had a lot to do with knowing what the words mean. | ||
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enthusiast
United States90 Posts
Potentially a stupid question but I'm curious: in other English-speaking countries do accents have the same chick-magnet reputation that they do in the US? I guess I see it most with English, French, and Italian accents here (although the last 2 are cheating). And if so, does it apply to American accents? I want to know for -- uhh, no reason. While I was reading this thread, it occurred to me that it would be pretty funny to try to imitate an accent while visiting a foreign country. I guess it would be pretty awkward to explain when someone asked about it, and it might offend some people. I don't know -- I think for some people learning different accents could be a pretty cool hobby, and it would be interesting to see if you could get away with it. I was going to say I was surprised no one had mentioned the South African accent, but then it occurred to me that South Africa is too diverse to have a single accent. I'm also not sure if it's fair to qualify those who speak the accent to which I'm referring as native English speakers. But I'm going to include it anyways. The accent to which I'm referring is one that I've only ever heard spoken by white South Africans. If anyone knows where it comes from (meaning, are these people with Afrikaans as their first language or English or do they grow up fluent in both?), I would be interested to hear about it. Anyways it's probably tied with Scottish for my favorite. For me, any girl speaking with a Scottish or South African accent instantly becomes 5x more attractive. Australian/Kiwi is 3x(I think I'd have to hear them side by side to tell the difference though, to be honest). English/Irish is 2x(I think I'm referring to an "average" accent because a "proper" or a "ghetto" English accent can sound very ugly). American/Canadian 1x. Most American South accents are like x.7, although that probably has to do with culture and with the fact that a lot of actors fail at imitating it. | ||
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Energies
Australia3225 Posts
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snowbird
Germany2044 Posts
but to answer the OP it's difficult to answer this question because everyone is so used to (american) english nowadays because of music/movies/pop culture, but in my personal subjective opinion it sounds arrogant, loud, shallow, stupid, ignorant (add all negative adjectives you know). | ||
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snowbird
Germany2044 Posts
!!! | ||
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enthusiast
United States90 Posts
On January 01 2009 11:33 Energies wrote: For me, it is the same as the kiwi accent, hard accent to use in a serious situation. You have a good ear: "The New Zealand accent is distinguished from the Australian one by the presence of "clipped" vowels, slightly resembling South African English." "The trilled 'r' is also used by some Māori, who may also pronounce 't' and 'k' sounds without aspiration, striking other English speakers as similar to 'd' and 'g'. This is also encountered in South African English, especially among Afrikaans speakers." I never thought of them as similar, but I can definitely hear it in my head now. Extremely relevant: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_accents_of_English Wiki has so many great articles on every type of English. It's crazy. I think my favorite thing about South African English, aside from the pronunciation, is ending sentences with "hey." | ||
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Energies
Australia3225 Posts
My favorite phrase which I have got the accent down pack is. "Those fuckin' South Africans hey, you can't trust 'em" | ||
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D10
Brazil3409 Posts
Whatensondyou | ||
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nataziel
Australia1455 Posts
So did I haha | ||
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Megalisk
United States6095 Posts
On January 01 2009 07:26 Tadzio00 wrote: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgPH0tYXJrA This is an epic video, I would hang out with people who talk like this just for my amusement. | ||
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Lamentations
Australia211 Posts
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 Not funny, mostly just irritating, sorry :x British accents sound kind of odd on TV shows (unless it's a documentary) just because I am used to American or Australian accents there, but in person they are pleasant enough. kiwi and saffa accents are pretty distinctive and easy to recognise to all of us in the southern hemisphere but it seems many Europeans or North Americans have trouble distinguishing them. Also, those accents sounds more British in comparison to an Aussie accent to us whereas ours to them probably seems slightly more American than British - not exactly like those accents of course, they are their own, but some pronunciations might make it sound that way. I can pick up scottish and irish accents most of the time and understand them quite well, and dutch as compared to other western european english-speakers, too. I have trouble with asian and indian accents lots of the time For me, Plexa's accent is kind of annoying xD Not trying to make fun but it is just most kiwi accents seem amusing or a little annoying to us. I imagine it is the same for them with our accent. When traveling around Europe with a mate I was never mistaken for a brit (I imagine they have more exposure to people from Britain and Ireland) but occasionally American. Most Europeans said our Australian accents were by far the easiest to understand out of all of the English speakers (I guess that is not comparing south africans and new zealanders, as there are not many there) even when we were talking quite fast and slurring words. I often wonder, too, what impact the kind of English learned has on a student - as from what I understand mostly American English is used and even in fluent non-native English speakers they can end up a little confused with some pronunciations (slang, of course, affects this more). | ||
Bockit
Sydney2287 Posts
On January 01 2009 08:52 skyglow1 wrote: We always make fun of strong british accents and strong southern USA accents, but when I listen to the USA guys casting VODs and stuff, nothing really stands out. Strong British accents make the person sound incredibly stuck up and pansy, while strong american accents just sound plain retarded lol. A strong australian accent is also pretty funny to us. Everyone says they love plexa's accent but I don't see what's so distinctive about it haha. The New Zealand accent was developed way back when ppl from britain and stuff started colonising the country, and apparently the mix of Irish + British + French + native Maori children at schools was where the accent came out from, so it's kinda mix of everything and doesn't have anything too distinctive. Interestingly South Island has a much more Irish accent because of the history of gold mines and stuff. It's also a tad "backwards" like southern USA You say fush instead of fish and chups instead of chips and you say we have a funny accent? Edit: http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdVHZwI8pcA | ||
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Energies
Australia3225 Posts
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OmgIRok
Taiwan2699 Posts
+ Show Spoiler + 那一個 sped up | ||
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Energies
Australia3225 Posts
On January 01 2009 16:36 OmgIRok wrote: kinda off topic, but "what chinese sounds like to english speaking african americans: nigga nigga nigga nigga nigga" Russell Peters strikes again! | ||
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BlackCafe
Vietnam69 Posts
I dont know for European but for most Asian, we all think that American accent is the natural accent for English. It takes a long time for me until I can appreciate the UK accent， but sometime it still sounds funny to me. Also for people that English is not the first language, I think American accent is easier to understand since the UK people tend to speak faster and sometime they make is sounds like the later word want to run pass the former word. | ||
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liger13
United States1060 Posts
On January 01 2009 16:36 OmgIRok wrote: kinda off topic, but "what chinese sounds like to english speaking african americans: nigga nigga nigga nigga nigga" + Show Spoiler + 那一個 sped up ?... | ||
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OmgIRok
Taiwan2699 Posts
I kinda found out about it before i knew russell peters though... its cuz i can spaek both english and chinese >:D | ||
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skyglow1
New Zealand3962 Posts
On January 01 2009 16:15 Bockit wrote: You say fush instead of fish and chups instead of chips and you say we have a funny accent? Edit: http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdVHZwI8pcA Oh man the first time I saw that video I was dieing from laughter. I'M BEACHED AS BRO. The only kiwis that have that kind of accent are the hardcore maori, but it sure as hell is funny when you hear it. I find extreme australian accents annoying insetad of comical like "fush and chups" because it sounds like almost whiny and it sounds like they have a blocked nose haha, but hardly any australians are that bad. | ||
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haduken
Australia8267 Posts
1. American English sounds perfectly alright to me and i don't really have any trouble or feel annoyed by it. But that's really just stuff shown on T.V and few Americans I've met. 1 thing i have noticed tho is that Americans tend to give better speeches compare to say an Aussie (only exception is GW bush), i feel really annoyed by Aussies who is say doing an interview and have like an umm in every sentence. Aussies i feel talk slower as well but some one from country areas or really really true Aussie say things incredibly fast and introduce insane number of slangs that till this day i am still having trouble with them. I think it is because Australia is such a multiculture nation that the real aussies simplified or standardized their day to day speech to communicate with us immigrants lol. 2. British and Irish speaking used to sound like an eastern European language to me until i watched British films with subtitles. Now i generally don't have a problem but an Irish guy at work used very oxford (standard) English in order to communicate with a few of the team members. I find the biggest difference is the style and choice of words but generally the pace and dictation is the same as Australian. American is more flowing to me. 3. Not enough experience with SA and kiwis, they sound just like aussie to me >.< 4. Indians are completely gibberish to me because they have their own ways of pronouncing common words and have a different style of reaction / response. But if i really really really try hard enough, i can make out that they are speaking English but not much more. 5. Malaysians, Singaporeans and other south eastern Asians sounds okay with me but i did have the same trouble with them as with the Indians. It's easier to understand SEAs because it is very easy for me to reproduce their accent and learn from it. | ||
Empyrean
16974 Posts
Also my physics recitation professor last semester was from NZ...he sounded like Jemaine from Flight of the Conchords. "oh-mih-guh". "oy-DEEN-tih-foyh". I love NZ accents. | ||
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skyglow1
New Zealand3962 Posts
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singlish It doesn't really count as english because it's a hybrid between different languages, but the different tones when speaking it are distinct and unique so that's the kinda accent part of it. | ||
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Empyrean
16974 Posts
...hell, my roommate from Texas switches to a Texan accent when talking on the phone to his friends back home. It's disconcerting. | ||
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skyglow1
New Zealand3962 Posts
* Dis country weather very hot one. – In this country, the weather is very warm. * Dat person there cannot trust. – That person over there is not trustworthy. * Tomorrow dun need bring camera. – You don't need to bring a camera tomorrow. * He play soccer also very good one leh. – He's very good at playing soccer too. That's pretty much spot on for how my singlish is too lol. You stick to a set of modified grammar rules so other singlish speaking people can understand. [Edit] Omg these are like totally spot on haha: * Not good one lah. – This isn't good. * Cannot anihow go liddat one leh. – You/it can't go just like that. * How come never show up? – Why didn't you/he/it show up? (See the use of never in place of didn't under the "Past tense" section.) * I li badminton, dat's why I every weekend go play. – I like badminton, so I play it every weekend. * He not feel well, so he stay home sleep lor. – He's not feeling well, so he decided to stay home and sleep! Some other gems: *He kena jackpot. (huge winnings from playing the slot machine) (Although I think the word sounds more like "kana" than "kena" sometimes..so I didn't realise what the article was talking about for a while) kena sai: literally "hit by shit"; be harmed by an unpleasant event or object Later den say. - We'll discuss this later | ||
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ambit!ous1
United States3662 Posts
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riotjune
United States3392 Posts
On January 01 2009 16:36 OmgIRok wrote: kinda off topic, but "what chinese sounds like to english speaking african americans: nigga nigga nigga nigga nigga" + Show Spoiler + 那一個 sped up isn't that just rap in general =P | ||
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Loverman
Romania266 Posts
On January 01 2009 06:07 Nitrogen wrote: here's a girl that doesn't speak any english at all. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLs6i-2vYpk&feature=related mhm french jailbait, I like. | ||
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HamerD
United Kingdom1922 Posts
Awesome, I want to see more non-speakers do it ^^. Also, the hardest English speakers to understand (who speak it natively) for me are definitely proper glasgow scottish and jamaican | ||
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GunsofthePatriots
South Africa991 Posts
On January 01 2009 08:19 0xDEADBEEF wrote: Hmm... British English speakers sound a bit funny but "classy" American English speakers sound very colloquial, "chewing gum English". I never liked that Americans pronounce "can't" like they pronounce "can"... this is confusing sometimes. British speakers pronounce "can't" with a long aaa sound, it's more clear but doesn't sound so badass. Still, I prefer AE over BE in every other case. I absolutely hate German accent when speaking English... for example if you watch a Mondragon interview you'll immediately know what I mean. It's ugly. I always take care not to sound like that when speaking English. In general I like English very much... always did. So it doesn't really sound strange to me... it has almost become as familiar as German since I read and write so much English, and also watch a lot of English movies, and play English games all the time. Oh, and my operating system and programs, even my keyboard layout, is all US English. Can't = can not. Makes sense to pronounce both can and can't the same. | ||
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GunsofthePatriots
South Africa991 Posts
lol romanian trying to steal my woman. | ||
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Lamentations
Australia211 Posts
On January 01 2009 19:24 HamerD wrote: Awesome, I want to see more non-speakers do it ^^. Also, the hardest English speakers to understand (who speak it natively) for me are definitely proper glasgow scottish and jamaican I don't have much trouble with glasgow accents, as I have had a few friends from there. All scottish friends I've had were girls, though, so sometimes it is hard to understand the guys (but then I don't wanna talk to guys, LOL I AM NOT GAY AMIRITE LOL). It also happens that those two are the best accents ever ^^ Scottish and Jamaican :D | ||
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poilord
Germany3252 Posts
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ProberoO
United States88 Posts
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Zoler
Sweden6339 Posts
WHAT THE HELL was that language?? ._. Edit: Oh, wait nvm lol it's that fake english like the other video | ||
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Locke.
Israel562 Posts
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Lamentations
Australia211 Posts
Same :/ Some of the colloquial terms are lost on me, though. What accent and slang is that supposed to be, anyway? They also say nissan weird. | ||
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[DUF]MethodMan
Germany1716 Posts
so when i played diablo at age 9 or sth like that (in germany you regularly start learning english in school at 10) i didnt understand shit, but i figured a way to "translate" it, just like everyone does, by context. i always loved english and probably ever will, although i may not be perfect when it comes to theoretical grammer :D so i guess this and what was said about getting used to english by hollywood anyway makes english sound very familiar and nice in my ears. i also agree on what was said about german accented english which is really groce | ||
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Energies
Australia3225 Posts
On January 01 2009 20:49 Zoler wrote: WHAT THE HELL was that language?? ._. Edit: Oh, wait nvm lol it's that fake english like the other video It's a combination, its an Irish/Gypsy accent. You would have seen it if you've ever seen the movie Snatch. Comedian Tommy Tiernan has it as well, just not to indistinguishable. | ||
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JudgeMathis
Cuba1286 Posts
On January 01 2009 16:15 Bockit wrote: You say fush instead of fish and chups instead of chips and you say we have a funny accent? Edit: http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdVHZwI8pcA Rofl. | ||
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Stimpacked
Philippines368 Posts
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Bockit
Sydney2287 Posts
On January 01 2009 16:42 skyglow1 wrote: Oh man the first time I saw that video I was dieing from laughter. I'M BEACHED AS BRO. The only kiwis that have that kind of accent are the hardcore maori, but it sure as hell is funny when you hear it. I find extreme australian accents annoying insetad of comical like "fush and chups" because it sounds like almost whiny and it sounds like they have a blocked nose haha, but hardly any australians are that bad. Haha yeah, one of my fav. youtube videos, they actually sold tshirts of the whale in some clothing stores here for a while. And yeah it's definitely the extremes that we find amusing. | ||
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closed
Vatican City State491 Posts
As for British - received pronunciation sounds classy, but is harder to be understood than American Engish. Unfortunately for some reason very few people seem to actually use it. Maybe the British dont have TV or something. Most of them speak like junkies using cockney or some other pikey accents that resemble groans and moans made by zerg units. "Aight". There are worse things. Irish. It sounds so incredibly bad. Do you remember the scene from Snatch where Brad Pitt was using this Pikey accent? That's how Irish sounds to me. I actually always wonder how is it possible that the British, Germans (to some degree) and perhaps even the Chinese have so different accents that they have problems in understanding each others. You dont have TV or schools? o_o | ||
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merz
Sweden2760 Posts
I've always thought that all the asian languages sounds the same though, and I really HATE swedes who can't really eliminate the swedish prounounciations when they speak english, so I try to keep as far away as possible from sounding swedish when I speak english. | ||
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Random()
Kyrgyz Republic1462 Posts
I live in the UK for the last couple of years (but I am not a native English speaker), and the number of different accents and dialects is astounding. Some people speak very clearly and are easy to follow, some speak in such a way that I need them to repeat the phrase two or three times to catch the meaning. Generally, I find it that "classic" English with proper pronounciation is very easy to follow, even if you don't understand some words it is not a problem to get the sentence structure and single out the words; however, "local" English accents are a nightmare because they sound as a uniform sequence of random syllables with no structure whatsoever. | ||
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IdrA
United States11541 Posts
On January 03 2009 11:13 meRz wrote: I've always thought that all the asian languages sounds the same though noooo not at all. korean and chinese are the only ones ive heard alot but they sound very very different. dont really know how to describe it though. | ||
thedeadhaji
39489 Posts
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fbs
United Kingdom2476 Posts
Outside UK Nigerian English is brutal. It's like they couldn't be fucked learning it properly after a certain point. In Europe Scandinavians hide their accents the best, bloody show offs. American English is like dubbed down English for beginners and is surely the easiest to understand for a non-native speaker, it's like listening to English in slow motion whereas Brits speak a lot faster. | ||
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HeadBangaa
United States6512 Posts
Somewhat related. Watch it because she's hot. | ||
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Jyvblamo
Canada13788 Posts
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Warrior Madness
Canada3791 Posts
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Dark_Luster
Korea (South)438 Posts
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Warrior Madness
Canada3791 Posts
On January 03 2009 12:09 HeadBangaa wrote: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UgpfSp2t6k&feature=related Somewhat related. Watch it because she's hot. This? Was awesome. I loved the Cockney accent. She sounded exactly like Eliza Doolittle. What I found interesting about it is that my attraction for that woman fluctuated up and down to the tune of her many accents. She got Toronto WAAAAAYYY off though (At least I hope so!) so it leaves me questioning the accuracy of the rest of her accents. Her Torontonian sounds more like Wasilla, Alaskan. | ||
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HeadBangaa
United States6512 Posts
On January 03 2009 12:15 Jyvblamo wrote: ^ I have yet to meet one Canadian that has that hilarious "aboot" Canuck accent. All of you fucking Canadians are in denial and yet ANYBODY OUTSIDE OF CANADA who hears you talk will agree that YES you guys have fucking accents. Just accept it. | ||
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The Storyteller
Singapore2486 Posts
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Jaeden
Romania1489 Posts
On January 01 2009 19:49 GunsofthePatriots wrote: lol romanian trying to steal my woman. hahahah, I dunno why that`s so funny oh and jamaican is the shit  | ||
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Mora
Canada5235 Posts
i've gotten better since moving to a bigger city that gives me a great exposure to accents - but i am from a small town with 99% canadian-born white folk, where you never heard accents at all. | ||
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Mora
Canada5235 Posts
On January 03 2009 13:21 Warrior Madness wrote: This? Was awesome. I loved the Cockney accent. She sounded exactly like Eliza Doolittle. What I found interesting about it is that my attraction for that woman fluctuated up and down to the tune of her many accents. She got Toronto WAAAAAYYY off though (At least I hope so!) so it leaves me questioning the accuracy of the rest of her accents. Her Torontonian sounds more like Wasilla, Alaskan. this was awesome. | ||
FakeSteve[TPR]
Valhalla18444 Posts
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Mora
Canada5235 Posts
On January 03 2009 19:43 FakeSteve[TPR] wrote: it was cool but yeah her toronto was way off, she shoulda done some easterner shit or my alberta half-drawl yeah, i don't know many people from Toronto, but none of them sound like that. lol i was hoping she would do alberta'n. lol | ||
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Manit0u
Poland17238 Posts
So many languages mixed into one Must be really cool. | ||
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shimmy
Poland997 Posts
On January 01 2009 05:50 FrozenArbiter wrote: 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.. ^This. I thought about this kind of thing often actually but there is really no way of accurately explaining it. | ||
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Itachii
Poland12466 Posts
BTW I wouldnt recommend learning polish ^^:http://hubpages.com/hub/Most_Difficult_Languages_-_Polish | ||
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haduken
Australia8267 Posts
but seriously i can not tell a typical aussie from a new zealander by accent... so many new zealanders in melbourne and majority of aussies i've met do not speak like the chick in youtube vid... only the truck drivers and occasionally some country people do. pretty weird country. | ||
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haduken
Australia8267 Posts
On January 01 2009 17:04 skyglow1 wrote: I'm from singapore and I my singlish is as strong as ever lol. I use it when I'm talking to my parents then switch automatically to a kiwi accent when talking with everyone else. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singlish http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ess4LnyrhQU It doesn't really count as english because it's a hybrid between different languages, but the different tones when speaking it are distinct and unique so that's the kinda accent part of it. One of the thing i used to hate is Singaporeans speak singlish to me and i will be confused half the time in the conversation. | ||
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MasterReY
Germany2708 Posts
is that stereotype really there? if so, why do you think that? | ||
alffla
Hong Kong20321 Posts
anyway no idea what english sounds like to me but i know i really dont like local HK english ;X lool its very ugly | ||
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alffla
Hong Kong20321 Posts
On January 03 2009 21:41 MasterReY wrote: erm Germans sound angry??? is that stereotype really there? if so, why do you think that? LOLOLOL YEA ggermans are liek WJA WAEHGG DAS IST CSD SCHHKEENGGKTEA like every thing you say is like wagners ride of valkyries epic opera AHHHHHHHhhhhaLAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa probably because of all the harsh sounds and big AAHHH sounds. hahaha. | ||
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Itachii
Poland12466 Posts
On January 03 2009 21:41 MasterReY wrote: erm Germans sound angry??? is that stereotype really there? if so, why do you think that? your language does, and its truth, all these Z,R make it sound like you are screaming at someone even if you are actually saying something gentle^^ French on the other hand, god I just love it | ||
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FoBuLouS
United States570 Posts
I always hear "yousemida" and -mida and -aseyo ending things. Would be interesting :D | ||
Pholon
Netherlands6142 Posts
It is true about the sound inventory of languages. The 'th' was mentioned earlier and another example would be the 'g' (as in Scottish Loch) that we have in Dutch (tip for anyone doing a 'this could be Dutch' vid) which is also very rare. Apart form that though there's also syllable make-up (e.g. Japanese only allows syllable ending in a n/m/ng or vowel), phonotactics (English does allow n - p sequences 'pancake' whereas Dutch and Korean rather avoid them (D: insert e - 'pannekoek', K: nasalise seup + nida -> seumnida)), and strespatterns. English for example prefers accents on the penultimate syllable whereas French puts the accent on the last syllable. I remember talking to some French people a while back and this dude siad one gem of a ( English) sentence where all accents had to be pen-ultimate and he put them final. All his friend were laughing and said he sounded ever so French. It is all these things that the dude in the clip made use of. Words dont really matter. In fact, I reckon one could write a single sentence of nonsense words and pronounce it with all kinds of accents. In fact, maybe we should do this. As to accents, I prefer listening to Brittosh but the other ones don't bother me much. Every "true" accent is pretty incomprehensible to me though (last real scottish or cockney). However I did want to shoot myself in the face listening to the blonde chick from Transformers >_> Like. Gawd. (Oh and usually I say about German that it's "Dutch but louder" which appears to be a familiar stereotype among the Dutch. I know a bit of German though and it doesn't sound angry/louder or anything) | ||
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Warrior Madness
Canada3791 Posts
On January 03 2009 23:29 FoBuLouS wrote: I wanna hear some fake korean from you people that watch pro Starcraft I always hear "yousemida" and -mida and -aseyo ending things. Would be interesting :D I'll give this a shot. Ahem. PLLAAAAAAGGGGUUUUUUUUUUUU!!! How was that? | ||
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jgad
Canada899 Posts
On January 01 2009 16:36 OmgIRok wrote: kinda off topic, but "what chinese sounds like to english speaking african americans: nigga nigga nigga nigga nigga" + Show Spoiler + 那一個 sped up I've actually seen this happen on the street. For those who don't get it, "nei-ge" (pronounced sort of "nay-guh") is almost like a stuttering word in chinese, almost like an "uhm... uh..." and it's often sputtered out in succession like "nei-ge, nei-ge, nei-ge... ". Anyway, there was a group of chinese students walking down the street and they were chatting away and one guy busts into this typical mandarin stutter and, completely oblivious as to why, it seemed, this black guy walking in front of them just turned around and gave them the most bizarre look - an odd mix of confusion and shock, overall doused with a load of WTF-factor. One of the funniest things I've ever seen. | ||
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jgad
Canada899 Posts
Oh and usually I say about German that it's "Dutch but louder" which appears to be a familiar stereotype among the Dutch. I know a bit of German though and it doesn't sound angry/louder or anything Funny because to my ears Dutch sounds probably the closest to English of any language in terms of phonetic content. There are a few telltale differences, of course, (some of the voiced rear fricatives, etc) but it otherwise overlaps, to my ears anyway, more than any other language I've heard. On the subject of the Kiwi accent, though, one need look no further than Flight of the Conchords for ample examples of hillarity. Eagle vs Shark is a great film too for those who may not have ever heard of it. | ||
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AnWh
Sweden220 Posts
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RaiZ
2813 Posts
I've NEVER ever heard any english accent nor a single english word except maybe some from the movies but i can't remember as i've become deaf since age 3. Would be pretty funny i think if i've ever tried. But tried to speak with some dutch guys when i was snowboarding and so far they understood me pretty well. So i was like WEEEEEEEEEEE. They tried so hard to not smile but they were cool though ! | ||
Carnac
Germany / USA16648 Posts
Personally I have a hard time describing what English really sounds like to me. I guess once you reach a certain level of proficiency you don't really notice much about the "general" sounds of that very language. Then again it is only when you have a certain mastery of a language that you will be able to differentiate between local variations of said language and the better you get to at a languague, the more you will be able to notice even very slight variations. Those are two very different things. On the other hand when I hear people speak say Russian, which I don't know at all, I will notice a lot more stuff regarding the general tonality, phonemes, etc of the language. But I won't be able to differentiate between most of the variations or accents and regional dialects of the Russian language. On January 01 2009 10:17 HamerD wrote: I've yet to find a country with as varied accents as my home country it's ridiculous. Though makes for a really broad spread of voices. But maybe that's just my head playing tricks with me?! I understand for example the difference in northern spanish to southern, but it doesn't seem that much. Maybe if I were spanish it would be absolutely huge and the english different accents not. Though I doubt it because most foreigners who come here find scottish and northern (mancunian, yorkshire, newcastle, liverpudlian) completely unintelligble lol. I have never lived in England, so I don't really know all the different accents, nor am I sure whether I'd be able to differentiate between various northern accents etc. I mean I can distinguish RP, Northern English, Scottish English, Irish English, probably Welsh English, but I don't know if I could easily differentiate any further. What I do know though, is that Germany has a lot of different accents & dialects, whether it's more than England I don't know, doesn't really matter anyway. With a few exceptions I really love accents though and I admire people who can imitate a wide range of accents almost flawlessly, because I cannot do that at all. Scottish & Northern are pretty hard at first, but I hear my way into it. For the first couple of minutes I won't understand much, but then it rapidly gets better. Couple of months ago I met 2 guys from Edinbourgh in a bar here and the first time I heard them talking to each other I didn't even realize it was English, lol. But like I said, it's not really that hard to adapt to it so that I at least understand most of what they say. And I'm sure if I spent a week or two in Scotland I'd understand about everything. On January 03 2009 10:48 closed wrote: I actually always wonder how is it possible that the British, Germans (to some degree) and perhaps even the Chinese have so different accents that they have problems in understanding each others. You dont have TV or schools? o_o What exactly do you mean when you say each other? Germans speaking German, Chinese speaking Chinese, etc? If so your last sentence is pretty arrogant -.- For example there isn't actually such a thing as a Chinese language, but a lot of different Chinese languages (although I guess most Chinese will understand Mandarin? No idea). There are regional German dialects that I can't always understand 100%, especially if it's older people talking. Platt would be an extreme, but that's basically a separate language. On January 03 2009 21:45 Itachii wrote: your language does, and its truth, all these Z,R make it sound like you are screaming at someone even if you are actually saying something gentle^^ French on the other hand, god I just love it German does indeed sound harsher than say French (I know..., I grew up as a French German bilingual), but you are way, way exaggerating. I seriously doubt you have much of an idea about proper German -.- I'd also like to refer to the first two paragraphs I made in this post - listening to a language you can't speak is a very, very different sensation. On January 04 2009 01:26 jgad wrote: Funny because to my ears Dutch sounds probably the closest to English of any language in terms of phonetic content. There are a few telltale differences, of course, (some of the voiced rear fricatives, etc) but it otherwise overlaps, to my ears anyway, more than any other language I've heard. German and Dutch are really close. A German will understand quite a bit of a Dutch text (even when he knos zero Dutch) and vice versa. The same (maybe to a slightly lesser extent) is true when listening to a Dutch as German and vice versa. Although there is of course a number of false friends as well. | ||
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Sadist
United States7215 Posts
On January 01 2009 05:51 AdamBanks wrote: +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. The irish definately speak insanely fast. My mother is from ireland so I am AMAZED when we have been over there and she can understand what the fuck some of my uncles are saying. I definately can pick up some of the accents though, my family is from the cork area and they sound noticabley different from the dublin area as well as waterford. Not to mention they say LIKE after every second. "How did you get on with em like?" also having been to london, I definately can tell the london accent from the rest of england, the annoying FANK YOUUU and the skipping of syllables in words. The london accent sounds horrible on women. | ||
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29 fps
United States5724 Posts
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qrs
United States3637 Posts
On January 03 2009 21:45 Itachii wrote: your language does, and its truth, all these Z,R make it sound like you are screaming at someone even if you are actually saying something gentle^^ French on the other hand, god I just love it Yeah, same here: I really like the sound of French, and I don't really like German, or German accents. Nothing personal; just the sound of the language. (That's a major overgeneralization anyway: it really depends on who's speaking.) Here's a fun video (there's a ton of these on YouTube; this was one of the longer ones). Everyone knows Disney songs, right? so you'll at least have an idea of what is being sung. + Show Spoiler [this one has 29 languages] + | ||
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uNiGNoRe
Germany1115 Posts
On January 01 2009 08:19 0xDEADBEEF wrote: Hmm... British English speakers sound a bit funny but "classy" American English speakers sound very colloquial, "chewing gum English". I never liked that Americans pronounce "can't" like they pronounce "can"... this is confusing sometimes. British speakers pronounce "can't" with a long aaa sound, it's more clear but doesn't sound so badass. Still, I prefer AE over BE in every other case. I absolutely hate German accent when speaking English... for example if you watch a Mondragon interview you'll immediately know what I mean. It's ugly. I always take care not to sound like that when speaking English. In general I like English very much... always did. So it doesn't really sound strange to me... it has almost become as familiar as German since I read and write so much English, and also watch a lot of English movies, and play English games all the time. Oh, and my operating system and programs, even my keyboard layout, is all US English. Well, my keyboard layout is not english. I will never get used to a "y" next to the "t". Thats just too wierd. Although I think the keys are placed way better for programming. Maybe I'll try it out some day. And I prefer the American English over BE. For me it just sounds more natural. I guess that's because you hear AE way more often than BE (Hollywood movies, etc.). But basically everything else you said is true for me as well. Many english movies, english OS, english games. I do even think in english sometimes because I'm more familiar with the english vocabulary of a certain topic. And I can't remember how english in general sounded to me before I learned it at school. Just the British sound a bit more classy like DEADBEEF said. | ||
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Zoler
Sweden6339 Posts
On January 07 2009 16:59 RaiZ wrote: Well, i think you'd never understand what i'll be talking in english with any english sentences. Why ? Cauz i'm deaf. It's sometimes hard to be understood in french if they don't pay attention so i can't imagine how it'd be like if i was talking english to you I've NEVER ever heard any english accent nor a single english word except maybe some from the movies but i can't remember as i've become deaf since age 3. Would be pretty funny i think if i've ever tried. But tried to speak with some dutch guys when i was snowboarding and so far they understood me pretty well. So i was like WEEEEEEEEEEE. They tried so hard to not smile but they were cool though ! You're deaf!? Damn.... damn... I've never had a conversation (on internet or IRL) with a deaf... t.t pm me | ||
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MuR)Ernu
Finland768 Posts
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jgad
Canada899 Posts
On January 08 2009 03:12 Carnac wrote: German and Dutch are really close. A German will understand quite a bit of a Dutch text (even when he knos zero Dutch) and vice versa. The same (maybe to a slightly lesser extent) is true when listening to a Dutch as German and vice versa. Although there is of course a number of false friends as well. I agree completely - still, the phonetics of German and Dutch are quite different, despite the lexical content being very closely related. A Scot and a Londoner can converse perfectly well, for example, but the phonemes they use to produce the language are markedly different. What I mean to say is that the phonic content of Dutch sounds similar to english, not that the symbols and words themselves are related. | ||
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SoleSteeler
Canada5414 Posts
On January 03 2009 13:21 Warrior Madness wrote: This? Was awesome. I loved the Cockney accent. She sounded exactly like Eliza Doolittle. What I found interesting about it is that my attraction for that woman fluctuated up and down to the tune of her many accents. She got Toronto WAAAAAYYY off though (At least I hope so!) so it leaves me questioning the accuracy of the rest of her accents. Her Torontonian sounds more like Wasilla, Alaskan. Yeah her Toronto was pretty off. It would be more accurate if it was supposed to be someone in pretty much any rural part of Ontario, though. Of course, probably a bit exaggerated. But I'm starting to notice some friends and family that have the stereotypical Canadian accent, but none are from a major city. | ||
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Itachii
Poland12466 Posts
On January 08 2009 03:12 Carnac wrote: Definitely one of the more interesting threads in a while Personally I have a hard time describing what English really sounds like to me. I guess once you reach a certain level of proficiency you don't really notice much about the "general" sounds of that very langauge. Then again it is only when you have a certain mastery of a language that you will be able to differentiate between local variations of said language and the better you get to at a languague, the more you will be able to notice even very slight variations. Those are two very different things. On the other hand when I hear people speak say Russian, which I don't know at all, I will notice a lot more stuff regarding the general tonality, phonemes, etc of the language. But I won't be able to differentiate between most of the variations or accents and regional dialects of the Russian language. I have never lived in England, so I don't really know all the different accents, nor am I sure whether I'd be able to differentiate between various northern accents etc. I mean I can distinguish RP, Northern English, Scottish English, Irish English, probably Welsh English, but I don't know if I could easily differentiate any further. Offtopic:this thread reminds me the scene in "Lost in Translation" when the guy had photographic session, I laughed so hard when i saw it first time~~ What I do know though, is that Germany has a lot of different accents & dialects, whether it's more than England I don't know, doesn't really matter anyway. With a few exceptions I really love accents though and I admire people who can imitate a wide range of accents almost flawlessly, because I cannot do that at all. Scottish & Northern are pretty hard at first, but I hear my way into it. For the first couple of minutes I won't understand much, but then it rapidly gets better. Couple of months ago I met 2 guys from Edinbourgh in a bar here and the first time I heard them talking to each other I didn't even realize it was English, lol. But like I said, it's not really that hard to adapt to it so that I at least understand most of what they say. And I'm sure if I spent a week or two in Scotland I'd understand about everything. What exactly do you mean when you say each other? Germans speaking German, Chinese speaking Chinese, etc? If so your last sentence is pretty arrogant -.- For example there isn't actually such a thing as a Chinese language, but a lot of different Chinese languages (although I guess most Chinese will understand Mandarin? No idea). There are regional German dialects that I can't always understand 100%, especially if it's older people talking. Platt would be an extreme, but that's basically a separate language. German does indeed sound harsher than say French (I know..., I grew up as a French German bilingual), but you are way, way exaggerating. I seriously doubt you have much of an idea about proper German -.- I'd also like to refer to the first two paragraphs I made in this post - listening to a language you can't speak is a very, very different sensation. German and Dutch are really close. A German will understand quite a bit of a Dutch text (even when he knos zero Dutch) and vice versa. The same (maybe to a slightly lesser extent) is true when listening to a Dutch as German and vice versa. Although there is of course a number of false friends as well. Excellent post, but German really does sound harsh without exaggerating, and I believe most people would agree with that after listening to it for a bit.Sure defining how language sounds while actually knowing it differs alot from describing it when you hear it first time, but I was basing my opinion on own experience (was learning German for 4 years) and I still had the same impression while being able to talk in it. I am learning french atm, and really loving it, not only becouse of how it sounds but also cuz of its grammar( it seems exciting for me, heh) Dutch/German thing is the same as polish/slovakian/czech, we are able to communicate on basic level without knowing single word in other's language. | ||
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Pholon
Netherlands6142 Posts
On January 08 2009 03:12 Carnac wrote: What exactly do you mean when you say each other? Germans speaking German, Chinese speaking Chinese, etc? If so your last sentence is pretty arrogant -.- There are regional German dialects that I can't always understand 100%, especially if it's older people talking. Platt would be an extreme, but that's basically a separate language. I have to agree with closed here, I know there's accents of Dutch WITHIN Holland that are pretty much unintelligible to me. I'm pretty sure the case is the same in Germany since that's an even bigger country. That is, however just restricting ourself to within-nation communications. It can still be considered whether strong accents, like Platt or Limburgs are still accents or seperate languages. On January 04 2009 01:26 jgad wrote: Funny because to my ears Dutch sounds probably the closest to English of any language in terms of phonetic content. There are a few telltale differences, of course, (some of the voiced rear fricatives, etc) but it otherwise overlaps, to my ears anyway, more than any other language I've heard. German and Dutch are really close. A German will understand quite a bit of a Dutch text (even when he knos zero Dutch) and vice versa. The same (maybe to a slightly lesser extent) is true when listening to a Dutch as German and vice versa. Although there is of course a number of false friends as well.[/QUOTE] Sure many words are cognate but in my opinion the phonetic systems of the three languages are still quite different in many ways. + Show Spoiler + For those interested let me illustrate with a partly result from my MA thesis. Among other things we investigated the perception of sibilants (the sounds s and sh as heard in see and she) by native speakers of Dutch and English. 8 speakers of each language listenened to a range of sibilants, going gradually from s to sh. These 11 items (on the x-axis below) were rated as s or sh by the speakers. Reduplicated results (y-axis: 8 = definite s, 0 = definitely no s (sh therefore): ![[image loading]](http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/6317/masumau0.jpg) The interesting item is no. 6, which received an 's' judgement by the Dutch speakers, but an 'sh' judgement by the English speakers (If you're English, this may explain why a Dutchman offering you to sit on his couch may sound funny). Pretty interesting outcome, since most people dont expect this to happen since both languages use the same two sounds. We're still working on testing German and French people (*cough* volunteers?) so we can compare those outcomes to the D/E results. I kinda lost my train of thought now so I'll close of by hoping this information was valuable in some way. | ||
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Warrior Madness
Canada3791 Posts
On January 08 2009 05:05 SoleSteeler wrote: Yeah her Toronto was pretty off. It would be more accurate if it was supposed to be someone in pretty much any rural part of Ontario, though. Of course, probably a bit exaggerated. But I'm starting to notice some friends and family that have the stereotypical Canadian accent, but none are from a major city. Interesting. I've never heard ANYONE with that sort of accent before. But then again I've never been outside of Toronto. The weird thing is that my cousins from florida once said that I and all my friends, and everyone on tv (much music) had a heavy Canadian accent, whatever that means. I'll be going to manitoba and then vancouver for a little while and it'll be interesting to see whether I can pickup any differences in how people sound. Also, my friend is a newf, and he's shown me what they really sound like up there. | ||
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Yogurt
United States4258 Posts
On January 04 2009 01:10 jgad wrote: I've actually seen this happen on the street. For those who don't get it, "nei-ge" (pronounced sort of "nay-guh") is almost like a stuttering word in chinese, almost like an "uhm... uh..." and it's often sputtered out in succession like "nei-ge, nei-ge, nei-ge... ". Anyway, there was a group of chinese students walking down the street and they were chatting away and one guy busts into this typical mandarin stutter and, completely oblivious as to why, it seemed, this black guy walking in front of them just turned around and gave them the most bizarre look - an odd mix of confusion and shock, overall doused with a load of WTF-factor. One of the funniest things I've ever seen. hahaha made me think of this p.s watch till the end | ||
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Velr
Switzerland10668 Posts
Random videos: + Show Spoiler + Basel: let's go 100 KM to the east Zürich: (just the beginning, found nothing better. Another -100KM to the east St. Gallen: Let's go into the mountains (100 km south) : Let's go.. basically over some Hills to the West ^^: Wallis (this is a really *soft* version of that dialect, other swiss can't understand them normally, this here is *easy*): and finally Bern: And that are just some of the big ones... All swiss... :p | ||
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Carnac
Germany / USA16648 Posts
On January 08 2009 05:38 Itachii wrote: I am so thankful I was raised German+French, so I didn't have to learn French as a foreign language, personally I think it must suck to learn it.I am learning french atm, and really loving it, not only becouse of how it sounds but also cuz of its grammar( it seems exciting for me, heh) On January 08 2009 05:56 Warrior Madness wrote: Interesting. I've never heard ANYONE with that sort of accent before. But then again I've never been outside of Toronto. The weird thing is that my cousins from florida once said that I and all my friends, and everyone on tv (much music) had a heavy Canadian accent, whatever that means. I'll be going to manitoba and then vancouver for a little while and it'll be interesting to see whether I can pickup any differences in how people sound. I don't find that weird actually. Your own accent and the accents of the people whose pronunciation you are accustomed to will only be noticed by others, but not by you. That's very natural. And to give you a first hand example: my mom is French, my dad is German. My mom didn't speak a single word of German before she met my father (and she was 31 when she met him). She married my father, moved to Germany and started learning German here. I know she has an accent when speaking German, but I don't hear it, because I grew up with it. I do, however, notice the French accent of all the other French people who speak German. On January 08 2009 05:41 Pholon wrote: [...]We're still working on testing German and French people (*cough* volunteers?) so we can compare those outcomes to the D/E results. *raises hand* | ||
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himurakenshin
Canada1845 Posts
Its liek wut | ||
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Pholon
Netherlands6142 Posts
Cool, 4 more and I'll start PMing people. | ||
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jgad
Canada899 Posts
On January 08 2009 05:41 Pholon wrote: Sure many words are cognate but in my opinion the phonetic systems of the three languages are still quite different in many ways. + Show Spoiler + For those interested let me illustrate with a partly result from my MA thesis. Among other things we investigated the perception of sibilants (the sounds s and sh as heard in see and she) by native speakers of Dutch and English. 8 speakers of each language listenened to a range of sibilants, going gradually from s to sh. These 11 items (on the x-axis below) were rated as s or sh by the speakers. Reduplicated results (y-axis: 8 = definite s, 0 = definitely no s (sh therefore): The interesting item is no. 6, which received an 's' judgement by the Dutch speakers, but an 'sh' judgement by the English speakers (If you're English, this may explain why a Dutchman offering you to sit on his couch may sound funny). Pretty interesting outcome, since most people dont expect this to happen since both languages use the same two sounds. We're still working on testing German and French people (*cough* volunteers?) so we can compare those outcomes to the D/E results. I kinda lost my train of thought now so I'll close of by hoping this information was valuable in some way. Nice study! I still think that Dutch, especially Flemish, is the closest (as in there are none closer) phonetic match to English. The hard consonants (r's, n's, l's, etc), meter... I dunno, something about it, but it always strikes me every time I hear it spoken. | ||
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diehilde
Germany1596 Posts
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jgad
Canada899 Posts
On January 08 2009 06:51 himurakenshin wrote: Actually I figure japanese people think the american accent is cool because in lots of songs there are japanese people singing Japanese with an american accent. Its liek wut it's like a bad case of diarrhea... + Show Spoiler + | ||
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jgad
Canada899 Posts
Ri, i'se'tunuresepase wi te se bloobas (no idea what he's saying, something about a caravan) Right, and she's terribly partial to the perriwinkle blue, boys  lol, I've watched that film too many times. | ||
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IzzyCraft
United States4487 Posts
On January 08 2009 06:51 himurakenshin wrote: Actually I figure japanese people think the american accent is cool because in lots of songs there are japanese people singing Japanese with an american accent. Its liek wut Lol wut well i know that the vast majory of them aren't speaking english with an american accient although some people always supprise you and can speak quite clearly | ||
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Excalibur_Z
United States12235 Posts
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Carnac
Germany / USA16648 Posts
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Wysp
Canada2299 Posts
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Itachii
Poland12466 Posts
On January 08 2009 07:36 Excalibur_Z wrote: When I started learning Spanish and Japanese, and noticing that the pronunciation of syllables was always uniform and without "exceptions" and "special cases", I realized just how hard English must be to learn for a foreign speaker. English in particular "invents" new words (like "Keynesian" for example) regularly so the vocabulary is always expanding fairly rapidly. On top of this, there are so many homonyms and context-specific definitions of words that it must be daunting for foreigners. It makes me relieved that English (particularly American English) is so widespread throughout the world, because if it wasn't, nobody would want to learn it because it's too confusing and self-contradictory. English is considered as one of the easiest languages to learn, and not only becouse of its popularity but also becouse of its grammar - it seems to be rather easy and understandable for most people learning it. Just for comparison, see how hard polish is on this example^^: http://hubpages.com/hub/Most_Difficult_Languages_-_Polish Some of the comments there are also really good. | ||
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cz
United States3249 Posts
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cz
United States3249 Posts
On January 08 2009 18:02 Itachii wrote: English is considered as one of the easiest languages to learn, and not only becouse of its popularity but also becouse of its grammar - it seems to be rather easy and understandable for most people learning it. Just for comparison, see how hard polish is on this example^^: http://hubpages.com/hub/Most_Difficult_Languages_-_Polish Some of the comments there are also really good. The opposite is true if you try to read/write English -> the spelling is nonsensical. | ||
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Boblion
France8043 Posts
-10 to sex appeal. I don't have this problem with American men. I'm straight. edit: Bristish accent is wayyyyyy better for women. | ||
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qrs
United States3637 Posts
I think the British accent is best for children. It's so cute. | ||
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niteReloaded
Croatia5281 Posts
On January 01 2009 05:54 PiSan wrote: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6C5EZmyJ9ik This is a guy who had a similar question. The video responses have fake english of varying quality. That's a freakin great idea for a video, respect to that guy. | ||
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freelander
Hungary4707 Posts
On January 08 2009 18:02 Itachii wrote: English is considered as one of the easiest languages to learn, and not only becouse of its popularity but also becouse of its grammar - it seems to be rather easy and understandable for most people learning it. Just for comparison, see how hard polish is on this example^^: http://hubpages.com/hub/Most_Difficult_Languages_-_Polish Some of the comments there are also really good. I think this is the only competition where my nation (language) can stand on the top Hungarian is the hard language to learn. | ||
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Tekin
2711 Posts
 . As i remember everytime they have a conversation i was like "huh? huh? huh? what? to everything they said" it was like a new language to me. Watching american cartoons helped with my english ^_^ | ||
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Mannequin
Canada131 Posts
On January 03 2009 14:16 HeadBangaa wrote: All of you fucking Canadians are in denial and yet ANYBODY OUTSIDE OF CANADA who hears you talk will agree that YES you guys have fucking accents. Just accept it. We do have accents, but only FRENCH CANADIANS Say aboot. I never say aboot Though I would laugh at myself if I did | ||
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Carnac
Germany / USA16648 Posts
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