Do foreigners think americans sound sexy speaking their language?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Ok, this is the thread that “Are english accents sexy?” supposed to have been… but with a way longer title.

Basically, when a French guy or a Spanish guy comes to America and learns English, chances are girls are gonna think his accent is hot. When an Indian or a Russian guy comes, not so much. And a German accent almost never sounds good.

But what do the foreigners think when english-speakers (not necessarily americans) speak their language?

Is it sexy? Is it sexy in some languages but not in others? Should I be trying to get rid of my accent when studying a foreign language, or am I just soaping the testosterone from under my armpit?

2

Traditionally, American men do well with women in foreign countries, because nothing says “rich” better than an American accent. I suppose that’s no longer so much the case.

3

I like German accents. Asians speaking accented English is rarely hot, though.

Americans speaking Korean sound cute, I suppose, the way a little kid who’s just learning to talk sounds cute. But cute in a funny way, not a sexy way.

(I just tried to imagine what it’d be like if an American guy tried talking dirty to me in accented Korean. And I nearly fell out of my chair laughing. Don’t think that’s the reaction you want.)

ETA: IME, American guys trying to pick up girls in foreign countries rarely make the effort to learn the language. (I know this is not true of all Americans, but I’m speaking in a general sense here.)

4

Another vote for German speaking men being hot. If this is not the general consensus, I’ll have two please.

5

I remember being very warmly received in Australia if you know what I mean. They thought my california accent was cute and loved trying to imitate it.

6

Apparently American accents do not sound good to the French. They will ask sneeringly (and sometimes in English that’s not that great itself) if you would prefer speaking in English, and their diction leaves no doubt that indeed, you would prefer speaking in English. Or at least that was pretty much my experience when they commented at all. Sometimes they just raised their eyebrows.

The Italians, though, seemed to love that some American was trying to communicate them in their own language. I don’t know if they thought the accent was cute or just appreciated the effort. Same for the Spanish (in Spain).

7

Yeah, German accents are really sexy, so I gotta disagree with you, Alex.

[sub]Oddly, when I speak* Spanish, I sound French, not American. I got that from my Spanish-speaking friends and my (Colombian) Humanities advisor.[/sub]

*“speak” meaning “reading words” since I hardly know any Spanish.

8

I’ve been told that I have a hot accent in Hebrew.

9

That wasn’t my experience speaking French in France. My native language is English with a North American (Canadian) accent, and I never got that type of reaction. Generally, they were pleased that I was trying to speak French. I don’t imagine there is that much difference between a Canadian accent in French and an American accent in French.

10

I think it’s also possible that it’s a matter of where in France you are. Parisians often have a (deserved or undeserved) reputation for being snobby towards tourists in general, whereas many other cities and the more rural areas are more open. I’m pretty sure, however, that Paris gets an unfair deal in that many tourist trap citizens around the world have a deep love-loathe relationship with their visitors. It’s just something about the Gallic attitude (and culture clash) that can make it so much more apparent than elsewhere…

11

I was visiting Paris as a tourist, as well as Normandy. Didn’t notice any difference in treatment.

12

I’m going to second this - and I’m from the US. There was only one time when I experienced the “I’d-prefer-you-not-mangle-French-you-loathesome-barbarian” vibe in France, in a snotty boutique on the Champs-Elysee. Otherwise, the French seemed rather pleased that I had bothered to learn their language and use it. Granted, my spoken French was never great, but communication did take place. Also, outside of Paris I found the French to be quite hospitable and friendly, and even in Paris it wasn’t bad, just more of a big-city vibe.

13

I’ve wondered about this.

As an Australian, I have been subject to a lifelong bombardment of American accents through the television and the movies, that I actually don’t “hear” them unless I think about it. There is nothing exotic or sexy about them.

That changes though, when I meet an American in real life. Then, I hear the accent for what it is, and it seems very in-your-face and “real”. I often wonder whether this is where the “American tourists speak loudly” thing comes from, even if only in part.

Anyway, there have been exceptions, but I’ve liked the American accents I’ve heard in person. This could be skewed by those accents belonging to a socio-economic group more likely to travel to the other side of the world, and maybe I’m not hearing Jerry Springer audience members. I don’t know. But I like them, and there’s a certain type of educated American accent I could listen to all day, and as for some of the women, rowwwr!

14

Americans (and Brits) speaking Afrikaans just sound silly. The Dutch, Germans and Scandiwegians - they sound OK.
And the Flemish are ace. Flemish women sound hot.

15

I think we all must have a genetic disposition called “you-sound-different-therefore-I-believe-I-want-to-fuck-you!”

16

What could be more romantic than a good Russian accent? Think Baryisnokov, not Putin.

17

Heh. Makes sense from an evolutionary principle. “This guy has all them brand new genes to fresh up my stagnant inbred gene pool!”
I like the generic American accent.

I’m Dutch, and I notice a few things about American accents. First, I (and most Dutch) do notice that someone speaks English with an American accent, (so, not a Britisch accent) but that’s about it. Maybe I can pick out a really exaggarated Southern drawl if I hear one. But, strange as that may sound to an American, I can’t distinguish a Canadian from a Texan to save my life. For me, it is all “American, so, not British”.

I’ve wondered why that is. After all, Dutch dialects change dramatically every 100 miles or so, and most people can pinpoint someone’s dialect within 100 miles. Remember that we Dutch learn American English through writing, and through TV. Wrinting of course, has no accent at all. And TV-actors usually have mainstream accents.
If a movie character is pointedly from any region, the movie points that out with clear attributes. For instance, a southerner says something about racism, while the moss is hanging from the trees in the alligator ridden swamp in the background. I see these things and think: “oh, Southern”. If someone tricked me and made the alligator guy speak with an accent two-three states up north from Florida, I wouldn’t notice.
In the same way, I know JR from Dallas is a Texan because that was spelled out to my by all the ranches and cow skulls and cowboy hats and ostentatious oily wealth around him. The complementing Texan accent is redundant information for a TV-watcher like me. So if I saw a somebody on tv with a Texan accent, being on Oprah or being interviewed for instance, so doing something unrelated to Texas, ranches and oils, I just wouldn’t notice his accent.

That said, what I do notice about Americans in Holland is two things:

Both men and women speak with considerably lowered voices. A Dutch person doesn’t notice that if he meets just one American, but after the tenth, we start wondering if Americans strain their voices to sound lower then they might, naturally.
Secondly, Americans in a group have a way of speaking, -slower, more thoughtful - that reminds me a bit of group therapy sessions. I don’t know why. It isn’t unattractive.

18

That’s funny, because I’m a kiwi, and there’s a ‘Australians tend to be loud and obnoxious’ kind of consensus here. I wouldn’t know, because I last went there when I was three. I’ve really gotta get out more.

19

I’ve noticed this in a sort of roundabout way also. I have a very deep bass voice, but like most basses my speaking voice is more of a low tenor/ high baritone when speaking my native American English.When I speak other languages, however, it is as if I am using my musical skills, and I am for some reason able to rumble out a velvety basso version of whatever language I’m speaking. It is completely unintentional and to my great surprise the depth varies with the language. British english, French, and German sound the deepest, followed closely by Icelandic and Japanese. Spanish is spoken a bit higher, closer to the range of American english usage.

20

Gotta agree with you on that one. Yowza.