# What does English sound like to a foreigner?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-a-foreigner/113420
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [June 11, 2002, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-a-foreigner/113420 "2002-06-11T11:54:31Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Jervoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jervoise)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2002, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-a-foreigner/113420/21 "2002-06-13T04:36:28Z")
One side of my family are not native English speakers. They tell me English sounds very _flat_. Compared to polytonal Chinese dialects, I suppose English is spoken in a dull monotone. (In contrast to Cantonese, for example, words in English carry the same dictionary meaning, regardless of the tone of delivery.)
So they say English sounds rather duck-like: “Qua, qua, qua”. Rather mono-tonous.
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### Author:  [@Anemone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anemone)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2002, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-a-foreigner/113420/22 "2002-06-13T05:03:14Z")
This thread has cleared up a question I’ve had since i was a tiny tiny mammal. I grew up speaking both Japanese and English, (now i pretty much just speak english) and I asked my grandmother and mother this question. My mother speaks perfect english and doesn’t have much of an imagination, so no answer from her. My grandmother told me it sounded like water running over alot of rocks and when pressed for specifics got frustrated and told me all gaijin sounded alike to her. Heh. THANK YOU FOR THIS THREAD.
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### Author:  [@Violet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Violet)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2002, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-a-foreigner/113420/23 "2002-06-13T05:27:10Z")
Brits say Americans are too harsh with their “r.” So our language sounds like “are are are…”
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### Author:  [@syncrolecyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/syncrolecyne)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2002, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-a-foreigner/113420/24 "2002-06-13T07:44:52Z")
Uds. hablan cómo gatos…
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### Author:  [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2002, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-a-foreigner/113420/25 "2002-06-13T08:10:21Z")
I think North American accents (Canada included) seem louder than other dialects because of the harsh “R”'s. I’ve done my share of hopping between Canada and Australia and everytime I switch from one country to the other I notice how Canadian voices seem louder, but really aren’t.
For loudness as a characteristic of a language look no further than South East Asia :).
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### Author:  [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2002, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-a-foreigner/113420/26 "2002-06-13T09:27:53Z")
So far, we have it that English sounds like loud, noble, barbaric, mellow hissing horses playing a flat wah-wah guitar in a babbling brook while sipping tea and chewing gum: “Shella, shella!” 😃
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### Author:  [@Go\_alien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Go_alien)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2002, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-a-foreigner/113420/27 "2002-06-13T09:33:31Z")
Yup, that’s how it sounds to me. And I speak it like a native.
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### Author:  [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2002, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-a-foreigner/113420/28 "2002-06-13T14:37:22Z")
“La-la-lalla-rah-rah-sheshilla-garah-garah-gimma-pitcha-pitcha-
manna-mamina-poo-”
Oh wait… thats Ozzy Osbourne talking. :smack:
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### Author:  [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2002, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-a-foreigner/113420/29 "2002-06-13T15:28:50Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*\*So our language sounds like “are are are…” \*\*
Anyone else just hear Monty Python…? 😃
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### Author:  [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2002, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-a-foreigner/113420/30 "2002-06-13T16:04:11Z")
> [@](#):
>
> _Originally posted by Motog \*
> \*\* US citizens seem to speak very loudly._\*
>
> (snip)
> Before **Javaman** jumps on me\*\*
Not at all, I think you’re at least partially right about that, though here again I think the reality doesn’t go as far as the popular imagination suggests. I think our perception is tremendously affected by movies and TV, and observe that the British upper classes seem to be endlessly fascinating to Americans–far more than our own elites are to us, and probably more than they are to their own countrymen. Witness the popularity of shows such as _Masterpiece Theatre_. These shows so frequently seem to feature beautifully dressed English aristocrats, who never need to raise their voices, since no one else ever does, and the noise of the ordinary world doesn’t penetrate into their rarified spaces.
I think this exaggerates the perception that English people are quieter and more refined, even if there is a kernel of truth to it.
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### Author:  [@Algernon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algernon)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2002, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-a-foreigner/113420/31 "2002-06-13T16:43:51Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by JS Princeton \*
> When visiting Ecuador, I once met a man who upon learning I was from the United States and could speak English decided to do his impression of a speaker of my native tongue.
>
> What came out sounded like some bizarre mixture of Japanese and German. It was really amusing. “Wornau weeown shoo sootoortheneer” was about all I could get down phoenetically before side-splitting laughter ensued.
This question has been bugging me ever since I was a little kid. I was fascinated with Sid Caesar doing his foreign language impersonations on the early television show, _Your Show of Shows._ Sid Caesar was a genius in voicing jibberish which sounded like he was really speaking in a foreign language. He was a master at French, German, Japanese, Russian, Arabic, and Italian.
Here are some [video clips](http://www.sidvid.com/vidclips.html) of Sid in action.
I wondered at the time what English would sound like if someone were to spout jibberish in an attempt to mimic English.
While all of these posts are helpful, I sure would love to hear the foreign equivalent of Sid Caesar.
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### Author:  [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2002, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-a-foreigner/113420/32 "2002-06-13T19:54:24Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Algernon \*
> \*\*
> While all of these posts are helpful, I sure would love to hear the foreign equivalent of Sid Caesar. \*\*
There was a German comedian who did a bit in his live shows where he taught Germans to say the “th” as in the word, “with”.
As this sound is not in the German language, he said it a few times and said, “All together now…th…”
To see an audience of 100’s of Germans all basically doing nothing but spitting into the air was pretty hilarious.
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### Author:  [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2002, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-a-foreigner/113420/33 "2002-06-13T20:13:17Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by DMark \*
> **Also, if you are American, rent the film Trainspotting…you won’t understand a word of the English they are speaking (I believe there are even subtitles in the American version)**
There are subtitles in _one_ scene, and they appear in the UK version as well.
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### Author:  [@zorch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zorch)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2002, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-a-foreigner/113420/34 "2002-06-13T21:16:19Z")
Once, I was talking to a Japanese girl who spoke English and some Japanese, and her mother who spoke Japanese and very limited English. Out of the blue, I spoke some gibberish sentence in what I thought Japanese sounded like to me. They both turned to each other, and said, in unison, and in English, 'What did he say?"
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### Author:  [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2002, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-a-foreigner/113420/35 "2002-11-08T13:12:11Z")
Think I posted this before, but a Welsh friend of mine, when she was five and spoke no English, thought English people sounded like:
> [@](#):
>
> Shing shelane a home on all a days.
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### Author:  [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2002, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-a-foreigner/113420/36 "2002-11-08T13:15:12Z")
Wrong thread. Oops.
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### Author:  [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2002, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-a-foreigner/113420/37 "2002-11-08T13:39:36Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Motog \*
> \*\*I’m going to try to say this without heading into GD and IMHO territory but, for me, the defining characteristic of most American english speakers is their volume. US citizens seem to speak very loudly.
>
> …
>
> Before **Javaman** jumps on me, I’m an Australian… \*\*
Strange. I’m a Canadian and to me, the loudest Anglophones in the world, _by far,_ are Australians. Amazingly loud, far more so than Americans. Every Australian I’ve ever met speaks very loudly. Or so it sounds to me.
On the other hand, strangely enough, South Africans always seem to speak quietly, white or black (even though they’re different accents.)
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### Author:  [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2002, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-a-foreigner/113420/38 "2002-11-08T13:49:36Z")
In my corner of the US, we have a lot of people from “the islands, mon.” i.e. Jamaica. They speak English, you know it’s English, but it sounds like a foreign language. I tell people who can speak and understand it that they are bi-lingual.
People who think Americas speak slow have obviously never been to New York City.
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### Author:  [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2002, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-a-foreigner/113420/39 "2002-11-08T20:34:55Z")
Or to the Valley. “Okay, soIwasalllike ‘Idon’tthinkso’ andhe’sall ‘Likefersure’… blah…blah…” I wonder what that sounds like- a dog yipping?
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### Author:  [@Eats\_Crayons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eats_Crayons)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2002, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-a-foreigner/113420/40 "2002-11-08T21:42:50Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by RickJay \*
> \*\*
> Strange. I’m a Canadian and to me, the loudest Anglophones in the world, _by far,_ are Australians. Amazingly loud, far more so than Americans. Every Australian I’ve ever met speaks very loudly. Or so it sounds to me. \*\*
Really? I’m Canadian, my girlfriend’s an Aussie. On a few occasions, she’s told me “Australians talk through their teeth.” Calling Oz once and getting her family on the line – well, they couldn’t understand me.
Major part of it is that I talk too fast (even for an Ontario Canadian, I talk WAAAY fast). So, then I got the idea to “talk through my teeth.” A-ha! Worked like a charm!
I’ve never found them to be loud. Unless it was a fun, rowdy occasion, but then my Canadian friends get loud and boisterous when we all get together too.
More related to the OP:
I stopped by a Korean stand in a food court. The guy had his back to me and when I realized he was oblivious to my presence and would be busy for awhile, I said a Korean greeting I know (roughly seven syllables) and did my very best to pronounce it all properly.
What really struck me, was that to get the words out the way they’re supposed to sound, I used a completely different register of my voice. I swear, I thought for a second that it must have sounded to those around me like I’d sucked back some helium. Similarly, my co-worker speaks Japanese to his wife and sounds like he goes up an octave too (he sounds like he’s trying to immitate the voice of a child).
So I’ve been wondering if we sound deep, mumbly and “mushy.”
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