# 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:** 12
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@TJdude825](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TJdude825)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2002, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-a-foreigner/113420/41 "2002-12-01T20:08:52Z")
Maybe listen to the way the characters in The Sims talk.š
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### Author:  [@istara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/istara)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2002, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-a-foreigner/113420/42 "2002-12-01T21:17:11Z")
Having lived abroad for so long, I can just about hear sometimes what makes English āEnglish.ā And by that I mean can for the first time hear a commonality between otherwise hugely varying English accents (Liverpudlian/London/etc) which previously seemed more different between one another than they did from Australian or American English, say.
English (to me) sounds more clipped, and cooler. Itās very hard to describe - think of this as a nuance difference. It also sounds āfreshā.
You have to measure my perspective by the fact that I am a native English English speaker so my recognition of an English English accent is coloured by the fact that itās probably easier on my ear.
Anyway it sounds cooler and less warm than American and Australian accents. By this I do not mean ācoldā as in unfriendly, but ācoolā as in a sort of tone.
Itās also interesting hearing non-native English speakers who speak American/English/Canadian-accented English. They act like a sort of ālensā on the language.
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### Author:  [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2002, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-a-foreigner/113420/43 "2002-12-01T22:03:27Z")
Has the answer to this question changed since last June?
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### Author:  [@Daoloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daoloth)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2002, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-a-foreigner/113420/44 "2002-12-01T22:13:47Z")
What are some of the afformentioned Chinese and Japanese punk bandsā names?
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### Author:  [@Iteki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iteki)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2002, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-a-foreigner/113420/45 "2002-12-01T23:46:10Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by vibrotronica \*
> ā¦ I noticed this while listening to some early works by the Boredoms, and later noticed it again when I saw \*\*Guitar Wolf \*\*play. Upon hearing Yakazuma Eye (from **the Boredoms** ) for the first time I remember thinking āWhat the hell is he saying?ā and then realizing āThis is what American and English rock and roll sounds like to them.ā Itās English filtered through a Japanese speakersā brain.
^^ for the last poster.
On to my own postā¦
Listen to little foreign kids singing Brittany or BSB. Having listened to one of my little in-laws happily singing Spice Girls songs before she could speak english I got a very clear picture. Her pronunciation is eerie, she could mimic any word perfectly when you asked her too, but when singing āher songsā by herself she just sang aproximate sounds. Sing out loud the words āHivvy ramy unuh taiā to the melody of āhit me baby one more timeā for an example. Similar but more bizarre and less relevant to the op is my having witnessed her 10 year old brother and their father trying out his new CD-man on Christmas Day with both of them happily singing āSmack my bitch up, smack my bitch upā.
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### Author:  [@Daoloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daoloth)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2002, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-a-foreigner/113420/46 "2002-12-01T23:59:37Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Iteki \*
> \*\*^^ for the last poster.
> On to my own postā¦
>
> Listen to little foreign kids singing Brittany or BSB. Having listened to one of my little in-laws happily singing Spice Girls songs before she could speak english I got a very clear picture. Her pronunciation is eerie, she could mimic any word perfectly when you asked her too, but when singing āher songsā by herself she just sang aproximate sounds. Sing out loud the words āHivvy ramy unuh taiā to the melody of āhit me baby one more timeā for an example. Similar but more bizarre and less relevant to the op is my having witnessed her 10 year old brother and their father trying out his new CD-man on Christmas Day with both of them happily singing āSmack my bitch up, smack my bitch upā. \*\*
Thatās like the (fake?) Danish commercial for learning English, where a Danish family merrily enjoy an English song with lyrics consisting of āI want to fuck you in the ass.ā
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### Author:  [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2002, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-a-foreigner/113420/47 "2002-12-02T00:40:12Z")
\*\*G. Odoreida \*\*
> [@](#):
>
> On a barely related tangent, I sometimes try to imagine what Roman script handwriting looks like to those who use a non-European alphabet by looking at it upside down and in the mirror (or through the page). Interestingly, IMHO it doesnāt look that different from Arabic or Hebrew when you do that.
I remember seeing a Japanese cartoon in which (from context was obviously) printed English was featured. It was represented by a lot of vertical lines interspersed with circles ||ā¢|Ā°|0|o|| \<-- more or less like that.
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### Author:  [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2002, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-a-foreigner/113420/48 "2002-12-02T02:26:42Z")
Daoloth-- Iāve seen that commercial (on the web)-- I think itās a real commerical and itās Dutch. I about broke my speen laughing.
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### Author:  [@BlueMit11](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlueMit11)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2002, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-a-foreigner/113420/49 "2002-12-02T04:20:17Z")
This is a great thread. Whenever I hear comedians impersonating someone with an accent or when I hear non-native speakers use their genuine accent I wonder what an English accent sounds like to foriegners.
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### Author:  [@Peanuthead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peanuthead)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2002, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-a-foreigner/113420/50 "2002-12-02T07:23:13Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by capybara \*
> \*\*I about broke my _speen_ laughing. \*\*
Guess it knocked the āLā out of you. š
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### Author:  [@Sparrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sparrow)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2002, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-a-foreigner/113420/51 "2002-12-02T13:47:49Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by istara \*
> \*\*English (to me) sounds more clipped, and cooler. Itās very hard to describe - think of this as a nuance difference. It also sounds āfreshā.
>
> ā¦
>
> Anyway it sounds cooler and less warm than American and Australian accents. By this I do not mean ācoldā as in unfriendly, but ācoolā as in a sort of tone.
> \*\*
I know what you mean, I perceive the different accents in terms of flavours. English seems to me kind of flavour-less, but American English has a distinct āsaltyā flavour.
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### Author:  [@twelfthsign](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twelfthsign)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2002, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-a-foreigner/113420/52 "2002-12-02T16:41:58Z")
As strange as it may seem, I was educated in a British school in India, and the english taught in India is British English, however Iāve realised and my fellow people have also beleived that although we learn and speak British english, we comprehend the American accent better. I particularly noticed this while watching a British film (pardon my absent mindedness for I dont recall which film) while on the contrary I usually donāt have a problem with the āyankeeā (if you please) accent.
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