# What does English sound like to foreigners?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-foreigners/135668
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [November 7, 2002, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-foreigners/135668 "2002-11-07T06:16:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 14
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@rostfrei](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rostfrei)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2002, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-foreigners/135668/1 "2002-11-07T06:16:00Z")
When I scan my short wave radio bands at night and come across a broadcast in French, I think “French sounds so sexy and sophisticated”. When I hear the German language, I think it sounds cold and brusk and that everything sounds like an order/command.
Japanese sounds very complicated and Chinese sounds very tedious and it sounds like every conversation is an argument.
I was wondering what English must sound like to a Frenchman, or a German, etc? Any ideas?
Eric
---
### Author:  [@Urban\_Ranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urban_Ranger)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2002, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-foreigners/135668/2 "2002-11-07T06:26:22Z")
Like English? 😃
---
### Author:  [@criminalcatalog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/criminalcatalog)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2002, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-foreigners/135668/3 "2002-11-07T06:38:13Z")
I think it sounds dopey. It’s a couple of steps up from the canuck stereotype.
I work with spanish and vietnamese-speaking people. Vietnamese sounds very organic and throat-pinchy.
Spanish seems like it was designed for very social minds.
---
### Author:  [@DarrenS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DarrenS)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2002, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-foreigners/135668/4 "2002-11-07T06:50:55Z")
Like [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=119772).
---
### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2002, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-foreigners/135668/5 "2002-11-07T12:12:13Z")
This has come up in a thread in the past. As I noted at that time, Ricardo Montalban once described the sound of English to non-English-speaking Hispanics on a Tonight Shopw interview. He said it sounded “like dogs barking”. He then gave a wonderful of fake English as generated by a Spanish-speaking person. I could see his point. It did have the particular cadence of English, and it _did_ kinda sound like dogs barking.
---
### Author:  [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2002, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-foreigners/135668/6 "2002-11-07T12:15:44Z")
I believe I recall that it 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!”
---
### Author:  [@Obvious\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Obvious_Guy)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2002, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-foreigners/135668/7 "2002-11-07T14:48:43Z")
I’ve wondered that same thing myself. And I’ve wondered if it has a different sound to say someone who speaks Spanish from someone who speaks French.
---
### Author:  [@Shark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shark)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2002, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-foreigners/135668/8 "2002-11-07T16:49:29Z")
On a similar note, I often wondered what it sounds like when non-english speaking people parody what english people sound like. If an english person parodies someone speaking, say, chinese or french, or german, you would probably be able to tell what language they are parodying, even if they are not using any words in that language. So, if you heard a non-english speaking person parodying english, without using english words, you would have a pretty good idea of what english sounds like to others.
Does any of that make sense to anyone but me?
Now, all you have to do is find a non-english speaking person, and somehow communicate to them that you want them to parody the english language, and hear how they sound. That, and convince them that, no, you won’t be offended by their parody. This would all be greatly aided by knowing how to speak their native tongue.
---
### Author:  [@Shark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shark)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2002, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-foreigners/135668/9 "2002-11-07T16:57:42Z")
> [@](#):
>
> If an english person parodies someone speaking, say, chinese or french, or german
This should read “if an english\*\*-speaking\*\* person…”
Don’t want to single out the Queen’s subjects on this one.
---
### Author:  [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2002, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-foreigners/135668/10 "2002-11-07T17:21:15Z")
Did you read the thread DarrenS linked? I think your question is answered there. Shella shella.
---
### Author:  [@lukaspriest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lukaspriest)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2002, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-foreigners/135668/11 "2002-11-08T08:50:39Z")
In Korea, when they make fun of english (much as americans do of chinese, “Ching-chang-chong!”) they just say “Shahla-Shahla-Shahla.”
---
### Author:  [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2002, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-foreigners/135668/12 "2002-11-08T11:42:49Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Shark \*
> \*\*Now, all you have to do is find a non-english speaking person, and somehow communicate to them that you want them to parody the english language, and hear how they sound. That, and convince them that, no, you won’t be offended by their parody. This would all be greatly aided by knowing how to speak their native tongue. \*\*
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Shark \*
> \*\*Now, all you have to do is find a non-english speaking person, and somehow communicate to them that you want them to parody the english language, and hear how they sound. That, and convince them that, no, you won’t be offended by their parody. This would all be greatly aided by knowing how to speak their native tongue. \*\*
Well, the Mexicans sometimes make fun of English by suffixing everything with “-ation” (as we English speakers pronouce it): Vamos a la tiend-ation. Or from a real commercial: two days until the despid-ation aztec-ation (which is hilarious if you know who Pedro the Escamoso is and that he was talking about the Mexican world cup team [despite being Columbian himself]).
---
### Author:  [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2002, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-foreigners/135668/13 "2002-11-08T11:44:19Z")
(I have _no idea_ how that got quoted twice!)
---
### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2002, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-foreigners/135668/14 "2002-11-08T12:44:19Z")
Inside the mind of a non-English speaker trying to talk with an American:
> [@](#):
>
> Hmm, it sounds a little like German with some French thrown in, but why is it getting **louder** and **LOUDER**?