What (American) English sounds like to non-English speaking people

[Varenne Rodin]

This is a fun video perspective on what English, with American accents, sounds like to non-English speaking people. http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=Vt4Df...%3DVt4Dfa4fOEY

To me, we sound like snarky casual slow-speaking Germans.

To those whose first language is not English, do you think the makers of this short movie got it right? Do you like English or find it unpleasant?

To everyone, do you enjoy listening to languages other than your own, or is that annoying for you? Do you prefer one type of English over another? Like, the UK's English over America's English? I should probably include Canada's English in this, but forget you, Canada! ;-)

[Varenne Rodin]

I was just kidding about Canada. I love Canada.

Lately I have been listening to a lot of French and Japanese music. Beautiful stuff.

[Darcy88]

That's a trippy video. It was like having a radio in the background that you can hear but are not consciously aware of. I agree it did sound somewhat German.

I like listening to other languages. I worked for a couple of years in a Chinese restaurant with an old couple who always spoke Mandarin. My favourite sounding language is Spanish. A beautiful woman with a Spanish accent can utterly own me.

I prefer the way we speak English over here as opposed to how they do back in England. Sometimes I can't even understand what actors are saying in British films.

[Melanie]

I clicked on your link but it said "not found". Americans have a lot of different accents and some have no accent.
I'm an American and took a quiz that determined I have no accent which they said is "good for TV and radio"...ha, I don't know about that.
http://www.gotoquiz.com/what_america...nt_do_you_have
Southern accents sound closest to British accents as compared to other regions in America I read.
An Aussie once told me I have an "intelligent accent"...I think that was his complimentary way of saying, you have no accent.
It's interesting to read about How and When Americans lost their British accent.
http://mentalfloss.com/article/29761...ritish-accents

[Hawkman]

I'm afraid I couldn't watch the video either. However, the question is really academic. There are so many different American Accents and there are equally as many British Accents. There are few Englishmen who can understand someone speaking with a broad Glaswegian accent, and Geordie (Newcastle and the North-West) can sound pretty horrible, and when really thick, unintelligible. I once knew the daughter of an admiral (Flag Officer Scotland and Northern Ireland) who sounded positively transatlantic, although I think she was actually Scottish. Some accents are pleasant to the ear and others aren't. It's just a question of what you're used to. Personally I find some American mispronunciations really irritating. Missal for missile is one and Rout for route (root) and an inability to pronounce double Rs in combination with vowels, as in mirror which sounds like merr and warrior which sounds like war-yer. However, these are at least understandable. Where communication breaks down is in the difference in terms for things and relative usage.

PS: I was forgetting another of my pet hates: Nucular for nuclear (new-clear)

[Melanie]

I like listening to other languages....My favourite sounding language is Spanish. A beautiful woman with a Spanish accent can utterly own me....I can't even understand what actors are saying in British films.

I'm never annoyed by other accents unless I can't understand them. I also have a difficult time with some British films (not all). I read once that Spanish is closely related to Italian and they can actually understand each other. That surprised me...and I'm not sure it's true.

[cafolini]

I'm afraid I couldn't watch the video either. However, the question is really academic. There are so many different American Accents and there are equally as many British Accents. There are few Englishmen who can understand someone speaking with a broad Glaswegian accent, and Geordie (Newcastle and the North-West) can sound pretty horrible, and when really thick, unintelligible. I once new the daughter of an admiral (Flag Officer Scotland and Northern Ireland) who sounded positively transatlantic, although I think she was actually Scottish. Some accents are pleasant to the ear and others aren't. It's just a question of what you're used to. Personally I find some American mispronunciations really irritating. Missal for missile is one and Rout for route (root) and an inability to pronounce double Rs in combination with vowels, as in mirror which sounds like merr and warrior which sounds like war-yer. However, these are at least understandable. Where communications breaks down is in the difference in terms for things and relative usage.

PS: I was forgetting another of my pet hates: Nucular for nuclear (new-clear)

You name it. LOL

[Calidore]

I'm never annoyed by other accents unless I can't understand them. I also have a difficult time with some British films (not all). I read once that Spanish is closely related to Italian and they can actually understand each other. That surprised me...and I'm not sure it's true.

I've heard that also. Since both languages are closely related in vocabulary and structure, it probably just means the listener can make out enough to get the gist of what the other is saying. I've heard the same about Spanish and Portugese.

[Charles Darnay]

I saw this one some time ago...it's really interesting. I have spent plenty of time around Americans (from the west, east, south - not so much the middle). The accents are far more noticeable than the various accents in Canada (except Québec).

[OrphanPip]

The Maritime and Newfoundland accents are pretty noticeable too.

[Ecurb]

None of us can recognize our own accents. Canadian English is instantly recognizable to me. It is identified by pronouncing out, "oot" and about, aboot. There is the use of "Eh". Again is pronounce "a gain" (instead of the American agen). A long "i" replaces the schwa sound in words like "fragile". ("frajayl" vs. the U.S. fraj(schwa)l). The "long" pronunciation of vowels is also found in accented syllables in other words, "sorrow" or "borrow". Also, words with French origins are more likely to be pronounced as they would be in French ("niche"). I know the English use some of these pronunciations, too. But overall, Canadian English sounds more like American English than like Oxbridge English (although it sounds more like Oxbridge English than American English does).

By the way, a couple of years ago when I was in Istanbul, I met a restaurant tout who claimed to look like Al Pacino. He couldn’t mimic Pacino's voice, but he had his mannerisms down pat. His best move was brushing his sleeves, which I'd never noticed Pacino doing before, but looked exactly like him. 'Can you tell what country potential customers are from as they walk down the street -- maybe from the way they dress?' I asked.

'Not from dress. From gesture. The way walk, the way smoke, the way hold their hands.' I believed him, having seen his Pacino imitation. So habits associated with nationality extend to movement of the body, as well as the tongue.

[Grit]

None of us can recognize our own accents. Canadian English is instantly recognizable to me. It is identified by pronouncing out, "oot" and about, aboot. There is the use of "Eh". Again is pronounce "a gain" (instead of the American agen). A long "i" replaces the schwa sound in words like "fragile". ("frajayl" vs. the U.S. fraj(schwa)l). The "long" pronunciation of vowels is also found in accented syllables in other words, "sorrow" or "borrow". Also, words with French origins are more likely to be pronounced as they would be in French ("niche"). I know the English use some of these pronunciations, too. But overall, Canadian English sounds more like American English than like Oxbridge English (although it sounds more like Oxbridge English than American English does).

I'm afraid I have to call false on this one. Some Eastern Canadians subscribe to the speech patterns you presented but I don't know a Vancouver-born person who says out "oot". That's the newfie accent. It's a crazy one. There's slang for cigarette where it's called a dart. I'm not sure if you've heard that one. I've heard someone say "Let's step oot fur a dirt." The I in fragile I agree with but it's not a hard and fast law, it's just how I say fragile. It's true about the French words, we all took french.

Still, we really don't talk very differently, I swear

Another gems of slang from my hometown, a tiny suburb in Vancouver.

$hit hawk - Term for the young scoundrel's who hang out in groups outside of Tim Horton's. Pretty funny, I think.

Yin - Yes

Nin - No

Adding "skees" to the end of any word. Ex; yinskees, ninskees, drinkskees...

The yin nin and skees things are from high school, I never hear them anymore. Good, because they're incredibly annoying.

Schmee for cigarette. Such a stupid one.

[Ecurb]

I live in Eugene, OR, which, like Vancouver, B.C. will soon be part of the new nation of Cascadia. Naturally, we share similar accents.

[OrphanPip]

I'm afraid I have to call false on this one. Some Eastern Canadians subscribe to the speech patterns you presented but I don't know a Vancouver-born person who says out "oot". That's the newfie accent. It's a crazy one. There's slang for cigarette where it's called a dart. I'm not sure if you've heard that one. I've heard someone say "Let's step oot fur a dirt." The I in fragile I agree with but it's not a hard and fast law, it's just how I say fragile. It's true about the French words, we all took french.

Still, we really don't talk very differently, I swear

An easy way to tell if you have the Canadian raising on the "ou" in out and about is if you pronounce it differently from the "ou" in loud.

[Grit]

I live in Eugene, OR, which, like Vancouver, B.C. will soon be part of the new nation of Cascadia. Naturally, we share similar accents.

Cascadia sounds awesome. I am tired of being associated with the yokels out East.