damian 0 Posted April 9, 2003 Share Posted April 9, 2003 What does English sound like to a non-Enlish speaker? How does a non-Enlish speaker imitate English. I can imitate Chinese and German and French etc. EAll languages have particular sound characteristics. German sounds harsh, as does Russian. Latino languages have a rolling sound to them and nordic languages sound like 'bounce'. Japanese sounds like one long monotone of all-the-same, usually fast and punctuated with funny sounding particles and the omnipresent -masu. Has anyone, via a translator, asked a non-Enlish speaker what English sounds like. Even better, have you asked them to imitate it? I would love to know. I also wonder if English sound s the same to a non-Enlish speaking Russian as it does to a non-Enlish speaking Italian. Link to post Share on other sites
mikazooki 0 Posted April 9, 2003 Share Posted April 9, 2003 i too have shared your wonder. try asking your jap mates to talk japanese with an english accent, it may be enlightening/amusing. Link to post Share on other sites
snowboard_freak 0 Posted April 9, 2003 Share Posted April 9, 2003 I've often wondered the same thing db. I don't think that there would be one way that English sounds because there are so many different kinds of English that all sound very different. The Aussie English is very different from the Canadian English, US English, English English and so. They all have different sounds. I was watching an American TV show the other day called "Maximum Exposure". They had sub-titles when any Australian or Canadian spoke, but not when an American spoke. Link to post Share on other sites
taguchi 0 Posted April 9, 2003 Share Posted April 9, 2003 It sounds like English to me! Difficult to describe it. Link to post Share on other sites
nzlegend 1 Posted April 10, 2003 Share Posted April 10, 2003 I have often stared at a page of Kanji and thought wow, whats it like to look at that and not see gobbelty gook but see a story unfolding....must be cool... Link to post Share on other sites
damian 0 Posted April 10, 2003 Author Share Posted April 10, 2003 i remember when i was so young that i could not read. I would watch my brother read a book and be amazed at the whole affair. I couldn't grasp the concept that he was reading words. He would read it aloud and I thought he was making it up. It just didn't make sense, this thing called reading. I am not sure how I can remember something like that from so long ago, let alone how I was so young that I couldn't read, yet I understood that he could read something that i couldn't. I was very envious that he could read these so called words and I could not. Link to post Share on other sites
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