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What does English sound like to non English speakers? - THIS

  • 20-07-2012 02:40PM
    #1
    pinksoir
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,737 ✭✭✭


    My mind was blown.

    I remember watching South Park with my gf who's from Hong Kong. It was the episode with Wing and the City Wok dude, and he was shouting at her in Chinese. Only it wasn't Chinese but just what Chinese sounds like to us. My gf found it hilarious because it was just total gibberish but almost sounded intelligible.

    Turns out this dude Adriano Celantano did the same thing back in the 70's in a song, but with English. It helps that the song is absolutely kicking too...

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZXcRqFmFa8


Comments

  • #2
    chin_grin
    Closed Accounts Posts: 10,808 ✭✭✭✭chin_grin


    Just watched this a few days ago! Here it is with (phonetic) subtitles. Gas.

    The song is VERY catchy too.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wz04IBZqfFE


  • #3
    pinksoir
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,737 ✭✭✭pinksoir


    Yeah, it's a great song regardless, only made sweeter by the gibberish. Really cool video too.


  • #4
    Teyla Emmagan
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,641 ✭✭✭Teyla Emmagan


    That is absolutely brilliant!! Is it bad that I dance like that!?


  • #5
    Logical_Bear
    Closed Accounts Posts: 799 ✭✭✭Logical_Bear


    thats cool,lol!


  • #6
    CrazyRabbit
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,659 ✭✭✭CrazyRabbit


    That's also what most conversations sound like to me in a busy & loud pub/nightclub.


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  • #7
    dexter647
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,219 ✭✭✭dexter647


    Sounds way ahead of it's time for the seventies...Very cool:)


  • #8
    Calibos
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,847 ✭✭✭Calibos


    Who ja nick tha car off?

    Sounds like somthing Jabba the Hutt would say.

    Read it again.....

    All I can say, is thank God English became the Lingua Franca of Science, Commerce and Popular culture (Movies/Music) I just wish we had had done a better job of keeping Irish alive alongside it like the Welsh did.

    People often slag the English speaking nations for their lack of a second foreign language. ie. Why are European youth so good at English and the reverse isn't true. Whats wrong with English speakers?

    Nothing to my mind. They are no more lazy than the European kids. Its just that the European kids have a far greater incentive to learn English and exposure to it. ie. Hollywood and Music. Then they have a reason to keep using it when they become adults in a wide range of jobs in science/commerce/tourist industry etc.


  • #9
    Al Capwned
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,721 ✭✭✭Al Capwned


    That's strangely addictive - i've watched it 3 times so far!!! Deadly!


  • #10
    Duggys Housemate
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,298 ✭✭✭Duggys Housemate


    That's a pretty good tune, whatever about the theory.


  • #11
    biko
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 81,219 ✭✭✭✭biko


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-cAnFbEXY0


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  • #12
    Dangerous Man
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,674 ✭✭✭Dangerous Man


    Weird... I watched it twice in a row. It just sucked me right in to the point where it started to feel normal.


  • #13
    pappyodaniel
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,864 ✭✭✭pappyodaniel


    And this is what the Cockney gangster English accent sounds like to Americans!
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HWNNZGuldI


  • #14
    Solair
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,230 ✭✭✭Solair


    It seems they've similar problems between Danish, Swedish and Norwegian. They can read each other's languages but they Norwegians REALLY struggle to understand Danish.

    This sketch's actually pretty funny :) (It's in English with Norwegian subs)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_iixmqSBQw


  • #15
    psicic
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 982 ✭✭✭psicic


    Cool song.

    Though isn't this how a lot of music sounds to native English speakers as well - or is it just me?

    Cases in point:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6U8JlcB_BzA


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujYO0QaJr8Q


    Whenever anyone says to me about how meaningful the lyrics of some songs are, I nod my head and say 'great for them', but I'm thinking "How could 'sea kirk stop stop we could find it in the sieve' mean anything to anyone?"


  • #16
    Duggys Housemate
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,298 ✭✭✭Duggys Housemate


    I think the subtitled one is wrong. They are actually using nonsense words, not actual words. Might tweet this to David Lynch.


  • #17
    chin_grin
    Closed Accounts Posts: 10,808 ✭✭✭✭chin_grin


    Duggys Housemate wrote: »
    I think the subtitled one is wrong. They are actually using nonsense words, not actual words. Might tweet this to David Lynch.

    I'm pretty sure it's just their phonetic interpretation of the "words" that are being used in the song...so yeah...gibberish! :pac:


  • #18
    Standman
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,681 ✭✭✭Standman


    Great video, such a big production for a nonsensical song. Something about the way he dances over and back really close to that mirror while talking gibberish a minute or so into the video cracks me up every time. OLL RAIGTH!


  • #19
    bnt
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 13,140 ✭✭✭✭bnt


    In Japan, English sounds like "pera, pera pera" - whch is Japanese for "blah, blah blah": :cool:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTm2tk1yzSI

    You are the type of what the age is searching for, and what it is afraid it has found. I am so glad that you have never done anything, never carved a statue, or painted a picture, or produced anything outside of yourself! Life has been your art. You have set yourself to music. Your days are your sonnets.

    ―Oscar Wilde predicting Social Media, in The Picture of Dorian Gray



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