What does the English language sound like to foreigners?

German and Italian are my first languages, and as English is a pretty "common" language (with common I mean that nearly everyone has to learn it at school or has listened to some English songs), I didn't have such as an "effect" when I heard it "the first time" (when was the first time I heard it? At the age of one?) ... I sang English songs at the age of two years - or at least I tried to *g* - so I can't explain what it sounds like to me.

I love how it sounds - especially British English =)

(Do you know how Lily Allen speaks? That's beautiful! At the same time I like how Estelle sings in the song American boy - is that acceptable? *g*)

The thing you note most is the "r", I think, but this depends on the accent you have while speaking. American English sometimes seems to be based on the "r"! =)

I'm learning English at school - sorry for my mistakes. :-S

Even though I originally spoke Russian, I learned English when I was like 4, so I couldn't say how it's sounds to me because I practically learned it as soon as I started communicating with my new American family.

Put it this way. A French I students learns this level of french for 4 years, (I know that might seem REALLY slow) and then suddenly, in about 8 months, advances up to French 5.

But I feel the Russian language sounds gruff, German sounds un-pleasant, and French and Italian sound beautiful.

Please don't take what I said about the German language as offense. Because I think it's a great language to learn, it's just not the most pleasant sounding language.

In south India at Tamil Nadu the mother tongue is Tamil which is being corrupted by English as the people there are very craze of English. Most of the people think knowing English only make them popular, knowledgeable and can get good jobs. Many will speak fluently and it is to be noted that China and other countries send people to Tamil Nadu because of the English knowledge. It is a fact the very ancient living language Tamil can not be spoken with out mixing English by the native people.

I spoke Vietnamese before I learned English, and I found the language interesting and a little deeper than Vietnamese.

Whenever I was to speak politely I found myself speaking in Vietnamese. (To relatives)

Now I speak English more than Vietnamese, but still find the language more 'harsh'.

Um, well my mother tongue is Dutch, but I grew up watching cartoonnetwork and American tv-shows, so I don't know, really. It sounds kinda...universal if that makes any sense. American English sounds very different than British English though...

German sounds harsh to me too :D

And French sounds beautiful, Italian sounds like they talk waaaaay too fast...

If you want to understand Mandarin but you have no clue where to start off then a program for Mandarin is the best online course for the newbies due to the fact it genuinely commences with the basis.

Go to Youtube and search "fake English".

A German "speaking" fake English:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAA_qbiOQ5k

An English (?) person "speaking" fake English:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgF0PrcGcoo

I grew up speaking German and it does still sound like everyone is speaking harshly to one another now that I speak other languages. LOL But, English sounded very nasal to me growing up unless I was listening to one of my relatives from the deep south. Her enunciation of the English language sounded like a sweet lullaby being sung to a baby.

lol, to the german that said they thought french was "ugly" I find that hilarious because we had a foreign exchange from Germany and he said French was....well, he thought it was ugly too :D

when he spoke German, it sounded like he didn't have a clue what he was saying

anyway, good question! I hope it gets on the main page ;)

also, nice avatar. my sister and i watched that growing up, A LOT!!

I speak Bahasa Indonesia most of the time and to me, English sounds polite than other languages. Chinese sounds harsh.