What English Sounds Like To People Who Don’t Speak It

By On December 16, 2009 · 24 Comments
An Italian singer writes a song to simulate the experience of hearing English without speaking it. Brilliant.

Feature Photo: B Tal Video courtesy of todaysbigthing.com.

Remember that feeling you had when you were just beginning to learn a language, or had just moved to a foreign country, and everything you heard sounded like an indecipherable code with bizarre, mysterious intonations? I remember when French sounded like an imperious serious of declarations, and Spanish resonated like a landscape of rolling hills. Now, it’s hard to remember when those languages were just strange sensory impressions, and it’s near impossible to think of hearing English this way.

Thankfully, we’ve got this amazing video to show us what it’s like. Enjoy.

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Sarah Menkedick

Matador Contributing Editor Sarah Menkedick has traveled, lived, and taught on five continents, and is constantly in pursuit of spicy food, dark beer, and new places to run. She is an MFA student at the University of Pittsburgh.

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  • http://lonelygirltravels.com Lauren Quinn

    Holy shit, it does sound like English.

    This is my new favorite jam. Can you say ringtone? Hell yeah.

  • http://meganahill.wordpress.com Megan Hill

    This is the most amazing thing I’ve seen/heard all day. It totally does sound like English. Love this!

  • p

    The funny thing is that it still sounds like english with an italian accent though haha

  • http://www.nehasweb.com neha

    For a minute I was wondering why I couldn’t understand a word! Brilliant! This just became my fwd of the day :)

  • http://www.candicedoestheworld.com Candice

    I LOVE it! Plus damn catchy song.

  • http://theworldistoobig.wordspress.com Matt Scott

    This is the coolest thing I’ve heard in ages. It’s totally catchy, but I don’t know the words to sing along…….

  • http://joelrunyon.com Joel

    There are no words…

  • http://elizabethsaunders.blogspot.com/ bibliotraveler

    It sounds a little like German (our English roots) combined with the Thriller video. They’ve got our vowels down.

  • Christine

    Great find, Sarah! This is actually something I’ve always wondered – what does the basic American accent sound like when you don’t know the words? They did a fantastic job of making that clear.

  • http://ramblingbrooke.com Brooke

    That’s hilarious. It does sound like English!

  • http://www.sharingtravelexperiences.com/ Andy Hayes

    WOAH! That is freakin cool. I love the video and the song, as has been noted above, is very catchy.

  • http://onceatraveler.com Turner

    A new perspective is always welcome… but I find the song a little weird.

  • http://milesofabbie.com Abbie

    Incredible.

  • http://www.theodorescott.com Theodore Scott

    I am underwhelmed. I usually can’t understand the lyrics to half the songs on the radio. This song sounded just like that.

  • http://enjoyeverywhere.com Nicola

    I think It’s very funny for you to know how we italians often hear your phonetics… The singer is Adriano Celentano a well known singer for italians.

    Try now to hear something in the moddle italian and “maccaroni-english” from one of his other best trash song

    check it out!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqzdKU6_8Q4&feature=PlayList&p=137CF1FF371ABDF3&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=8

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  • Kathy

    I had the same feeling, Theodore :-)

  • http://travelerahoy.wordpress.com/ Alouise

    That’s fantastic – it really does sound like english but it’s all nonsense. Except the all right part in the chorus.

  • http://www.urmovingwhere.com Lisa

    Having recently moved to Uruguay before mastering Spanish, I can completely relate. My husband and I both commented on the Dylan-esque phrasing and harmonica there. Great job!!

  • http://nancythegnomette.com Nancy

    Damn Sarah-this is cool as hell. The song is freaking catchy and hearing English without understanding it boggles the mind. My brother-in-law posted the link on facebook-it’s catching on.

  • http://theunlikelyhousewife.com Elisa

    As someone who speaks English as a second language, I am surprised and fascinated from the reactions to this song (by Adriano Celentano, a famous Italian actor and singer). It never occurred to me that anyone who actually speaks English would find this cool :-D

    I heard it the first time when I was little, since it’s from before my time, and haven’t heard it for a long time. Now, hearing it again, it makes me wonder how in the world he actually remembered the words, since they are made up :-)

    • Parigi

      Adriano Celetano is too, too cool ! The song is great.
      After all, there are Rolling Stones songs which I have known for decades and I still get the lyrics wrong, LOL.

  • Alex

    The song is cool, but as people have said it’s hard enough to understand lyrics for English songs on the radio these days anyway. It does remind me, though, of Sigur Ros, who released an entire album with songs that had lyrics in a made-up language. The sound was obviously reminiscent of their mother tongue Icelandic but there were some distinctly English-sounding phrases in there. I think both this song you’ve posted and Sigur Ros should remind us that the vocals in songs are very much just another part of the instrumentation, and the effects that language has on the sound of the vocals is just like playing a different instrument. Which is why, no matter how similar the guitar, bass and drums are in a rock song, the overall effect will be different depending on the language it’s being sung in.

    What might be more interesting to understand how foreigners hear English is a fabricated conversation.

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