JS-1 Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 5984 days ago 144 posts - 166 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Arabic (Egyptian), German, Japanese, Ancient Egyptian, Arabic (Written)
| Message 17 of 64 14 August 2008 at 6:19pm | IP Logged |
I think Sigourney Weaver speaking Japanese would sound sexy...
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JimmyJameskun Newbie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5949 days ago 35 posts - 46 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin, Indonesian
| Message 18 of 64 15 August 2008 at 1:11am | IP Logged |
amphises wrote:
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And Chinese foreign language accents too, some of the Olympic announcers just sound terrible, especially the
female speaking French. |
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Reminds me of a story of a French teacher who taught with a very noticeable Chinese accent... everybody in that
class came out speaking a weird Chinese accented French.
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neil-flynn Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5962 days ago 116 posts - 117 votes Speaks: English* Studies: SpanishB2, Mandarin
| Message 19 of 64 15 August 2008 at 4:28am | IP Logged |
An american speaking English is not sexy. An american speaking another language is even worse
For me, the American accent is ugly.
I think that for an accent to be sexy, it has to be uncommon. I hear the american accent in films, tv, music etc everyday so it has become a normal thing to hear.
Now an Italian or Spanish accent is sexy!
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alfajuj Diglot Senior Member Taiwan Joined 6212 days ago 121 posts - 126 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: Taiwanese, French
| Message 20 of 64 15 August 2008 at 6:56am | IP Logged |
A German accent is sexy (anyone remember the Velvet Underground and Nico?)
A French accent is just plain super-sexy, especially if she speaks with such a thick accent that you don't realize that it is even English at first.
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irrationale Tetraglot Senior Member China Joined 6051 days ago 669 posts - 1023 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Tagalog Studies: Ancient Greek, Japanese
| Message 21 of 64 15 August 2008 at 11:18am | IP Logged |
I've been told by multiple people learning English on LiveMocha that English sounds sexy and musical, or "cool".
To all the native English speakers saying English doesn't sound sexy....of course it doesn't to us! We are native speakers...we don't really have an objective way to judge the sound of our own language.
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ReneeMona Diglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 5336 days ago 864 posts - 1274 votes Speaks: Dutch*, EnglishC2 Studies: French
| Message 22 of 64 07 May 2010 at 2:50pm | IP Logged |
I guess I'm in the minority, but I think American English can sound very nice at times. It's hard to look at it objectively because I'm so used to it but every now and than an American will say something that sounds really pleasing. I like speaking in an American accent myself because I like the way things sound when I say them. There are still exceptions of course. Southern American accents and the way teenagers talk (especially in California) sound grinding and unpleasant and some accents like New York get on my nerves after a while but American English as a whole is fine. I like RP and other British accents better but that may just be because I'm slightly less used to them.
I think every language has a general feel to it. English is definitely a cool language because anything I say in Dutch almost always sounds cooler (albeit less intelligent) when I translate it to English. No offence to French speakers but that's something I've always noticed about French: you can't sound cool in French. Sexy, interesting, romantic, intelligent; sure, but cool, never. Even the word for cool (chouette) sounds king of lame.
As for how an American, or any anglophone, sounds speaking a foreign language; not too good. American English has such a specific and unique pronunciation, with the diphthong vowels and the un-trilled r, that any American accent seems very hard to overcome. Whenever I hear an American speaking Dutch or another language I don't even speak their accent seems very apparent to me and makes them sound a little uneducated. Having said that, I've never liked English spoken with any foreign accent either, not even Italian or French. It just sounds so stupid. Russian is especially annoying. However, the worst is Dutch. Whenever I hear a fellow Dutchmen speak English with even a hint of a Dutch accent, I feel the need to hit them. Our prime-minister is especially bad. He sometimes makes a speech in English on television and he always looks so smug and self-important and meanwhile he sounds like an idiot. It's actually painful to watch.
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datsunking1 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5586 days ago 1014 posts - 1533 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Russian, Dutch, French
| Message 23 of 64 07 May 2010 at 5:11pm | IP Logged |
I had friends in Australia that loved my American accent, and I love theirs. :D
We made videos of us going places (like school) so they could see first hand what it's like to change classes, no uniforms, etc. It was really cool to see how other's live :)
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clang Groupie United States Joined 5340 days ago 54 posts - 82 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Italian
| Message 24 of 64 07 May 2010 at 6:18pm | IP Logged |
Now that this thread has been revived: I've heard a couple people say that my American English accent while
speaking Russian is pleasant, adorable, endearing, and attractive, not necessarily sexy. I've been called soft spoken
and a "light" speaker, things I've never heard about myself while speaking English! Apparently, my ш ч and г are
softer than native speakers, etc. Although Russian speakers do not find it cute when native English speakers (or
those with other accents, I'm assuming) fail to recognize soft signs or the difference between и and ы.
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