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

By: Technology Bytes: Auto-Captioning Expanded on YouTube

Technology Bytes: Auto-Captioning Expanded on YouTube — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 08:07:29 +0000

[...] Last November YouTube released a beta version of their auto-caption features, which uses the speech-to-text algorithms in Google’s Voice Search to generate video captions. Those capabilities are now available to all YouTube users, a particularly helpful tool for the deaf and those trying to learn English. [...]

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By: Alex

Alex — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 04:01:41 +0000

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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By: Elisa

Elisa — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 14:34:30 +0000

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

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

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By: Nancy

Nancy — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 22:53:52 +0000

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.

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By: Lisa

Lisa — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 03:05:21 +0000

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!!

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By: Alouise

Alouise — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 20:01:33 +0000

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

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By: Kathy

Kathy — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 17:12:23 +0000

I had the same feeling, Theodore

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By: Friday Faves: « Under Solen Media

Friday Faves: « Under Solen Media — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 14:08:20 +0000

[...] travel on the mind: ever wonder what English sounds like to those who don’t speak it? Watch this video to find out. Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Busy weekendFriday Faves 4.Friday [...]

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By: Nicola

Nicola — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:30:16 +0000

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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By: Theodore Scott

Theodore Scott — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 03:19:22 +0000

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

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