What English sounds like to non-English speakers

Skwerl is a short film by Brian Fairbairn and Karl Eccleston which attempts to show how English language sounds to non-English speakers.

It’s quite clever really. Just imagine that if you were to attempt learn another language, when listening to a foreign conversation, you wouldn’t be able to follow the whole discussion, but you’d know a few words here and there.

The script for the film consists mostly of real English words, but is spoken out of order and is riddled with spelling and pronunciation errors. It's truly an incredibly realistic illustration of the frustration felt by foreign language learners.

So, in why not yacht’s a feeling this time is eye this picture bus pillow, screen and smile?

3 comments

Fascinating and hey what good acting. It would be hard to learn script like that. I have always wondered what English would sound like if I didn't speak it so thanks for the video. Some languages sound harsh and some soft but English appears to be in between.

Yes very true not harsh at all

English sounds a lot better to be than the Nordic languages where many a statement still sounds like a question, or the guttural sounds of Central Europe, or, and the worst, Middle Eastern accents which sound like a pig flatulating on the mud.

I expect the actors spoke normal and the sound effects people rearranged the words. And arabic can sound different in the way English sounds different in Scotland, America and Canada.

Yes Norma

It is interesting that English can sound so differentpending where it is spoken.

3 comments



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