The (Meaningless) Sound Of English

Anyone who listens to a lot of opera is probably used to listening to words sung in a language you don't understand. It takes some getting used to, yeah, but after awhile, you just get accustomed to the distinctive flow of, say, Italian or German, and even though you don't comprehend the words, the audible sound of the language becomes familiar.

So have you ever wondered what English-speakers (Americans, in particular,) sound like to foreigners who are constantly bombarded with American pop music, but don't actually understand English? Well, wonder no more: an Italian singer put together this video to demonstrate. It's an original song sung with American English diction, but the lyrics are nonsense.

It sounds surprisingly familiar, doesn't it? You feel like you ought to understand it (especially when the occasional "Baby!" or "All right!" jumps out at you,) but you don't. This is actually more or less what I feel like whenever I'm in Amsterdam. Dutch sounds basically like a blend of American-accented English and German (which I'm conversational in,) so I'm constantly on the verge of understanding what I'm hearing without actually achieving any real comprehension.

Still, I admit I'm surprised that English doesn't sound coarser than that to non-English speakers. It's certainly unique-sounding - no wonder Europeans are so good at picking the Americans out of a crowd...