Ready for another accent challenge? 👉🏼kzread.info/dash/bejne/k6ies66Jfb2amsY.htmlsi=5TO9smHkb70EmuQf

Want to hear your accent in a foreign language? Try recording yourself. You’ll probably discover it’s not a good as you think! 😂

@kilanspeaks

7 ай бұрын

I’m going to start doing that! I’ll start recording myself learning French, Spanish, Italian, and German.💪 Hope I’m not gonna embarrass my future self too much!

@lisamarydew

7 ай бұрын

I agree!

@AslanKyoya1776

7 ай бұрын

When I was younger if I sounded even sort of fluent I would think "wow I sound like a native" but then would wonder why native speakers would laugh at me

I am a lot more conflicted about accents... Yes, they can be lovely but only as long as they don't impede comprehension. While an English native may be able to negotiate most foreign accents, one must also remember that English is often used as a lingua franca between two people neither of whom is a native (a Thai and a Czech, a Mexican and a Cantonese, etc.). Therefore, don't drop your "listen and repeat" drills just yet. A bit of an accent is ok, but only just a bit.

As a Ukrainian learner, i completely freaked out that i got the fist accent immediately right, i'm so proud of myself.

I was living in Canada for two years and I got surprised when I was told that even if I had a strong accent, it was not the classical Spanish accent the Spanish native speakers have when they speak English. Even though I'm Mexican I unconsciously developped a weird and maybe original accent.

9:31 Err Indonesian isn’t a tonal language and we roll our Rrrrrr like Spanish/Italian speakers so we don’t sound like our Thai friends at all. We might sound a tiny itsy bit like our neighbors in the Philippines whenever we speak in English (but unlike most Filipinos who are fluent in English we don’t really speak the language LOL). And despite being close neighbors, our English sounds nothing like them Malaysians; being ex-colonies of the British Empire, Malaysia and Singapore are the closest relatives in Southeast Asia with their Manglish and Singlish. I have videos in which I speak in English on my channel if you want some examples on how an Indonesian would sound like.

If you make another one of these, you should include the Quebec accent. I would imagine it would be pretty tricky to place if you've never heard it before, because it's definitely quite different from a traditional French accent.

I love my accent. Its unique and distinctive. Im from Hawaii and we speak Pidgin English. A classic plantation soup of language. Even within the islands, a local can tell what area u from based on how u speak Pidgin.

@sercan1226

7 ай бұрын

Are you an English teacher

@nikkicrayons

7 ай бұрын

@@sercan1226 nope

Each of these written before I got the answer: 1. Russian (although it could easily be Belarussian or Ukrainian and I wouldn't know) Oh! Close. 2. Norwegian Boo! No half points. 3. That's gotta be Russian. Ah crap. 4. Swiss German Yikes! 5. Thai. Oh pfft. 6. Maltese Bah. 7. Spanish. She sounds like Penelope Cruz. Pfft. 8. Greek. YES! 9. Nepalese - no. Laos. Ah. ---

I find the Israeli accent of spoken English very unique and fascinating since I’m an almost fluent speaker of Hebrew myself (been learning over five years now). Although I have heard sometimes some subtleties in some Israeli accents I’ve come across; in cases where they speak American English or with a slight American accent the rhoticity is there somewhat and you can tell instantly along with the cadence. In other cases I’ve heard Israeli accents with a British slant if they’re speaking UK English meaning r’s are dropped with certain words and it’s almost “Oh, yes, darling. Twinings, twinings. Tea, dear?”. In a good way I must add. 😂

@gabrielkinneavy1853

7 ай бұрын

@@mehrimazedehThat’s specifically known as ‘אם/Em…’ what you’re talking about. Yeah, fascinating otherwise.

I got swedish because i have met a few swedish people who speak english and I got cantonese/hong kong because a lot of chinese people i grew up with in the UK were from hong kong, so the rhythms felt the same.

I feel like a bit of a nerd most of the time, but I can see that I’m in good company here. In the past few months, I’ve detected an English accent to within 20 miles. Yes; the accent of Burton on Trent is neither West Midlands nor East Midlands. Great video. Thank you.

@tedvillalon4139

7 ай бұрын

My step-dad was from Newcastle upon Tyne (Geordie?)but he spoke with a Received Pronunciation. He received it across his bottom in some piah public school.

@PuffPuff279

6 ай бұрын

@davidsmart8594 Can you do it for London accents by any chance? 😊

@davidsmart8594

6 ай бұрын

@@PuffPuff279 Ooh...that's more difficult. The nuances around London are very fine...

I got Swedish, Romanian, Hong Kong/Cantonese, Greek and Thai right. I thought Ukrainian was Russian, Israeli was Turkish, Sicilian was Arabic (really blew that one) and Kenyan was Trinidadian English.

@ROFLBOB24

7 ай бұрын

I thought Sicilian was Arabic too

@jamawl66

7 ай бұрын

tons of Arabic influence on Sicilian pronunciation so this isn't much of a stretch at all

@jsphat81

7 ай бұрын

I only got Swedish , Greek and Thai right. I thought Ukrainian was Portuguese, Romanian was Italian, Israel was Arabic, Kenyan was South African, Sicilian was Persian (Farsi), and Cantonese was Singaporean.

@kaelanmcalpine2011

7 ай бұрын

I only got Swedish right. I thought Ukrainian was Swedish, Sicilian was New York/Jersey (I think because the man mentioned paying with dollars instead of euros), Cantonese was Taiwan (Also forgot that Taiwan also speaks Mandarin), Thai was Korean, Israeli was Indian and thought the Kenyan one was in one of three regions: The Caribbean, Africa or India. I was generally correct on the Africa part but could not pinpoint a specific country

The video example for accent 7 was interesting! Them being unable to pronounce diagnosed and somehow turning it into "diagonized" (those are so different, I'm not even sure how that happened!) reminded me of another accent video you did that showed folks in Miami using the non-existent word "supposebly" lol I bet you could make a whole video on little words like these that get morphed into other words in some dialects because the speakers just can't seem to pronounce them for whatever reason, and it becomes something unquestioned by the locals.

I only got 3/9 accents correct. I only got Ukrainian, Greek, and Romanian accents correct. For accent #2 no idea. Accent #4 my guess was French but it was Israeli. For #5 I guessed Malaysian but it was Cantonese. #6 I had no idea and it was Sicilian. For #7 I guessed Nigerian but it was Swahili. And for #9 I guessed Filipino but it was Thai.

Greetings brother. Just came across your channel while looking for international english accents. Love the guessing game and ive done well in three of the videos so far(at least half right). The reason for guessing soany countries is because i was born and raised in Jackson Heights, Queens. Everyone and their mother lived there. 😅 Ive always beem facinated with different cultures and accents. My highschool had a record set with 147 different nationalities represented in 1992, so you get to hear many languages and try A TON different cuisines. Thank you for your content. Subbed immediately.

I can always spot a KZreadr with a Canadian accent. It's amazing how many there are. The "eu" sound gives it away, as in "heuse" for "house" ,"abeut" for "about", etc. I can't spell this out, but the "eu" almost has an upward inflection at the end, like "eu-ee". BUT, some Canadians pronounce that sound more like "oa", so we have something like "hoase" and "aboat". I don't know why, but Canadians from Ontario have the heaviest "eus" and "oas". But of course there are many regional accents, some of which I can't even understand. We lived in New Brunswick for years, and in NB and Nova Scotia, a house doesn't have a "yard" - it's a "yairrd". Yarmouth is pronounced Yairr-muth. Very harsh, almost pirate-like. But if you go south to Maine, to Bar Harbour, it isn't Bairr Hairrbor at all - it's more like "Bahh Hahbahh."

People who learn Arabic complain that the Arabic dialects from North Africa to the Middle East are completely different. Just look at English and Chinese! Note: if you study the standard form of a language, then you will not have this problem.

@josecarloelpescadero9164

7 ай бұрын

Arabic Dialects Are different because they share one same Root which is Classic Arabic or Fussha mixed with Berber, French mostly, Turkish, now lots of American words, while each country have different vocabulary of the words they use, that's why it's confusing...and different pronunciations of the letters as well which indicates the geographical origin of the speaker !! English is not a language compared to the Ole English is completely different it's a Germanic language mixed with Danish or Scandinavian, while Hebrew was a dead language for ages, they revived it, now a half a dozen or more speak it while it's just like Arabic but a bit twisted if u know what am sayin' or what I mean. :-)

Great video and surprisingly difficult to get many of these right. Greeks seem to struggle with ‘sh’, ‘ch’ and ‘j’, so they say ‘fees and tseeps’ and ‘tsees and dzam sandweetseez’ for ‘fish and chips’ and ‘cheese and jam sandwiches’, though ‘yudz’ for ‘judge’ is a new one on me! I thought the most distinctive feature of Kenyan, other than its overall African sound, was rolled r’s - perhaps the accents can vary there?

My native tongue is Hatitan Kreyol & Fraçais, now I'm learning Arabic so I can connect on deeper level with a wonderful soul I met. He speaks Fracais, Arabic, German, and English. We tend to speak mostly English, and some French. It is challenging & fun at the same time. People look at us in either amazement or try to figure what we are speaking. It's sort of funny.

I didn’t get any right, but I enjoyed the video. I also find accents fascinating, especially in the UK where the accent can change dramatically in such a short distance (i.e. Manchester and Liverpool)

I got the second one from the word “see”. That vowel having such a closed throat is very specific to Sweden. I remember the first time I met a swede and she said something like that and I couldn’t get past the ee sound

I got 5-9, not bad! 1. Russian (got it wrong, Ukrainian) 2. Sweden (got it right) 3. Romanian (got it right) 4. Hebrew (got it right) 5. Cantonese (got it right) 6. Italian (got it wrong but close enough, Sicilian) 7. Nigerian (got it wrong, Swahili/Kenyan) 8. Greek (got it right) 9. Vietnamese (got it wrong, Thai)

I only got Greek! And it reminded me terribly of Nadja's accent from What We Do in the Shadows (the series). 😂

Ghana

I really like what Olly said about people's native accents and how you shouldn't feel ashamed, unfortunately I'm not sure I remember my native accent because I've been uprooted so many times. I was born in Tennessee and used to have an Appalachian accent, then we moved to Alabama where I picked up an Alabama accent, but as we moved further west and further north (and the more acting classes I took) I had almost no trace if a southern accent left. Today my accent is either General American or Transatlantic depending on the situation. I can do a Deep South Drawl, but I'm just getting to where it doesn't sound forced.

I guess I have a North Welsh-North Carolinian hybrid accent. I doubt anyone would have guessed mine!

The Swede spoke in a very singsong way, so I thought Norwegian, as that's how Swedes describe the Norwegian speech. Interesting.

The person at 8:18 is Spanish, not Greek, but I agree that Greek and Spanish people have the same accent when speaking English 😀

@lisanarramore222

5 ай бұрын

She's speaking in a Greek accent, not a Spanish accent.

🤔Got Swedish, Greek and Thai. Probably don’t deserve credit for Thai, as I have been torturing Thai tones, only sometimes with real intent, for more than fifty years. The accent of the young Thai lady in the clip is very much what one would hear in the speech of a well educated younger Thai woman. My seventy-something Thai wife speaks a version of English that is syntactically rather more calqued.

Let’s see… I guessed Swedish on my own, Romanian after you showed the guy teaching how to do the accent, Israeli when you said it was one of the oldest languages (I was guessing Iranian before that). That’s all. And I don’t know what accent I have. I was raised in Louisiana by parents from Montana and California with many older siblings after they traveled around the country in the military, near an Air Force base so there were lots of other people like that, and I picked up words and pronunciations in a deliberate sort of way instead of intuitively. I lived the last 30 years in California and I’m now in Texas. My accent and indeed my regional speech are both kind of a hash at this point.

Have you done the accents of south Louisiana?

@storylearning

7 ай бұрын

I’ll look into it!

Number 2 was the most stereotypical Swedish accent I've ever heard.

I got number right right thanks to What We Do In The Shadows! 😂

a friend showed me a video of yours today explaining some weird american accents but u didn't explain the one i had heard. there is a science youtuber called Isaac Arthur that does very science videos but it was difficult to get used to his accent. is he american?

People often wonder what's my accent as coming from a 4 official languages country and speaking 2 fluently, it's a bit of a gamble. I wonder how difficult is to guess when people have more than one "linguistic background".

Italian

My accent is probably difficult to pinpoint. I have a slight irish accent, but most people would probably hear that I'm not from there. There isn't much trace of Norwegian left in my accent. Very conscious about it, and I made an effort to get rid of it. Because, in my opinion, a thick Norwegian accent is the worst. Just have a listen to Jens Stoltenberg, then you'll know what I'm talking about.

English/Israeli accent here. Today a little kid, I just met told me "sometimes you sound like me and sometimes like . . . . lah lah lah"! I think she meant that English from England (South East) sounds sing-songy next to Hebrew which is quite clipped and punctuated.

The first one I thought Russian or polish , didn’t even occur to be Ukrainian to me. Second I got immediately, 3rd was a slight guess but I knew it was not Spanish or Italian so I said Romanian. 4th I got, 5th I got, 6th I did not get but was thinking maybe Maltese. 7 I got, but wasn’t sure. 8 I got. 9 was probably the easiest. Was a cool video, I think I need to hear more accents from around the world!

The “swedish” sounded more Norwegian to me. I live in Sweden and don’t often find that the Swedes replace the W sound with a V sound whereas the Norwegians do that all the time. I do find that they swap the J and Y sound though.

1. Russian 2. Swedish 3. French 4. Turkish 5. Chinese 6. Sicilian 😮 7. South African 8. Argentine 9. Thai

Midwestern American accent but with some influences of the US South.

I've watched Taya's channel before so I knew # 1.

I only guessed the Greek one right.

As a Romanian, I can attest the accent does not sound like a typical Romanian accent and we don't "v" the "w"'s

One suggestion if you do more of these: don't show the people speaking with each accent, as their physical appearance can give some clues.

@jmwild22

7 ай бұрын

The names underneath are even bigger clues.

@hopsiepike

7 ай бұрын

His last video had a white guy with a Singaporean accent, just to mess with any assumptions.

@lisamarydew

7 ай бұрын

Clever, don't you think? :) @@hopsiepike

spanish

I'm not native English speaker, but I don't have any accent at all. Because I am practicing a lot.

South African my bru I only got the Swedish one right :(

Polish

Heritage or not, I'd say it's still preferable that a person learning a new language will attempt their best to adapt to a common accent of it, especially if they move to a place where it's spoken so it's expected the person will imitate their surrounding's accent through immersion. I'd say as an Israeli, the 4th example is when someone (here probably on purpose) completely doesn't try to refine their English pronunciation. There are actually some Israelis who've been living in the USA for decades and still sound like this, perhaps because they feel they would sound ridiculous if they were to "fake an accent". And while an Israeli accent in English is likely understandable to most, when I visited London recently, on some occasions speaking to immigrants of South Asian origin (possibly Pakistani) proved almost incomprehensible to me when their accent was entirely unadjusted. This of course could also happen with native English accents that are less familiar on a global level.

@Zomerset

7 ай бұрын

I agree that people learning a new language should sound close to the general accent of that country, but too much. I cringe a bit when I hear British people put on a really thick French or Italian accent.

@TLguitar

7 ай бұрын

@@Zomerset Perhaps if you're British and feel like you're watching another brit making an impression, you get a cringing effect (mirroring their own supposed feelings which I mentioned earlier, of feeling like you fake an accent and sound ridiculous). But I think to a native listener it would sound more natural even if the accent is only half-accurate.

@Zomerset

7 ай бұрын

@@TLguitar partly true. I cringe because it almost sounds like we are mocking them. Us Brits aren’t the best at learning other languages, but can fall into the trap of using stereotypes when putting on an accents. But I agree, getting the sounds and pronunciation right it very important. I love accents and we have so many in the UK, I think we’re fairly good at making logical guesses at what people are trying to say.

@TLguitar

7 ай бұрын

@@Zomerset Maybe there is a matter of context, who's speaking and in what language, but I think if the attempt at an accent is done while actually speaking the language then few native speakers would think of it as mocking. If I hear someone speaking Hebrew while trying their best at an Israeli accent, whether it is a Jewish immigrant or a foreign worker, I know they simply worked on improving their ability to communicate. And indeed about local British accents, the officer (not sure that's the correct term) checking passports at the airport had a very thick regional accent I didn't recognize, perhaps with Celtic-inflections but I don't think it was Scottish of sort. I understood maybe 20% of the short exchange we had.

I don't feel like I have an accent. Nobody ever thinks I sound Finnish even though I'm from Finland. My accent is just a generic British-sounding one because it's non-rhotic.

Hebrew

Ahhhh #4 🪳🪳🪳🪳

I got several right

In Turkey, 20 years ago, we were humiliated for speaking English with a Turkish accent. A native like sound was more superior.

I only got Swedish and Israeli lmao.

I am German but I've been told several times that I sound like I'm from Surrey😃

I'm surprised how many I got right

Hmmm you start with French, Dutch or Danish but then use the German flag for Dutch.

I own venezuelan accent wherever i go

Unbelievable, I only got the Hong Kong accent right. 🗿

accent 4 - Israeli. Ivrit speaker.

First girl is Dutch not Flemish, nor French nor Portuguese. The second guy is Latin from America Latina, while this third one the Scandinavian Blond girl is trying, is pronouncing words like Italians do but she's not Italian could be Swedish or Finnish , The Brunette has a distinctive R which gets a bit tricky the Dexter shows, it's Mediterranean but a bit in the East or mixed or near Slavic like countries. could be Greek or Romanian or Bulgarian depends on their education, while the Hebrew Accent they talk like other Middle-Easterns in Egypt or the Levant but the R like French is Ashkenazi not Sephardim in origin even if she is not, I speak 2 Languages fluently other than English & also other than My mother Tongue Language.. Am Also learning the 5th Language now ... I subscribed good job and Good Luck

N.2 is Swedish

I got 6 out of 9.

The person with the "Swedish accent" does not speak in a natural way, she's just trying to sound as Swedish as possible.

The clips are too short to identify most of them other than the general group and in general most of these activities ends are fairly rarely encountered. And most of these countries have significantly different regional accents themselves so an individual speaker may not have an accent that is particularly typical of a speaker of the "preferred" native dialect of their country.

I speak good England but I couldn’t guess any of these accents.

Portuguese 2:44 3:14 I was wrong 😂

First is Taya from Ukraine so i guesed that in a moment.

5 hong kong.

Howdy! Everything you want to know about russian accent BLeAT!

Number 3 is Romanian 😅

I got Romanian, Israeli, and Kenyan, but I thought Swedish was Norwegian. Alas.

"Num ninho de mafagafos há cinco mafagafinhos quem os desmafagafizar um bom desmafagafizador será"

The first case is incorrect, it is unclear which of the two languages influenced her English, her accent in English sounds absolutely Russian.

New York Citay

Zanzibar is part of Tanzania, not Kenya 😅

@lisamarydew

7 ай бұрын

Olly never said Zanzibar is part of Kenya. He said it's another place where Swahili is spoken. 😄

Chinese

8 bulgarian

Cmon Olly. FRISIAN. publish some books & audio next please.

Greek threw me off, I thought it was from Spain because she said "Shut the lights" just like in Spanish

Turkish accent??

🎉🎉🎉

I got Ukrainian and Sicilian right

Kiwi accent.

Why would you make it 9, and not 10 … That seems incomplete.

Mine is a New Zealand accent, so only Australians recognise it 😅.

@TLguitar

7 ай бұрын

The New Zealand _e_ vowel sounding more like an _ee_ is pretty recognizable.

@KiwiTigress

7 ай бұрын

@@TLguitar I'm glad there is a dedicated group paying attention 👌 I've lived in Aussie (Western Australia) for nearly 10 years now, and to be fair, I frequently can't recognise another Kiwi now to save my life 😅.

@TLguitar

7 ай бұрын

@@KiwiTigress Which makes me think how it is often claimed a person neurologically cannot learn a new accent up to a native-like level past the age of 8 or so, but often the subtle variance in pronunciation that exists as-is amongst native speakers of a certain vernacular means one might not be able to exactly pin-point what makes the "correct version" of an accent. Meaning you might learn a new accent well enough that even if there would remain in it a slight inflection from your native accent, it shouldn't necessarily mean you won't sound native to most listeners.

@KiwiTigress

7 ай бұрын

@@TLguitar I think it depends very much on the listener too. I lived in Canada for a bit and everyone I met thought I was Aussie until I did a knock off of Steve Irwin's accent, which was always a good time. Aussies and Kiwis have a lot more exposure to each other and when living in their own country can spot the other at a thousand paces. I will say though , the accent in the Eastern States (Queensland, NSW and probably VIC especially) is stronger (leaning toward "Strine") than in WA. Aussies reckon we say "Fush and Chups" while we reckon they can't count past five without saying "sex" I can spot the Māori New Zealand accent though as it has lots of fun, playful little bits to it. Apparently there is difference between North Islanders and, particularly lower, South islanders but I have yet to study this. The channel "Lang Focus" did a cool analysis of Australian English, New Zealand English, and Māori which are pretty bang on tbh. I don't believe an accent can't be learnt though (just look at Matt vs Japan or Ari/Xiaoma who have been taken as native speakers, they probably as you say, have tiny unusual inflections somewhere in there that no one is picking up on) but to do language to that level takes dedication 😳 I have no desire to sound like an Aussie, marrying one is quite enough for me 😆

@TLguitar

7 ай бұрын

@@KiwiTigress Well, I will mention that I just watched a video by Tom Scott about some spherical houses in the Netherlands and the Dutch guy whose house was shown sounded somewhat Australian to me. There was a thread about Tom's Dutch pronunciation and I mentioned the Dutch guy's Australian-ish English. Someone correctively replied that "it sounds South East English" yet that Dutch guy later chimed in explaining he has actually lived in Australia for a bit and has family friends that are Australian. I suppose when you notice some recurrent features it's easier to make the connection even if the accent is not perfect.

Number 1 is Ukrainian. Easy-peasy lemon squeezy. I am Ukrainian so I knew from an instant.

The third accent is German I think

Appalachian

1. Ukrainian :D She speaks in Russian natively and speaks in Ukrainian language with Russian accent :) So her accent is 100% Russian)

Hold the phone! Did you really claim that Zanzibar is part of Kenya?

you said Dutch @0:05 and the flag of Germany...i see it as a joke :p

Write world war 2 in simple italian per favore !

After following several Ukrainian KZreadrs and Instagram accounts since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the first one was a no-brainer! 😁

I only got Israeli right immediately. That’s only because my dentist is from Israel. 😅

I enjoy your videos, but your Greek speakers were very very wrong!!! They sounded like non Greeks trying to speak like a Greek would speak English! Sorry!! This makes me wonder now about the rest of the accents!