There is a known phenomena among some E Asian living in America to learn English so thoroughly that they loose the accent. The problem is that their English is too good; their diction becomes the accent that gives them away.
It’s almost impossible to pass as a native speaker without years of immersion in the culture.
I know a Swedish person who people absolutely refuse to believe is Swedish. She learned English largely from TV and speaks perfect vernacular English with a SoCal accent. She’s also black so I think that contributes to it.
English is doable IMO, there are so many accents already that you should be able to find one that suits you (except you must be able to say “r”) if you just have to get rid of your accent.
It’s Norwegian that’s the funny language, in pronunciation anyways! Hoppi toppi tuudi! Can’t imagine an angry Norwegian… Never thought about the butter goose though, norway says “sandwich”?! Like sand and a sorceress? Hmm not much better.
Danish is excluded from all kind of competition because it’s a language from hell, I’m totally with you there.
you three… tisk tisk* don’t you see? this tribalism of differences is the real reason why the Catholics were able to divide and defeat the vikings. this is why we all need to just come together with English. and besides to my American ears you all sound just terrible
I think swedish is very easy if you just listen to it. You can pick accents there as well, just avoid the unhinged stuff like visby and youll have a pretty easy time. Everyone brings up the swedish prosody and pitch accent but its just a melody you memorize/practice for each word. The two hardest things for me were/are y and the “sj”(ɧ) thingy.
I guess you could learn which word has which pitch accent, but can you hear it?
Danes for example are deaf to it and can’t hear the difference between tomten and tomten. It’s the same word to them.
I don’t think it’s impossible to do, just impossible to do alone. If you’ve got enough time and a good dialect coach, you can totally get there (H>E at least, I’d suspect E>H is harder for many reasons)
I mean kinda cheating but im bilingual but i still fail. I have an english accent when speaking hungarian and a hungarian accent when speaking english. Also words i dont use often come out in an irish accent cause i grew up there. Language is fluid in my head rather than something concrete. At this point im even mixing swedish words into it even tho i dont speak much of it.
I challenge you to find even the most savant polyglot speaking a foreign language without a trace of an accent.
Extra points for two languages with such different phonetics as Hungarian and English
There is a known phenomena among some E Asian living in America to learn English so thoroughly that they loose the accent. The problem is that their English is too good; their diction becomes the accent that gives them away.
It’s almost impossible to pass as a native speaker without years of immersion in the culture.
East Asian or Eastern European? Asian to English is a hard change. I’ve met many Eastern Europeans that you’d never tell.
Challenge accepted. My English is flawless
I know a Swedish person who people absolutely refuse to believe is Swedish. She learned English largely from TV and speaks perfect vernacular English with a SoCal accent. She’s also black so I think that contributes to it.
English is doable IMO, there are so many accents already that you should be able to find one that suits you (except you must be able to say “r”) if you just have to get rid of your accent.
Now try swedish. Just impossible.
Swedish is just speaking Norwegian using baby words in the tone of an upset child. Who calls their sandwiches butter goose, honestly.
Try Danish when sober. That’s nigh impossible.
Found the Norwegian
Not even Danes can do it!
There’s even a documentary about that
https://youtu.be/s-mOy8VUEBk
I never get tired of this sketch.
It’s Norwegian that’s the funny language, in pronunciation anyways! Hoppi toppi tuudi! Can’t imagine an angry Norwegian… Never thought about the butter goose though, norway says “sandwich”?! Like sand and a sorceress? Hmm not much better.
Danish is excluded from all kind of competition because it’s a language from hell, I’m totally with you there.
The upset child sound comes through in writing too 🤣
you three… tisk tisk* don’t you see? this tribalism of differences is the real reason why the Catholics were able to divide and defeat the vikings. this is why we all need to just come together with English. and besides to my American ears you all sound just terrible
spoiler
(just kidding love you all)
Getting together to beat the Danish, right?
There’s actually an interesting history about smörgås.
I think the funniest real Norwegian word would be rumpetroll, ass troll. Or pattedyr, tit animal. Or maybe even verdensrommet, the world’s room…
I think swedish is very easy if you just listen to it. You can pick accents there as well, just avoid the unhinged stuff like visby and youll have a pretty easy time. Everyone brings up the swedish prosody and pitch accent but its just a melody you memorize/practice for each word. The two hardest things for me were/are y and the “sj”(ɧ) thingy.
I guess you could learn which word has which pitch accent, but can you hear it? Danes for example are deaf to it and can’t hear the difference between tomten and tomten. It’s the same word to them.
I don’t think it’s impossible to do, just impossible to do alone. If you’ve got enough time and a good dialect coach, you can totally get there (H>E at least, I’d suspect E>H is harder for many reasons)
I mean kinda cheating but im bilingual but i still fail. I have an english accent when speaking hungarian and a hungarian accent when speaking english. Also words i dont use often come out in an irish accent cause i grew up there. Language is fluid in my head rather than something concrete. At this point im even mixing swedish words into it even tho i dont speak much of it.