We’ve all done it. Imitated a foreign language that we don’t speak, that is. We can all “speak” in pseudo French, Italian, Chinese, etc using nonsense syllables and trying to capture the rhythm, “melody”, timing and timbre of those languages, sometimes throwing in a real word or syllable or two for authenticity. Comedians like Sid Caesar and Danny Kaye were excellent at it.
Now, to native speakers of those languages, I’ll bet our attempts are pretty humorous/pathetic. What I’d love to hear is people who don’t speak English at all trying to sound like they’re speaking English. Anyone know of websites which contain sound clips of this?
A sort of audio Engrish.com … yeah, I’d like to hear it too. 
I don’t know of any soundclips but I do know that to Italians, Americans sound like ducks quacking.
I had the pleasure of seeing Marcel Marceau do fake languages…the absolute BEST he did, though, was speaking fake French. Yes, he did American and British.
Sorry…no clips though!
I asked some German exchange students once what English sounded like to them. They said it sounds like someone chewing gum while talking (and demonstrated with nonsense syllables…nyahm murm nooom myah etc.) Many languages have short, clipped vowels, where English tends to have long vowels.
They also said French sounds like someone drowning, and German sounds like someone choking on a chicken bone.
I always enjoy hearing non-Americans imitate an American accent.
Best wishes,
Jerry
Marcel Marceau can speak?!? 
I did think it funny for him to have the only audible line in Steve Martin’s Silent Movie. In the movie Martin’s character thought Marceau would be a “natural” for a silent film to which he replied “NO.” … 
Oh c’mon, Scott. It was “non”, of course. 
Sean Connery’s version of Americun is quite peculiar.
English sounds like this:
Hibbly mish farduz thun lef unu osa innit ollar dose munt faes i shon hordly mock no warbly oggith sneelth ara plack idoal perry bloo bether
There are lots of “warbly” sounds, and lots of short words and glottal stops in weird places.
English’s “R” and “th” sounds are also rather rare among Indo European languages, so that stands out as well.
Nanohedron wrote:
Oh c’mon, Scott. It was “non”, of course
Please mime your manners…an answers!
Does ASL have accents?
MarkB
In Dari class we always made fun of Persian Farsi speakers because they had a French accent! They said “ you are speaking the classical or “backwood’s” form of Persian”
Snobs!
Oh, man, did I need to get that off my chest!
PS if you think that is strange just wait until you hear a guy from Louisiana try to learn Spanish!
Yes. One of my online friends came from Delaware to Virginia and I remember her telling me that the people there made fun of her for the way she signed many words, but there was something peculiar about the way she did the word “puppy”. If I remember correctly, in one accent there was no word for “puppy”, it was just signed as “baby dog”, and in the other accent people use a special word.
But my ASL is horrible (at best), so I could be completely wrong.
When I was visiting N’Awlins, I paid a visit to the JKA dojo in Metairie and trained there a couple of times. I forget the chief instructor’s name, now, but is was entertaining to hear a Louisiana accent coupled with a Japanese one!
I had a Spanish teacher in high school who had a thick Southern drawl in her English. Unfortunately, her Spanish sounded just the same…
I also have a thick Southern drawl, being from this part of Europe (Sealand), and I can pronounce Spanish just about perfectly. I’ve been learning Spanish since I was 15, off and on, so I’m sure that has something to do with it.
That there are only 5 vowels (plus dipthongs) really bothers my mouth, but I work on it. Spanish vowels are really short and “pure” (unless you’re from Chile, hehe) compared to English, and my long, drawn out, hick accent is not a help at all.
When I’m speaking German, though, I cannot pronounce the “normal” German R to save my life, and I have to roll my Rs like in Spanish. I sound like I’m from Bavaria. 
Sean Connery’s version of English is quite peculiar.
In Wisconsin they switch the words where and who, but the largest variance is how many ways they say birthday.
Whispering is done by covering the non viewing side and the hand movements become smaller.
I have found many ASL speakers hate mittens.
Although I am not an expert on ASL, so take my information with a healthy amount of salt.
Oh, and I have seen Deaf people mock the flapping of the lips that us hearing people use to communicate 
I came to Australia at a young age. English is not my mother language but I spoke it very well. In Fiji, I had been educated by Irish, Australian and NZ Marist Brothers and non English speakers educated by them. I also read avidly.
I was put in class 3 when I arrived in Australia. Within a day or two my class teacher recognised my abilities and had me reading to the class because she thought my English diction was exemplary. In those days, English spoken with a “colonial accent” was thought of highly and considered superior to Australian drawl. Even today, on our national radio and TV network we have retained certain announcers and presenters who speak this sort of English. I more or less topped the class in English for years until I went to uni. This does not mean my English is perfect. Given the nature of the language, “perfect English” may even be an oxymoron.
Today, I am able to drop in and out of different ways of speaking English - “colonial”, Aussie, Peter Seller’s indo stereotype. Sometimes this is deliberate but mostly it just happens spontaneously in response to the social situation.
I remember, in Rajasthan, asking street directions in English with Aussie accent and getting blank looks. Then I changed to, “I am needing XYZ Marg - how to be getting there, hannnnmmmm?” and I got a response straight away. Then there was the grocery store in Delhi where the young bespectacled lady asked me, “What victuals you are desiring?”
Anyway I am now preferring to minor my 7th rather than diminishing same because latter is not being proper expression for former in the music circles’ parlance. So stick that up your pipes and smoke it! 
This is a little off-center from the original topic, but a good way to get started on a decent accent in a foreign language is to mimic a native speaker speaking your own language.
For example, if you can mimic a Japanese speaker speaking English, then you can apply that same “accent” to your Japanese. The worse the Japanese speaker’s English accent, the better for you. If you can speak English with a Japanese accent, you should be able to speak Japanese with a halfway-decent Japanese accent.
This works because it’s easier for a beginner to hear different vowel and consonant sounds in the context of his or her own language. Of course, it’s not a perfect solution, but it can definitely help. (Of course, it doesn’t help at all with sounds that the native speaker would have no reason to apply to English, such as Chinese or Japanese tones.)