What English sounds like to Italians

[solarbird]

Spotted going around:

An Italian singer wrote this song with gibberish to sound like English. If you've ever wondered what other people think Americans sound like, this is it.

I think it's pretty neat, because it really does sound like American English to me, for the most part.

Comments

[batyatoon]

This is kind of amazing. :D It does sound like American English. With a touch of twang, even!

[sistawendy.livejournal.com]

I noticed a couple of things about it: a few real phrases like "you know" in the right places, and an absence of sounds that don't occur in Italian.

[westrider.livejournal.com]

That actually really does sound quite like American English. He's got a good ear. Really reminding me of some of the stuff from my Billboard Top 10 Comps from the late 50s, early 60s.

Also, and this is totally not the point, but he's kind of a goofy lookin' dude ;)

[discogravy.livejournal.com]

that's not just some dude, that's adriano celentano; pop, rock and folk musician, as well as tv show host, actor and comedian. he's like elvis, groucho marx, jerry lewis and leonard cohen all in one. his most famous song is probably "24000 baci" ("24,000 kisses") which i've heard in english and spanish although the original's in italian (here's mr bungle covering it in italian: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVdDUcoe-iM). here's the orignal http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jl204CfCGRg with celentano singing.

if you want to hear english-as-it-sounds-to-a-foreign-ear, you can also pick up a bit of that from the pigdin in some of fela kuti's afrobeat stuff (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfDIakTWYeA shuffering and shmiling has a few good examples -- he does pigdin latin and arabic, but the english is actually better than 'pigdin', mostly because this was one of the more straight-ahead message songs fela did)

[westrider.livejournal.com]

Thank you! My Mother and I were wondering who he was, and how we could find more about him, and nothing linked from there seemed to provide any clue.

He's still a goofy lookin' dude, as are many celebs when you really take a look at 'em ;)

[discogravy.livejournal.com]

there's a greatest hits 2cd or 3cd thing which is really great -- his stuff goes from rockabilly to folk to rock (dylan/elvis/cohen type stuff)

[stolen-tea.livejournal.com]

That's fantastic!