What Languages Sound Like To Foreigners
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN points to it as a favorite example of astonishing accent mimicry and fake-language gibberish that sounds real.
What it is
Finnish YouTuber Saara improvises gibberish that mimics how various languages sound to people who do not speak them. The sentences are mostly made up, and the clip went viral.
Recommended by 6 HN commenters across 6 different months, 2014 to 2021.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec wallflower · 2016-11 · on “How to Master an Accent”
On the subject of accents, in case you missed her viral video the first-time around, the absolutely astounding Saara from Finland. "What Languages Sound Like To Foreigners" [this video]
Strong rec jpatokal · 2018-01 · on “An Italian Song That Sounds Like English But Is Nonsense”
Internet personality Saara turned speaking fake languages into a career with this amazing little clip: [this video] And her pitch-perfect imitation of 14 different musical genres is equally amazing: [this video]
Recommends sampo · 2014-07 · on “The Benefits of Failing at French”
At least for some people it's easy to pick up accents (even for languages she doesn't actually speak, she just speaks gibberish): [this video]
Recommends wallflower · 2017-07 · on “Radiohead album hides an app that only runs on an '80s computer”
This is a video of Saara who is not a native speaker but who has an extraordinary ability to mimic accents. [this video]
Recommends wenc · 2018-01 · on “An Italian Song That Sounds Like English But Is Nonsense”
There's a clip that went viral a while ago where a girl was essentially spouting gibberish in various languages, but it sounded like she was speaking those languages! What Languages Sound Like to Foreigners [this video]
Recommends etiam · 2020-12 · on “Animal Crossing’s fake language sounds different in Japanese”
On not all gibberish being created equal: it's been long enough since "What Languages Sound Like To Foreigners" that some people here may have missed have missed this. [this video]
Recommends dustintrex · 2021-12 · on “Fakelish – Fake English word generator”
Modern version: [this video] "English" starts at around 0:48, but the others are also worth a listen!