What do different accents sound like to native speakers of foreign languages?

[kenandbarbie]

Just wondering what the perceptions are between native speakers of other languages?

I think the Cyprus accent is like a farmers one to Athens people in Greek, is that right?

What about say Mexicans and Spaniards? What do they think of each other's accents?

@KissingInTheRain I couldn't rightly say. Friesland is the wrong side of the A15 for me! It's possible, I suppose, if just a few sentences were spoken, and depending on where the listener was from. There are more words in Vries similar to English, but not used in Dutch, but then again whole sentences in Dutch can be almost identical to English too. Then there's different dialects within Vries.
In fact, that includes the whole country.
Honestly, every town and villlage has its own dialect and rivalry with the next one. You can drive 20km down the road and hear a different accent. Cross a river and even the weather changes! My work colleagues constantly take the mickey out of each other as they're from a wide-ranging area.
I used to work in a restaurant popular with tourists and it was common that Rotterdamers mistook my mispronunciations and dodgy sentence structure to mean that I was speaking dialect and thought I was a local Limburger. I was never spotted as being English.

Baroness

Many thanks. Appreciated.

I think I’ll mark that one down as a curiosity with a grain - but just a grain - of truth.

And, please, do give my regards to the Child Catcher. Terribly misunderstood in my view.

I feel my own accent isn't an accent 😂, I don't hear myself or people who speak the way I do as having an accent and when I was younger I used to wonder what it would be like to have an accent 😂.

This is so interesting! I had a Norwegian friend and housemate at uni, who used to hang round with other Norwegians who would rip the piss out of her accent. Even to an English ear you could hear the heavy northern norsk accent of my friend as opposed to the southerners. Friend said it was the equivalent of a Scottish accent, and her friends Home Counties.

And, please, do give my regards to the Child Catcher. Terribly misunderstood in my view.
I will! One of my best men, that one. Wouldn't be without him.

willsurvive3under2 I had a Roman boyfriend in the 1980s and he said his mum’s Florentine accent was considered the most beautiful in Italy so I guess that still holds true.

I am from SE London and have not lived in the UK for about 25 years. When I go back to the area I am from their accents sound fake to me because they are so strong sounding! I feel like everyone is putting it on 😂! I keep thinking “People don’t really talk like this do they?”.

Yes the southern French accent isn't the most desirable accent. I spent a year in Paris and another in Provence, there was a huge difference.

I also spent a copy,e of years in Italy. Some of the older, more rural Italians spoke in local dialect and I really struggled with it.

I don't speak Spanish, but I can understand it a bit due to speaking French and Italian. I find it particularly easy to follow in Argentina, as the cadence of how they speak it is like Italian.

The French used to say I didn't sound British when I spoke French. They could detect a slight accent, but they couldn't say where it was from.

Oh! I don't speak Italian but my friend did. When in Florence two lads made a comment about me but switched to dialect so my friend wouldn't understand.
Except it was almost perfect Latin so I did. 😂😂

Ida the Italian language originated from Florence, it's considered the purest accent.

I used to speak French pretty well when younger and working abroad. When I spent some time working in Austria, using what German I knew, I was told I spoke it with a French accent - couldn’t see it myself

I'm half Canadian and when I speak French apparently I sound like Terrence and Philip from South Park. My mum apparently sounded like someone spending medieval French.

I lived in Central South-West Germany for a few years about 30 minutes from France in the Pfalz region. I met a German mother who had moved to the area from Hamburg and was chatting to me about how much she hated the local accent and was doing her best to prevent her son from picking it up. It was so strange, as I loved living in that area and found everyone very welcoming and friendly. Also my kids spoke fluent German and were told they were indistinguishable from the locals. It never occured to me that Germans might have snobby attitudes toward accents but why ever not? I know plenty of Brits who can be snobby about the way people speak!

I also like the Pfalz regional accent as its sounds soft to my ear while the accent in Hamburg was more of the harsher, guttural German we are used to. Maybe therefore the Pfalz sounded like Norfolk or Devon or somewhere else with a soft rural accent to her.

In France there are loads of variations between accents, but the one most commonly taken the piss out of is the French-Canadian one (I won't say the comparison as it's not the kindest!), some outer city areas spoken language is perceived as 'common' but would still have the stereotypical 'sexy' accent to the British ear.
(Sorry I know none of that is related to the OP question).

I was told with my British accent I sounded like the queen ( bad , eh!) when I spoke french. But I have a strong regional accent in the UK with a very different intonation to RP.

I speak German with more of a French accent, apparently.

And when I first left home no one in the rest of the UK could understand my version of English..

I knew someone who liked the French Canadian accent as it sounded quaintly old fashioned to them. Belgian accent was widely dissed though!

Nooooo!
Belgians are sexy as hell!
Just don't understand a bloody word they say on the telephone.

@Camomila and @willIsurvive3under2 that’s interesting about the north/south divide in Italy and certainly tallies with what my late grandmother used to say! She was from the north east (Udine) and thought southern Italians were common!

I've been told I speak Dutch with a German accent.

despite having family in both countries I always thought South African and Australian accents sounded the same. I also think Indian, Irish, and some thick Welsh accents sound the same.

Interesting alansleftfoot I have some French family & have spent lots of time in the South (family from North), can’t understand half of what they say, so fast for one. Said French family take the piss that my French accent is bad & sounds English but they speak English with a heavy French accent! My actual mosf realistic impersonation is of a French person speaking English 😂

I've met Spanish, Italian and polish people who speak English and I couldn't tell you until they told me where they are from!

I am Scottish, and apparently when I speak French to a Parisienne or anybody from the northern territories, I sound Belgian. Apparently okay to anybody from southern France, though.

I picked up my Spanish from Chilean housemates and my Spanish, to somebody from Spain, sounds like what we would think of as an English West Country accent.

@ThistleAmore - I’ve been told I speak French like a Belgian too. Not convinced it’s not an insult lol.

(I am a born and bred Weedjie, although from a Gaelic-speaking Highland household who went to a very minor Scottish public school, then university in Aberdeen and now work in London. I describe my 'day to day' accent as 'modern generic lower middle class Scottish'.)