How does english sound

How did english sound to some of you people before you understood it? I would like to know, I don't know why, but I do. Well, I hear spanish on the spanish channel it seems so fast, did english sound that way to you too? or is english a slow spoken language or what? Please reply back.
Thanks,
Ashley

English definetly sounded too fast but in the mean time beautifully expressive to my ears when I wasn't able to understand it yet. There was a period of time when I found it too nasal too. That was before I was really able to understand it.

I had founded the American easier to understand first, however, it was too nasal. When I first listened to British (London) on the TV, I thought it was French, I don't know why but it sounded weird.

Later, I founded easier to listen to British because it is spoken a bit slower than American.

Look also to the topic:
A question for .......speakers.

No English is not a slow spoken language. It's sounds fast to my ears. For me, American sounds more nasal and earsier to understand at the same time.

In my opinion, there are English native speakers who speak very quickly, like Hugh Grant, and there are others who speak speak slowly and therefore I can understand them. It does not depend on if the speaker is British, American, Australian or whatever.

Cheers

David Beckham - slow speaker by all means.

I was just wondering, do you think English may have sounded like French to you because its kind of like German, with french words?
This would kind of be a contrast to romance speakers, who seem to find English a little rough, which I guess germanic languages are when compared to say Italian.

Just thinking back, the first time I heard an American accent in real life (not on tv, where for some reason I could never hear accents as a kid) I couldn't believe just how weird it sounded. In contrast to New Zealand English it does sound very different -slow, drawly and full of r's.

how about you take a look at the scottish accent,,,, that will REALLY confuse you!

I knew some guys from Syria who could understand me just fine, but not understand Black English (AAVE) at all. I can understand Black English well, probably because I've spent a lot of my life hearing it. In the USA, they had to take out a lot of the Scots speak in the movie "Trainspotting," because Americans could not understand it, even though people in England had much less of a problem.

Understanding languages has little to do with the speed of the language and more to do with exposure to the rhythm and pronunciation. I remember as a little kid I could barely understand Doctor Who episodes the first time I heard them even though the characters were speaking the same English words that I was. Now, I have no problem with standard English accents just out of being exposed to them through time.

Ryan

I thought it was French because of the accent, not vocabulary, besides I was just 6 years old and you know some British accents such as Cockney or Scottish are very difficult to understand.

Please don't leave antimoon ! I'm all alone !

Merci peuple
Je fais l'appericate il:)

Ashley
Do you mean : "J'apprecie beaucoup ça" or something like that ?

It sounds fast to my ears. Native-speakers take alot of English words in order to express one long idea but this is not the case with my native language. When I understand someone who is speaking English, it sounds like he is talking with me in my own language. That's why I understand one thing very clearly, every language works in the same pattern.