What does French sound like with an American accent?

Question

Only since I took classes with those who hadn't been learning German as long as me, did I realize how Americans totally butcher the a's and r's and the guttural sounds. Not to offend anyone, but I find the accent, really stupid sounding. (My accent is barely noticable since I've been learning German since a young age.)
I'm also learning French, and I can't help but wonder, does and American accent sound as nearly as idiotic? Lol, I probably have bad one.

Answer 1

From past experience, yes, the vast majority of Americans speaking a foreign language utterly butcher it. They tend to exaggerate every peculiar phonetic aspect, almost as if adhering to the stereotypes.

It must be said, though, that most of them don't even try that hard to pronounce correctly.

A factor that contributes to this is that all of the speakers who don't learn a language at a high academic level are taught pronunciations with bad approximations like "maison = meh - ZON"; using IPA would help greatly, I think.

Answer 2

Looking at it the other way around, I think French accents are the hardest to understand in American English. Our pronunciation/phonetics are incredibly different. I notice that the French learn the words and grammar, but fail miserably on pronunciation. Indians, Latinos, Italians, Germans, Japanese, Russians... all easier to understand with their thick accents. French accents are often inpenetratable.



I look at a French word and I have literally no way of pronouncing it if I haven't heard it before. Like... how do you pronounce St. Etienne? We would say Saint Eh-Tee-Enn in English.



I learned Spanish. And I can read and write Spanish much better than I can converse in it. What would you call that? Contra-illiterate?



Lastly, English is a crazy language even for native speakers. People butcher English pronunciation and grammar all the time and it's their first language. It has ridiculous grammar rules, spelling conventions, contractions, slang, adopted foreign words, etc. Gotta be tough for others to learn, I imagine!

Answer 3

Hey I speak french with an american accent! I am not French I am just learning it. But it sounds HORRIBLE!! it's way better the REAL French way! I can speak in english and Spanish!

Answer 4

We would not expect a French person to speak English without a French accent. So why should we aspire to speak French without an American accent? Yes, of course, one wishes to speak the language as well as possible. But you'll never get away from the influences of your native language.

Answer 5

Lolllllllllllll how did you come up with that now I'm curious lol. Probably funny Americans speaking Spanish with an accent is funny too.

Answer 6

Yes, it sounds ridiculous, especially when there's a word that's the same in French and English, they'll often pronounce it the American way, for example: situation, in French, pronounced see-tu(with a sort of a whistle sound)-ah-sion(with a nasal L), while they pronounce it si-chu-ashion.

Answer 7

Yes, we pretty much butcher other languages - unless we have a good, native-speaking teacher and the willingness to speak the language properly.



All the best.

Answer 8

It's also in Spanish. They don't pronounce the v with a b sound and they don't roll the r's it's just nit natural for us

Answer 9

Ze french like to nap. Ze french do not like to shave.

Answer 10

Sexy, but arrogant.