Featured Image Credit: TikTok/ @languagesimp
Topics: TikTok, Social Media, Viral
Gerrard Kaonga
If you ever chat away in English while on holiday and find yourself stared at by a non-native speaker then this may be why.
Even if you don't speak another language, it's likely you could probably distinguish what language it is based on what it sounds like.
Even if you don't understand necessarily what the other person is saying, you may gage whether they're talking in Spanish or French for example.
However, a TikToker has since revealed what people who don't speak English really make of people chatting away in English and it's blowing everyone's minds.
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A TikToker who goes by the Language Simp - or @languagesimp - speaks several languages, including English - he's certainly in the ideal position to reveal how we sound to non-English speakers.
And would you believe it, it seems we pretty much talk like the characters in the Sims, bizarre, right?
In a clip that’s since been viewed more than eight million times, he shares a short speech - if you can call it that - in a bizarre gibberish that sounds a lot like English but makes absolutely no sense.
The effect is a little strange for those of us who do speak English, with one social media users commenting: "I felt like I should understand what he was saying."
While another asked: "You are telling me people hear me talking like a Sim?"
“I feel like I understand what he's saying, but I also don't,” echoed a third.
Another TikTok user pointed out: "This sounds right… but it’s not… "
"For some reason I keep actually trying to comprehend what he's saying and then realize he's speaking literal gibberish not english," penned a fifth.
A sixth revealed: "No cause if you don’t pay attention to what he’s saying it literally sounds normal."
"This is what I hear when I disassociate," joked someone else.
Many were inspired by the TikTok video to try their hand at being bilingual, with one confessing: "This is why I’m learning another language."
And one viewer pretty much hit the nail on the head perfectly.
They wrote: "Its like hearing a conversation from outside: you know in what language they are speaking but you cant actually tell what they are saying."
A final TikTok user added: "My train of thought, to try an understand what you actually said, derailed."
Same.
Ask your non-native English speakers and see what they think about it.
Maybe the the Language Simp has hit the nail on the head... or he could just be talking nonsense.