In today’s edition of ‘things that will make your head hurt’: this video from TikTok user @languagesimp.
The TikTok creator, who boasts a whopping 1.1 million followers and claims to speak every language in the world, has revealed how English sounds to non-English speakers – and we wish we could unhear it immediately.
In the video, he shares a short, nonsensical speech (which sounds A LOT like something The Sims) to show what the English language will sound like to anyone who cannot speak it.
It provides a weird sensation – as many of the commenters on the video pointed out that “it sort of feels like you can understand it, but not really.”
The video has been viewed eight million times and left English speakers puzzled.
One person added: “This sounds right… but it’s not…”
Although it might sound like total gibberish (and to be fair, it is), it’s apparently not far off according to those who have learned English themselves.
“As someone who grew up in Spain and only spoke Spanish, learning English was hard as hell,” one TikTok user wrote.
“That’s how it sounded when I first moved to America, no wonder I can’t remember what people were saying to me,” said another.
So how does it work? Well, @languagesimp has used all the phonetics of English, but removed all meaning – so yes, this is kinda what it would sound like if you didn’t speak the language.
We’re off for a lie down and to pretend this never happened.