Eastern VS Western Tongue Twisters Challenge!!

Eastern VS Western Tongue Twisters Challenge!!

[MrViking]

It's so much fun to watch people try to pronounce swedish. It's like they're having a tiny aneurysm 🤣

[johnnorthtribe]

The hardest word for a foreigner to say in Swedish is most of the time the word "sju" (seven). The way we pronounce the letter "u" is kind of unique in Scandinavia.

[monkeconleche]

The fact the went for the easier version of the Swedish one as well and still had so much trouble is so relatable (Born in Sweden but am ethically Spanish)

The harder version is “Sjuhundrasjuttiosju sjösjuka sjömän sköttes av sjuttiosju skönsjungande sköna sjuksköterskor på sjunkande skeppet i Shanghai” for anyone wondering

[philip]

As a Swedish person I can say the Swedish speaker here definitely softened the blow (by a bit).

[Netashas]

As a swedish, I laughed 🤣 I think the France is most hard because I don’t know that. I can read Korean, and understand some Chinese and Thai aswell 🥰

[Al-KAmist]

As a regular Swedish non-giant, I think the best response I've heard to the Swedish tongue twister is that it sounds like a hissing cat because I can't disagree.

[aburn]

I think for foreigners, longer tongue twisters are harder since it is hard to critique pronounciation. For Thai we have a lot of very hard tongue twisters but this one is quite easy but I think you need to put tones for Thai just like Chinese because it is also a tonal language, and tones are very important for meaning and is what makes these tongue twisters hard.

[MrZeuz]

That’s definitely the hardest one to pronounce (in Swedish).

But we also love the: Sex laxar i en laxask. The point for that one is you have to say it fast many times over. It’s designed to make Swedes completely trip over the words and fail, so would be fun hearing others try it.

It’s hard because the X is always strong/hard in Swedish. And pronounced roughly as eKs and then at the end it’s also strong but sK. So it flips the sound.

[ersia]

I'm impressed by the french guy trying the swedish phrase. Had he known about the sj- and sk sounds hed pretty much nailed it.

Next time I wanna see them do "sex laxar i en laxask", which is one that's actually hard for natives too.

[Charl_es]

Dude, the tattoos on Alexander's arms are pretty good and charming, and now i noticed that Sofia is wearing a great outfit

[eddiemc]

As a chinese born in Sweden learning French, I absolutely loved this ❤

[Emily-T]

As a swed, I was at the breaking point of breaking down laughing-

[catinabox]

I'm a native Chinese speaker and am fluent in French. I'm super impressed with the Korean guy. His Chinese sounded almost native at the beginning. He only lost points because the tongue twister was long, and it seemed like as he kept going, he kind of got tired of trying that hard. His French was also not bad. His accent was thick, but the pronunciation (in terms of pronouncing the right stuff in a comprehensible way) wasn't bad at all. I'd be a happy prof if all my students could do that.

[mytube]

The French guy actually pronounced the sentence close to what it would've sounded like 600 years ago (had all the words existed then), as that was before the consonant clusters merged to form the modern sounds. Back then, "sk" would've been pronounced "s-k", like in English "skin", and "sj" would've been "s-j", akin to a posh English pronunciation of "suit" or "super" ("syoot", "syooper").

[tovekauppi]

The funny thing about the Swedish tongue twister is that it’s only hard for foreigners because of the very Scandinavian sounds. It’s super easy for swedes to pronounce. If you want something that trips swedes up, say “sex laxar i en laxask” (literally “six salmon in a salmon box”). It is hard because is combines k-sound and s-sound with sometimes one being first and sometimes the other.

[bynflew]

Sjuksköterska is always a word that will make people learning swedish want to give up xD

[BlazeLycan]

The Swedish one is even difficult for us Swedes as well, mainly because there are small differences in the sounds that can trip us up.

However, this classic Swedish tongue twister is even more devilish for foreigners due to the fact that the Sj sounds as well as the U sound are not very common in other languages. And to throw in an extra cherry on top for the difficulty scale; k before a vowel makes a "ch" sound, with the Sk in these ones making a different kind of "ch" sound. And of course, Ö and Ä nobody will on their first go as they are not just O and A but their own letters.

[ouilegdsart]

My dude said it's an honor to see the alphabet. I love him :D

[TheRedBastion]

There’s a famous danish tongue twister, not for Danes, but for foreigners learning our language. It’s “rødgrød med fløde” which uses phonetic sounds of the “d” which are unique to the language. It was so difficult, that during WW2, it was used to spot nazi spy’s in Denmark as they would force them to pronounce the phrase, something only someone who grew up in Denmark would be able to pronounce.

[rythielmyrddyn]

The French tongue twister is a variant of a riddle:

"Je suis ce que je suis, mais je ne suis pas ce que je suis
car si j’étais ce que je suis, je ne serai plus ce que je suis.
Qui suis-je ?"


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it plays with the meaning of "je suis", that can refer to the verb Être (to be) or Suivre (to follow)
So in English it'd say:

"I am what I am, but I am not what I follow
For if I was what I follow, I would not be what I am anymore.
Who am I?"

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For those seeking the answer: it's a man in a funeral procession (he "is" alive and "follow" a dead)