Mina-Ivy Posted May 13, 2017 Share Posted May 13, 2017 (edited) Hi , I'm french and this is a question i've always asked myself.. I read some comments on youtube where some americans or english people said : "I recognize his french accent when he speaks english" or "we can hear that english is not his first language" .. I really want to know if it's true.. someone who hear Mika speaking english but doesn't know him, can guess that he is not an english-native person ? Does he have a french accent ? this is a question that a lot of french fan ask ! (sorry for my english..) Edited May 13, 2017 by Mina-Ivy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oliviamkc Posted May 28, 2017 Share Posted May 28, 2017 (edited) On 2017-5-13 at 3:13 PM, Mina-Ivy said: Hi , I'm french and this is a question i've always asked myself.. I read some comments on youtube where some americans or english people said : "I recognize his french accent when he speaks english" or "we can hear that english is not his first language" .. I really want to know if it's true.. someone who hear Mika speaking english but doesn't know him, can guess that he is not an english-native person ? Does he have a french accent ? this is a question that a lot of french fan ask ! (sorry for my english..) I'm new here so sorry for butting in but I'm British and his accent when is speaking English is that of a native English speaker, personally in my opinion. As others have said it depends on where he is living/travelling accent wise. But as he was brought up with English as a language (i assume bc his dad is American) and spent since he was 9 living in England and educated here. His accent and way of phrasing is that of a native speaker. Edited May 28, 2017 by oliviamkc 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mary1970 Posted June 29, 2017 Share Posted June 29, 2017 i think Mika's English is a mixture of British and American English. For example, he pronounces "talk" as Americans do, but the general accent is mainly British. What do you think, guys? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mina-Ivy Posted July 3, 2017 Share Posted July 3, 2017 thank you for your answer !! It's quite weird that some americain writes on youtube about his "french" accent .. Some people even say that his accent is Spanish .. I'm french and I don't hear any french accent when he speaks English.. anyway.. Thank u !! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mary1970 Posted July 26, 2017 Share Posted July 26, 2017 On Monday, July 03, 2017 at 2:07 PM, Mina-Ivy said: thank you for your answer !! It's quite weird that some americain writes on youtube about his "french" accent .. Some people even say that his accent is Spanish .. I'm french and I don't hear any french accent when he speaks English.. anyway.. Thank u !! I agree with you??I like his accent whatever language he speaks???? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A. Clay Posted July 26, 2017 Share Posted July 26, 2017 (edited) On May 13, 2017 at 10:13 AM, Mina-Ivy said: Hi , I'm french and this is a question i've always asked myself.. I read some comments on youtube where some americans or english people said : "I recognize his french accent when he speaks english" or "we can hear that english is not his first language" .. I really want to know if it's true.. someone who hear Mika speaking english but doesn't know him, can guess that he is not an english-native person ? Does he have a french accent ? this is a question that a lot of french fan ask ! (sorry for my english..) I don't care. I love -- and can happily listen to -- MIKA's 'smooth as melted butter' voice endlessly however it springs from his lips Edited July 26, 2017 by A. Clay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fan1955 Posted July 26, 2017 Share Posted July 26, 2017 3 hours ago, Mary1970 said: I agree with you??I like his accent whatever language he speaks???? Mika has said that his accent changes according to who he is speaking to. He picks up other people's accents, so for example he gets "drunk Irish people" who think he is making fun of them because he starts speaking with an Irish accent. . I am British, living in France. I cannot hear any British accent in his French or French accent in his English speaking. Sometimes he got a few words wrong when he was on the Voice France but that is all. I have been listening to him speaking in the videos of the Giffoni film festival last week. He seems to have more of an American accent there, perhaps because he is talking to an inetrnational youth group who are are used to US English. When he was talking to the audience at the London Palladium last year his accent was very BBC English - So British! Love him however he speaks of course! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fan1955 Posted July 26, 2017 Share Posted July 26, 2017 Also, about what is his first language. He has said that he dreams in French, that is usually a good test of your first language. BUT when he is speaking another language (not English) and is stuck for a word he pauses and says UMMM. That word umm, or errr, is a common filler in English, i.e; you use it when you don't know quite how to continue. So it is a good test of what language he is most at home with, possibly English. One of the reasons I admire him so much is his language abiliity. I am a language teacher myself and am in awe of him. Now he is fluent in Italian too! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mary1970 Posted July 27, 2017 Share Posted July 27, 2017 12 hours ago, Fan1955 said: Also, about what is his first language. He has said that he dreams in French, that is usually a good test of your first language. BUT when he is speaking another language (not English) and is stuck for a word he pauses and says UMMM. That word umm, or errr, is a common filler in English, i.e; you use it when you don't know quite how to continue. So it is a good test of what language he is most at home with, possibly English. One of the reasons I admire him so much is his language abiliity. I am a language teacher myself and am in awe of him. Now he is fluent in Italian too! I think English is the language he is most at home, too. By the way, I am a la guage teacher, too.???? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fan1955 Posted July 27, 2017 Share Posted July 27, 2017 Hi Mary1970! I am trying to learn Italian to keep up with Casa Mika 2; I started when I lived in UK and watched Inspector Montalbano with subtitles. Loved that Luca Zingaretti (actor playing Insp Montallbano) was a guest on Casa Mika. Anyway when I moved to France I concentrated on improving my Frenhc. Now I hope there is room in my head for a little Italian! If not I will rely on the subtitles - can't thank the MFC subtuitle team enough, they are great x 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mary1970 Posted July 27, 2017 Share Posted July 27, 2017 2 hours ago, Fan1955 said: Hi Mary1970! I am trying to learn Italian to keep up with Casa Mika 2; I started when I lived in UK and watched Inspector Montalbano with subtitles. Loved that Luca Zingaretti (actor playing Insp Montallbano) was a guest on Casa Mika. Anyway when I moved to France I concentrated on improving my Frenhc. Now I hope there is room in my head for a little Italian! If not I will rely on the subtitles - can't thank the MFC subtuitle team enough, they are great x Hello Fan1955! I'm sure there is room enough in your head for a little Italian?? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fan1955 Posted July 27, 2017 Share Posted July 27, 2017 2 hours ago, Mary1970 said: Hello Fan1955! I'm sure there is room enough in your head for a little Italian?? Thanks Mary! I am going back to UK for holiday tomorrow. All packed and ready so going to watch "Casa Mika" again to relax! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mary1970 Posted July 28, 2017 Share Posted July 28, 2017 You're welcome??have a nice journey?? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JYLeetf1223 Posted August 29, 2020 Share Posted August 29, 2020 ik i'm late but- I'm american and I always thought his accent was generally british but ever so slightly off? It just seems like a mishmash of all different accents, with mostly a british one it's probably bc he mostly grew up there- my parents are both korean but I only have an american accent when I speak english I do notice that his accent changes sometimes- I saw one video where he switched really quickly from italian to english and he had an ever so slight italian accent (which makes like zero sense but it was there) and when he does interviews in korea his accent softens a bit more towards an american one Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elena Mastro Posted August 30, 2020 Share Posted August 30, 2020 (edited) Such an interesting topic! It was great to discover it and read all the comments in it. I'm late too.... but I just wanted to add a curiosity. I'm from Italy and I can say that when Mika first started to speak Italian (let's say, the first two editions of X Factor), he spoke Italian with quite a Spanish accent (apart obviously his English accent). That was because he could speak Spanish long before he studied Italian. Then he gradually lost this Spanish vein and during the Casa Mika period (2016-2017) he learned a lot more and sounded only like a native English who was speaking Italian. Now, he's so improved over the years that when listening to interviews in Italian sometimes he sounds better than a native Italian!! Not only his pronunciation has improved a lot, but also the complexity of the syntax he uses. He's simply astonishing to us too, sometime! Being a French and Spanish speaker and having studied a little Latin, helped him a lot with his Italian. Although you will always recognize him as an English native and some French phrasing he will never lose.😆 Moreover, we have many different accents and dialects: well, he has a mild Milanese cadence (having lived and worked there a lot) and he once said he tried to pick up some Neapolitan too, for example, but not practising he quickly lost it. Now that he's living in Tuscany and working in Rome, I just hope he will pick up those accents!!! The mix of them is considered to be by convention the "standard accepted pronunciation" for the well-read Italian. 🤪😆 By the way, whatever the language he's speaking, I'm just so fascinated by how his brain works with languages!!!!!😄 Edited August 30, 2020 by Elena Mastro 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JYLeetf1223 Posted October 11, 2020 Share Posted October 11, 2020 On 8/30/2020 at 10:40 AM, Elena Mastro said: Such an interesting topic! It was great to discover it and read all the comments in it. I'm late too.... but I just wanted to add a curiosity. I'm from Italy and I can say that when Mika first started to speak Italian (let's say, the first two editions of X Factor), he spoke Italian with quite a Spanish accent (apart obviously his English accent). That was because he could speak Spanish long before he studied Italian. Then he gradually lost this Spanish vein and during the Casa Mika period (2016-2017) he learned a lot more and sounded only like a native English who was speaking Italian. Now, he's so improved over the years that when listening to interviews in Italian sometimes he sounds better than a native Italian!! Not only his pronunciation has improved a lot, but also the complexity of the syntax he uses. He's simply astonishing to us too, sometime! Being a French and Spanish speaker and having studied a little Latin, helped him a lot with his Italian. Although you will always recognize him as an English native and some French phrasing he will never lose.😆 Moreover, we have many different accents and dialects: well, he has a mild Milanese cadence (having lived and worked there a lot) and he once said he tried to pick up some Neapolitan too, for example, but not practising he quickly lost it. Now that he's living in Tuscany and working in Rome, I just hope he will pick up those accents!!! The mix of them is considered to be by convention the "standard accepted pronunciation" for the well-read Italian. 🤪😆 By the way, whatever the language he's speaking, I'm just so fascinated by how his brain works with languages!!!!!😄 I heard now he speaks Spanish with a really bad Italian accent, which makes me laugh because he started off with a Spanish accent when speaking Italian 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elena Mastro Posted October 20, 2020 Share Posted October 20, 2020 On 10/11/2020 at 8:22 AM, JYLeetf1223 said: I heard now he speaks Spanish with a really bad Italian accent, which makes me laugh because he started off with a Spanish accent when speaking Italian Yes! When he recently spoke Spanish with Danna Paola (during her IG Live, or during I love Beirut) he sounded Italian!! That's very peculiar... I think his accents adapts itself according to the place he's dwelling. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
holdingyourdrink Posted November 18, 2020 Share Posted November 18, 2020 Ohhh I’ve just found this topic! I always wondered what Mika considered his first language, in what language he dreams and what language he curses in 🤣 Then I figured, it is probably not very different as to how I experience it in my own situation. Speaking German, Dutch and English myself. I mix all words, accents, cadence of the sentence depending on where I am or whom I’m speaking to. And if I’m tired it can be a mess 😉 My native language is Dutch and was raised bilingually Dutch/English, but I live in Germany and dream mostly in German. When I curse it really depends on how pissed off I am. Mildly pissed: German, when I’m mad: English, when I’m furious: Dutch 🤣 When intense emotions come into play, then you know what you consider as your native language!! But that only holds true for me 😆 So what language does Mika curse in?? 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silver Posted November 18, 2020 Share Posted November 18, 2020 Definitely heard him swearing in English - he seems to do that a lot! But I have heard him use the odd French swearword or two. He probably uses swearwords according to location. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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