Are Foreign Accents Attractive or Unattractive?

I don't think there's a such thing as "accent free".

And not really, no.

EDIT: What I mean is, I don't find foreign or domestic accents more attractive than the other in a general sense. Of course there are some I like better than others, but I just don't give it too much thought. I'll know a good voice when I hear it and I'll know an annoying voice when I hear it.

20% hotter if it's something nice and not too gutteral.

I am American and find Irish, Scottish, and other accents in that area of the world attractive indeed.

I would normally think that it's because that accent is uncommon but I have actually known a lot of people from all over the world (including Ireland, Scottland, UK, Australia, New Zealand, and what not) so it's not unknown to me at all. I just think it's more attractive an accent than my boring terrible voice.

Doesn't it depend on the accent? Like, I can imagine a German accent being attractive, but never in a million years could I imagine a ドイツ accent being attractive. Sounds like you're burping out your words.

Accents are great. Except French Canadian. That's death itself.

Though I wouldn't limit it to "Foreign" anyone who doesn't sound boring and/or French Canadian is great. There are extremely shrill sounding other accents aside from French Canadian, but they're really just spies of the Quebecois New World Order.

Yeah, you're right. An accent is just the way you speak I guess, and it tends to give away where you're from. It's a bit more pronounced in some places than others though. I'm working with a guy that recently moved from Mississippi to Utah and it's very obvious that he's from the south. I'm not sure that people could place me other than vaguely western USA.

You're right on that, I meant is there an accent that you find more attractive than just the way people from where you're from talk. Semi-broken English from China or something isn't what I mean. And of course it depends on the area of the place too. Downton Abbey-style English versus Cockney or anything like that sure makes a difference. I just generally would say that even though it's exotic and not necessarily a turn off to have an accent, I find normal American speech most attractive.

@mormonwarrior:

Actually, I was just commenting on how you didn't specify language. I wrote ドイツ to mean "German accent in Japanese", which sounds exactly as I'd described it. 英語 accents (or イギリス accents) also suck, now that I think about it. Does Japanese have any foreign accents that don't suck?

Depends on the accent. I would say yes in most instances.

@video_game_king: I'm ever so slightly unsettled that I knew this was one of your posts from reading it without even looking at the username.

I really like me some husky Eastern-European/Russian accents; Irina from The Sopranos is a really good example of the sorta accent I find appealing. A really strong Irish accent can be pretty cute, too.

It can be both? It's a weird question, because it depends on all of what accent it is, the degree of the accent, and how it interplays with the speaker's natural tone and timbre. It's such a judge-on-an-individual-basis kind of thing.

100% hotter if it makes her sound like she's a pack a day smoker just in from running a decathlon on a particularly smoggy day in Beijing.

Question answered in the form of a video!

..... Mel Brooks films taught me a lot about accents.

"IT'S TWRU! IT'S TWRU!"

It really depends on the accent. But for the most part, yes.

Sure? No? Maybe?

...

Sometimes.

I love hearing foreign accents. Bring from Boston any different accent is welcomed.

As a non-American I can say that an American accent is super unattractive. A lot of other accents can be though, particularly from a lot of European countries.

I feel like the sexiness of an accent wildly plays off of stereotypes.

It's really just a few European accents that are considered attractive by English-speakers. Europe, and maybe Australia/New Zealand. Most accents are not very attractive if they're from Asia, Africa, South America, and any part of Europe other than like the northwest bit.

Now, which accent is the funniest? Indians speaking English, by far. That comedy goldmine has been used by everybody from The Simpsons' Apu to Russell Peters.

It depends but sometimes it's amazing. Girls with English accents are indeed really hot.

It depends on the accent. Girls with British accents though...That's a good one.

I like English, Irish, and Australian accents. After that I'd prefer an American accent, and then everywhere else.

When I speak english my accent is all over the place, sometimes I sound american, other times european. I like accents, everyone has accents and sure, once in awhile it's attractive.

I'm semi-surprised at the dearth of Russian. There's an accent that can go so wrong, and also so so right.

It really varies through a large number of factors: whether or not I find other aspects of the person with the accent attractive, slight distinctions in pronunciation, and familiarity with the accent.

I've heard great Irish and Scottish accents and I've heard awful. I liked English until a former co-worker ruined it (along with the English youths who pronounce "TH" as "V").

(I take some unearned pride to be from the only region on earth agreed largely upon by linguists to be accent-free.)

EDIT: Since I don't find English accents attractive--probably because I haven't personally met any surprisingly attractive English girls--I couldn't really vote either way. So, I guess you're all morons...?

Definitely put me in the "it depends" crowd.

I do like a nice welsh accent, though. That gets me, more often than not.

@video_game_king: Even though I'm a nerd who can understand your moonspeak, I have to question why you'd use it to make your point, if not to purposefully be misunderstood. But that's not what language is for!!

Also, foreign-japanese accents are the best.

As an American, DuskVamp's British accent was definitely a major plus.

@superkenon:

That wasn't 月語; it was 日本語. I used that to illustrate what language the accent is in.

Wait German? Really? Of all the possible sexy accents, German?

@video_game_king: Funny.

Where's the option for I don't give a shit about someone's accent? Is that the last one? I mean, if you want me to call you all morons I can, but people usually don't like it when I'm honest about stuff like that...

Definitely attractive usually. I'm a sucker for an Australian accent. If I ever make it there my head will probably explode.

I'd say it's usually attractive. It's exotic and different.

depends on their country of origin

My French-Canadian accent is most certainly the most attractive accent there is.

Oui.

Depends on the accent

Is it weird that I'm listening to Danger High Voltage on my mp3 player as right this? But yes, Much like ties.

I think Australian is the sexiest accent, English is a close second.

Scottish is ew.

Honestly, I don't really care. It's not really something I think about anymore.

I suppose I used to find British accents "sexy" when I was a kid, but then I've met my share of British people in the States over the years and a decent amount do not sound as sexy as I originally imagined.

I disapprove of the all-or-nothing stance of this poll.

Depends on the accent but certainly sexy more often than not.

Yes, I find accents of any kind "sexier" then the native accent in my region.

Italian accents, Spanish accents, Australian accents, about all that I find attractive.

From USA

Yeah, I think accents can make a person more attractive. I don't know that I have a preference, but apparently Eastern European accents do it for me.

Depends.

Fact: Danny O'Dwyer becomes 67% more attractive when talking. So there's that.

I find the accent of russians yelling at me to go "fak you mutha" in Dota profoundly unattractive, though...

@artisanbreads said:

If you're talking about some kind of generic English accent ("BBC English" or "Received Pronunciation")... I can see that. Otherwise, there are some regional English accents which can have the opposite effect when coming from women.

EDIT: I think that's probably the way a lot of this works. I tend to like the "proper" accents from areas rather than the mangled regional versions.

I sometimes miss the New Zealand accent since I've moved to America. I also really like some of the American southern accents too.

English (certain types), Australian, and southern belle-type American accents, definitely.