So I'm not German and I cannot for the life of me hear if he has a foreign accent, or an odd accent compared to people who has lived in Germany for their entire life. Obviously Musiala speak perfect English, and that made me wonder if he has a slight accent in his German, given he grew up in England. Can any German here tell me if they could, based on a conversation with him, tell that he hasn't lived his entire life in Germany?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1inDEpfEdAQ – video if him speaking german
by Germfreecandy
7 comments
Notable (minor) English accent, but mostly its his grammer/the words he uses frequently, which aren’t “native”. In his interviews its easy to detect he spent a fair amount of his school time abroad. I don’t see it as important – he’s a good kid and a talented football player, which matters more.
No, I wouldn’t say that I can hear something that would give the impression of a foreign accent. There are some words he pronounces slightly different then I would but to me it almost sounds like a hint of a regional accent but I cant place it. All I can say is that his (slight) accent rules out the north.
Very, very little accent.
It’s interesting, he makes a few grammatical mistakes here and there (not informal grammar you would hear in a specific dialect or vernacular, but actual mistakes you’d make if it’s not your native language), but there’s no accent whatsoever. Without the occasional mistakes you’d never know he didn’t spend his entire childhood speaking German. So I guess it makes sense for someone who was born to a German-speaking mother and lived outside of Germany between the ages of 7 and 16.
He spent the first 7 years of his life in Germany, I didn’t even know he lived in England for some time. I don’t think anyone could tell, he doesn’t speak the perfect standard German, but no one really does.
He sometimes mixes up articles or leaves them out altogether in a way that goes beyond just speaking in a careless/colloquial manner and is a giveaway for him not being a native speaker. However, beyond that I don’t think he has much of a typical English accent.
Yes, I could tell because he made a few minor grammatical mistakes like using the wrong definite article. But his pronunciation is very good, though not flawless, e.g. at 3:14 he mispronounced Gedächtnis. When he doesn’t make those mistakes his accent (everyone has an accent) does not sound particularly foreign.
There are many children of immigrants in Germany who grew up bilingual, speaking their parent’s native language at home, which can impact their proficiency in German, so I wouldn’t immediately assume that he did not grow up in Germany.