Juliana, Juliana, how can I
speak like an American?
How can I speak like a Brit?
Could you give me some tips, so I can lose my
accent in English?
These are some of the questions I
I get a lot from you and that's why
the topic of today's video is
accents in English.
The first thing I'd like to
remind you is that everybody has an accent,
even in our own language,
even when you don't notice it.
I am Brazilian, for instance, so I
speak Portuguese with a Brazilian accent,
but I'm also from Minas Gerais, so I have
a "mineiro" accent, so it's like
an accent inside another.
And that also happens to Americans.
An American from California, for instance, has
a different accent from an American from
the South of the United States.
A person from the North of England has a different accent
from a person from the South of England,
and so on.
California accent (Valley-girl style)
Tennessee accent
And an accent involves many things,
not only the way we
pronounce single words, but also
intonation, rhythm, and the melody of sentences.
Accent is something very
complex, to tell you the truth, and as
we get older, it becomes
harder and harder for us to lose the
accent we've acquired when
we were a child,
both in our own language, as well as
when we're speaking a foreign language.
Linguists and psychologists talk about a period
called "critical period" which lasts from the moment
we're born to around
age 12 which is when
our brains are malleable
enough to absorb new sounds and
ways of speaking.
And that's why
children who grow up in a bilingual
household or environment end up speaking
those languages with a native accent.
Now, if like me, you've also
learned
or if you're learning a new language
as an adult, it's very difficult,
nothing is impossible,
but it's very
difficult for you to lose
your accent completely.
Your brain
is not as malleable as it was during
the critical period and you end up
trying to match the sounds of the new
language into the sounds of your native language,
and that's how accents flourish.
Speaking with a strong accent in English
And that's why I'd
like to encourage you to forget
a little bit about this idea of
"speaking like an American"
or "speaking like a Brit"
because it's a goal that is neither very
realistic, nor very useful, to tell you the
truth, unless you want to be
an actor or a spy
which are professions that require you to
pass for someone you're not,
but if you don't want to be neither an actor,
nor a spy,
why do you want to pass
for an American?
There's no reason, right?
What you can and should want to improve
is your pronunciation.
And pronunciation is not
synonym to accent, pronunciation is one
aspect that contributes
to your accent.
And how do you know
if you need to improve your pronunciation
in English, for instance?
If you're
speaking with an American and you
hear many
what?
excuse me?
sorry, what did you say?
what's that?
could you repeat that?
That means that perhaps
you're nor pronouncing in a very clear
way and that you should improve
your pronunciation.
Well, after having explained all of this to
you and having explained the reason why I
think you shouldn't worry about
losing your accent and focus on
your pronunciation instead,
here are 4 tips that will
help you improve your English and speak
more clearly.
Tip number 1:
Listen listen, listen
to materials in English, or in the language
you're learning, every day.
It can be music, it can be movies, it can be podcasts,
whatever pleases you,
whatever you enjoy.
This way, you'll be training your ears
to notice the nuances of the
language which is very important.
Tip number 2:
When you're
reading something in a foreign
language, read it out loud,
so you can notice which words
you have a hard time pronouncing.
Tip number 3:
When you don't know
how to pronounce a word,
go to an online dictionary, even Google
Translator, and check out how that
word is pronounced.
The cool thing about some
online dictionaries is that they give you
the American pronunciation, as well as the
British pronunciation, so you can
learn a little bit more about the difference between
these two "Englishes."
Tip number 4:
I've already given this tip in another video which is
speak slower.
When you speak slower, your
brain has extra time to
pronounce the word and you end up
pronouncing more clearly.
So, focus on pronunciation,
don't be ashamed of your accent,
don't feel bad because you have one
because as I've mentioned in the beginning of the video,
everybody has an accent
and a fun fact:
one of the things I hear a lot here
in the United States is:
"I love your accent!"
Thank you so much for watching this video,
if you liked it, leave a thumbs-up,
share with your friends.
If you haven't subscribed to this channel yet, do so!
And now, leave your opinion below:
do you think that losing your accent is essential
or that being understood is what really matters?
Kisses and see you next video! :)