If you're like most non-native speakers, you're probably concerned about whether people understand
you when you're speaking English.
In this video, we're going to talk about five reasons that native English speakers may not
understand you, and the first one has absolutely nothing to do with you.
Welcome back to the English with Kim YouTube channel where we talk about what to say, how
to say it, and why it matters.
If you're interested in communicating more effectively in English, be sure to hit subscribe.
So let's get started.
Like I said, one major reason that native English speakers don't understand you doesn't
have anything to do with you.
The first reason that native English speakers might not understand you is that they choose
not to understand you.
Believe it or not, understanding someone with a foreign accent is actually a choice.
In such a global world like the one we live in today, most people have been
exposed to non-native accents.
Yes, of course there are people from more remote areas or from areas where they only
interact with people who sound like them, but those people may just need a few moments
to adjust to your accent.
If someone doesn't understand you, they may be closed-minded or they may not
like foreign accents.
When someone like this hears a minor mistake, a mispronounced consonant, a word that is
stressed wrong, they put up this mental block in their mind and they decide
that they don't understand you.
This is a choice to not try to find a way to understand the other person
and adjust to their accent.
I've experienced this as a non-native speaker of Spanish.
For the most part, people are used to hearing Americans speaking Spanish
with an American accent.
But occasionally you'll come across someone who really doesn't like foreigners and they'll
basically decide they can't understand you, no matter how well you speak the language.
Like I said at the beginning, making an effort to understand someone who's speaking your
language and a language that isn't their first is a choice.
If you come across a person like this, it is not your job to change their mind.
Trust that you did the best you could, you spoke as clearly as possible, and don't question
your own English ability because of their attitude.
The second reason that native English speakers may not understand you is that they're not
familiar with your particular accent.
Let's talk about this.
Like I said earlier, many Americans are used to hearing foreign accents from different
parts of the world.
There are so many immigrants and international students and visitors from all over the world
that people are probably used to hearing a number of different accents.
Their ability to understand these different accents depends on their exposure.
If they're living in California, they may be more used to hearing people from a wide
variety of places.
Maybe in places like New York City, they're not going to have trouble understanding you
because they're used to hearing so many different accents.
However, there may be people that are only familiar with a handful of different accents.
Maybe they're used to hearing different Latin American accents, so they have no trouble
understanding native Spanish speakers, but they may have trouble understanding certain
European accents, or certain Asian accents, certain accents from Africa.
It really depends on the person's background and what they're used to hearing.
This is also true between groups of other foreigners.
When you're learning English, you're used to hearing other people who speak your native
language speaking English, so your ear adjusts to this non-native accent.
However, you may start interacting with other non-native speakers from different regions
of the world and find it difficult to understand the particular characteristics of their speech.
In one of my English classes in Boston, this happened within my classroom.
I had a student from Columbia who had trouble understanding a student from Korea because
the accents are so different.
For me as a teacher who is used to hearing all kinds of accents, it was no problem to
understand both of them.
People need a chance to let their ear adjust to these different non native accents.
Once they get used to the characteristics that come with an accent, they'll be able
to understand you.
And like I said, if people don't understand you after you've been trying and trying to
express yourself, then they may have made a choice to not try to adjust their ear to
the way that you speak.
This is why I often tell non-native speakers to focus on clarity.
If you're doing the best you can to communicate as clearly as possible by using the features
of English like stress and intonation that we use to communicate more effectively, you
don't have to worry about so many of the details of your accent.
We are used to hearing people with accents.
I don't teach complete accent elimination, I teach accent reduction so that it's not
a distraction so that people can understand you.
If you're making an effort to speak more clearly, and paying attention to the things that truly
matter, you're going to have a much easier time interacting with people.
The third reason that native English speakers may not understand you is if you're making
one of these three common mistakes when pronouncing words.
In my opinion, the most common reasons that people mispronounce words is that they're
not stressing certain syllables, they're stressing the wrong syllable, or they're substituting
a sound from their native language that just sounds "off" in English.
Be sure to check out my video on three reasons you're mispronouncing words in English
for more guidance.
If you can fix these mistakes, you'll notice that people will understand you
a little bit better.
Rather than focusing on fixing every single tiny detail, focus on these three specific
things you can do to change the way people hear you.
I emphasize working on your word and sentence stress on this channel because these are things
that are key to being understood by native English speakers.
There is so much vowel variation between different regional accents and different dialects of
English that you really don't have to worry too much about your vowel sound, as long as
your vowels are clear and your words are correctly stressed.
Of course, as you advance, you probably want to work on your vowels so they sound a little
bit better, but it's not something you're going to have to be paranoid about.
Instead, focus on word stress, making sure you're stressing the right syllables and signaling
which word you're saying.
The fourth reason that native English speakers may not understand you is that they're misreading
your meaning because of your tone.
There are a number of reasons that your tone may not be consistent with the way we use
intonation in American English.
For example, you may end your statements with a rising tone which can signal uncertainty
or questioning or even be condescending depending on the context.
Keep in mind that a lot of Americans do speak with a rising tone at the end of their sentences,
but it's just something to pay attention to.
If you want to signal that you're done talking, be sure to use falling intonation at the end
of your sentence.
If you're consistently ending your sentences with rising tone, it may sound like you don't
trust the person, you don't trust them to understand you.
So they may start wondering why you're ending all of your sentences with rising tone.
In my experience working with non-native English speakers, I sometimes find that people from
certain regions of the world have a rising tone or an inconsistent pitch throughout their
speech based on interference from their native language.
This can affect the way people understand your meaning.
In American English, we communicate a lot of additional meaning through our tone.
Similarly, flatter intonation or more steep drops at the end of your sentence can signal
that you're being commanding or demanding.
You may also sound like you're annoyed or frustrated or disinterested.
In this case, I encourage you to play around with your tone.
Try experimenting with different intonation patterns in order to see how people respond to you.
When you change your tone, you may notice that people understand you better.
It's not always about the way you say certain words or about the fact that you have an accent.
It's that we're listening for these subtle cues through intonation that help us understand
your deeper meaning.
If a native English speaker isn't understanding you because of your tone, they may ask a question
like, "What did you mean by that?"
Or they may just think that you meant what you said.
Pay attention to how your intonation compares to the other person's.
Try to mirror their intonation in order to be more easily understood.
Like I said, intonation is used to express a wide variety of emotions and attitudes.
If you want more resources on intonation, be sure to check out the links below this video.
The last reason that native English speakers might not understand you is because you speak
with less confidence than you do in your native language.
We've all been there.
As non native speakers, we often become highly sensitive to how the other person's reacting to us.
We're constantly scanning the other person's facial expressions and body language in order
to see if they understood us.
We might not feel confident if we haven't gotten a clear signal that they follow what we're saying.
Personally, I often fear a reaction to being a non-native Spanish speaker.
When I speak English, I don't care.
I'm a confident, enthusiastic speaker.
If I make a mistake, I steamroll right over it and keep going.
But when I speak Spanish, I often get shy, soft-spoken, reserved.
I lower my pitch.
I may not speak as confidently.
I defer to more aggressive speakers or native speakers.
I'm likely to allow people to talk over me in a way that I wouldn't when speaking English.
For all of these reasons and more, I may not express myself with clarity and confidence
when speaking Spanish.
This means new people may not understand me at first until they adjust to my manner of speaking.
But I always trust that my friends will, because I know they can follow me
even though I have an accent.
Does that sound familiar to you?
This is something I see a lot when working with non native English speakers.
Like I said, it's not that people don't understand you, it's that we're worried that they won't
understand us, so we're not speaking with the clarity and confidence that we normally
would in our native language.
I encourage you to work on your mindset, give yourself extra opportunities to practice,
seek out a speaking partner, or look for a tutor, or find someone that you can work with
in order to increase your confidence.
All of these things are going to help you feel more confident that people understand
you because you're expressing yourself as well as possible.
After all, in many cases, whether or not somebody understands you has everything to do with them.
If you're making an effort to speak more confidently, more clearly, more effectively, you're doing
everything you can to communicate to the best of your ability, you should rest easy that
the other person will be able to follow what you're saying.
We can't please everyone.
And like I said at the beginning, two of the biggest reasons that native English speakers
may not understand you have nothing to do with you personally and everything to do with them.
Either they choose not to understand you because they're not comfortable interacting with non-native
speakers or they're not used to your accent and their ear is going to need some time to adjust.
If you're doing everything you can to speak clearly and confidently by focusing on expressing
yourself with correct word stress, sentence stress and intonation, it's going to be very
likely that a native English speaker understands you.
Of course, as you continue to move forward in your English learning journey, you do want
to fix common pronunciation mistakes.
Bit by bit, you're going to be able to reduce your accent and sound even more
like a native English speaker.
I hope this video helps you feel more confident that people will understand you when you're
speaking English.
Being self-conscious about your accent is completely normal, but if you can overcome
that, you're going to have a much better time interacting with native English speakers and
other foreigners who speak English too.
For more guidance and other videos on this topic, be sure to check out the playlist I've
listed in the cards and be sure to check out the other links in the description
below the video.
Once again, I'm Kim from englishwithkim.com.
I'm your guide to the essential conversation skills you need to sound more natural in English.
If you like this video, please give it a thumbs up and share it with a friend.
Have a good one.
Goodbye.