hey guys what's up Stephanie the English
coach here from English full-time comm
and in this video I'm gonna talk to you
guys about how to speak English like a
native speaker and more specifically how
to sound like a native speaker okay so
that when you speak English
people actually think that oh wow are
you a native speaker and maybe they
they're not sure because you you speak
English so well that you sound like a
native English speaker but obviously
since it's your second language or third
or tenth I don't know how many languages
you speak you know you're still gonna
mess up in certain areas with the
grammar it's just inevitable but you can
get to a point where you speak English
so well that people might actually think
you're a native English speaker and I
know because this has happened to me in
Spanish I learned Spanish I started
learning when I was 14 years old and
then I went to study Spanish in
Argentina I ended up living there for
about like four and a half years and you
know I got to a point where people
thought I was a native Spanish speaker I
mean maybe they wouldn't think that I
was a native Spanish speaker from
Argentina sometimes they would actually
this this is really funny native Spanish
speakers that were like from Mexico or
Spain when they would hear me speak
Spanish they'd go oh wow
she's from Argentina but the Argentine
people because they know exactly how
their accent sounds they would hear me
and they would go oh are you from Costa
Rica are you from Spain where are you
from and so it was really funny so
people really do think when I speak
Spanish a lot of them think that I am a
native Spanish speaker okay so you can't
achieve this with English one I want you
to know that that's possible but there
are a few things that you're gonna have
to do in order to achieve this and
you're gonna have you may have to change
the way you think about English okay so
the first thing you can do to start
sounding more like a native speaker is
focusing on phrases that we use in
English that native speakers use so
rather than focusing on individual
vocabulary words focus on phrases and
putting phrases together to make
sentences now everything that I'm going
to be telling you guys in these videos
is based on my experience
going Argentina and going from being
like basically I spoke Spanish with a
very neutral accent and my vocabulary
was very neutral previously I had only
learned Spanish with grammar books and
you know in in classrooms and stuff but
my Spanish was very neutral I didn't
sound like a native Spanish speaker so
I'm basing all of this on my own
personal experience okay and one of the
first things that I realized when I went
to Argentina is that people would use
the same phrases over and over and over
and over again so I just started
adopting the same phrases that people
from Argentina would use and this means
that I also had to drop phrases from my
vocabulary there were certain words and
phrases that I learned in my grammar
classes where the teacher said hey you
can say it like this and then I went to
Argentina and I was like whoa no they
don't say it like this I need to change
my vocabulary and change the phrases
that I use to sound more like a native
speaker so that's one of the first
changes that I made okay and then I
realized that the intonation in
Argentine Spanish is different from the
intonation in other types of Spanish and
the same is true for English there's you
know different accents as you guys know
UK Irish American southern American
there's so many different accents in
English but what you'll notice if you
focus on a particular accent is that the
intonation is generally always the same
the way that we ask questions the flow
of our words the way that we express
ourselves the way that we share ideas
you have to start thinking about English
like music okay music has rhythm it has
patterns it has flow and you're gonna
start to hear that okay and I want you
to pay attention to that and you have to
adopt those patterns of intonation and
you have to speak with those patterns
now a lot of people never achieve this
and they never do it because it forces
you out of your comfort zone now in your
native language you have patterns too
and those patterns are so deeply
engrained into your mind into your way
of speaking that not using those
patterns and using new patterns
it feels intimidating
and sometimes we can even feel
embarrassed but you're going to have to
get over that and you're just gonna have
to start using the patterns that native
English speakers use this means that
your mouth and your tongue and your
throat are gonna move in completely
different ways than they move in your
native language okay you're gonna have
to get comfortable with this okay
I noticed this when I was in Argentina
and I was just like okay if I really
want to sound like a native Spanish
speaker from Argentina then I'm going to
have to change the way that I speak
Spanish changed the way that I ask
questions change the way that I make
statements or commands etc so that I
sound more like a native speaker now the
last tip is that you're going to have to
learn our pronunciation okay you can't
take the vowel sounds for example from
your native language and then try to
speak English with those vowel sounds
okay so maybe you speak a language
that's very nasal you're going to have
to learn to speak English without being
super nasal okay because if you do that
that's when native speakers can hear
your accent okay when you're taking
sounds from your native language that
don't exist in English and then you're
incorporating them into your English
speaking okay we can hear your accent
because you're not using our sounds
you're using sounds from your own
language so again you just have to think
about you know language as being music
listen to the music I was in choir for
several years in elementary school and
in high school I also learned a few
instruments I didn't get super great or
anything but I did learn how to play the
violin the saxophone the piano and you
know it that helped me develop an ear
for music and a lot of times I was
honestly too lazy to learn how to read
the notes and play the notes so I would
play by ear I would just listen to
something and then I would try to play
it back myself
you can do the same to sound like a
native speaker listen to the way that I
speak English okay practice shadowing my
videos if you want to just put them on
replay and just
say what I say as I say it read the
subtitles do whatever you have to do
you're gonna notice that I use the same
patterns all the time when I speak okay
I use the same phrases the same
intonation patterns the same type of
pronunciation Kay and by focusing on
this you're really going to start
sounding more like a native speaker and
I have one more final bonus tip for you
okay if you really want to sound like a
native speaker you're going to have to
focus on a specific kind of English from
a specific region okay now in order to
achieve this this might mean that you're
gonna have to tune out certain regions
okay certain like let's say you're
following a bunch of you know native
English speakers from the United States
you're also following some from the UK
and Ireland well having and hearing all
that English it's a good thing because
you're learning how to understand so
many different types of English but if
you are really trying to focus on
sounding like a native speaker you may
have to tune out other native speakers
from other regions for a while while you
focus on the dialect that you want to
speak with okay because by focusing on
one dialect your ear is gonna become
accustomed to just that dialect you're
gonna learn how to speak with that okay
and you're gonna improve a lot faster
than if you're learning and listening to
so many different types of English and I
know this also because previously when I
was studying Spanish in the United
States I had teachers from Spain from
Argentina from Mexico and that's why my
Spanish was neutral that's why I didn't
sound like a native speaker because I
was just you know speaking I was
learning from so many different kinds of
native speakers that my Spanish was just
a neutral Spanish so again if you want
to sound like a native speaker you have
to focus on a specific kind and when I
was in Argentina
that's when I really really learned how
to sound like someone from Argentina
because I was so just I was hearing one
type of Spanish all the time all the
time so again if you want this for your
English you're gonna have to hear one
type of English all the time until you
feel like yeah okay
I finally feel like a native speaker
from California or the UK etc so anyways
I hope this helps go ahead and leave a
comment and let me know what kind of
dialect you are focusing on for
improving your English and if you have
any other tips to add if you also have
gotten to a place where you finally
sound like a native speaker in English
let us know what your tips are and share
them in the comments so that other
people can learn from you as well
anyways that's all for this video thanks
guys and we'll talk soon
bye hey guys thanks so much for watching
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full-time comm all the links are in the
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you guys in another video bye