Is your Accent in English a Problem? | The English Podcast — Transcript

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1. 0:00Right now, I am in Spain.
2. 0:03If you can hear the birds chirping in
3. 0:07the trees,
4. 0:08it's because I'm outside. I I'm actually
5. 0:11I'm at a winery
6. 0:13where they make wine
7. 0:15>> [laughter]
8. 0:15>> in a bodega. It's a It's very very
9. 0:18beautiful.
10. 0:19And I thought this would be a nice
11. 0:21moment to just stop and have a chat with
12. 0:25you guys about something that I've been
13. 0:27seeing
14. 0:28in the comment section.
15. 0:30In particular, sometimes I get comments
16. 0:34from people telling me that when they
17. 0:36speak English, that nobody understands
18. 0:39them.
19. 0:40Um nobody understands their accent.
20. 0:43And yeah, I I often see this comment and
21. 0:47I think it's really something very very
22. 0:49interesting.
23. 0:50Um the idea of accents in English. I
24. 0:54actually I have a lot to say
25. 0:56on the topic, so
26. 0:58there's probably going to be multiple
27. 1:00videos on accents and all of the
28. 1:02different things about them such as
29. 1:05which one should you learn, which one
30. 1:07should you listen to, things like this.
31. 1:09But today I wanted to speak in
32. 1:11particular about mhm
33. 1:15foreign accents.
34. 1:17How would I call them?
35. 1:19Like international accents in English,
36. 1:22foreign accents I guess you could say.
37. 1:24Accents of people who do not speak
38. 1:27English as their mother tongue.
39. 1:30And and basically is it Is it okay to
40. 1:33have an accent? Is your accent a
41. 1:36problem? Is your accent stopping people
42. 1:39from understanding you? My name is Evee
43. 1:43and you are listening to the English
44. 1:46podcast, a podcast designed to help you
45. 1:49make English a part of your life.
46. 1:52So, this podcast is designed for English
47. 1:55learners to practice listening while
48. 1:58they do other things. So, listen to this
49. 2:00podcast while you are commuting to work,
50. 2:04listen to this while you walk the dog,
51. 2:07listen to this while you walk around a
52. 2:09bodega, perhaps. Um
53. 2:13Basically, just relax and focus on
54. 2:16listening. The question we just left on
55. 2:19here is, is your accent a problem?
56. 2:22Should you be trying to change your
57. 2:24accent?
58. 2:26Should you be trying to learn like a
59. 2:28British accent or an American accent?
60. 2:31How much time should you be putting into
61. 2:34changing the way that you speak?
62. 2:38I in general, 98%
63. 2:41of the time, I do not think an accent in
64. 2:44English is a problem. I don't think it's
65. 2:47a problem.
66. 2:48And what usually is the problem, if
67. 2:50people are feeling like they are not
68. 2:53being understood, the problem is usually
69. 2:56not the accent, but the pronunciation.
70. 2:59By pronunciation, I mean the way that
71. 3:03you are pronouncing and saying the
72. 3:06words, in particular.
73. 3:08In English, we are quite particular
74. 3:11about
75. 3:12the way that we that we pronounce
76. 3:14vowels. I often find that if somebody is
77. 3:17saying something and I don't understand,
78. 3:19it's because
79. 3:20they are not stressing the right vowel,
80. 3:24or they aren't drawing the vowels out
81. 3:27enough. If you listen to how I speak,
82. 3:29about 80% of everything I say is a
83. 3:32vowel. And a big problem that people
84. 3:34have is sometimes they they skip them,
85. 3:37they skip vowels, or they rush them all
86. 3:39together and really hit the consonants.
87. 3:42I notice this across accents, actually.
88. 3:45The thing that's so difficult about
89. 3:46trying to correct somebody's
90. 3:48pronunciation is it really really
91. 3:50depends on where you are from.
92. 3:54For example, in some countries you will
93. 3:57see people add like an extra vowel to
94. 4:00the end of words. I know for a lot of
95. 4:02Koreans the word words like challenge
96. 4:05and college are so difficult because
97. 4:08people try and add like an e at the end.
98. 4:11I also see people, like I said, pushing
99. 4:14all of the vowels together. People who
100. 4:16speak a Latin based language as their
101. 4:18mother tongue, so Italian or Spanish,
102. 4:21they often will carry the rhythm of
103. 4:24certain words into English, in
104. 4:27particular with any word that is coming
105. 4:30from Latin. For example, words like
106. 4:32reformation, um a Spanish speaker is
107. 4:36quite likely to try and say it in a more
108. 4:39in a way that's more similar to how they
109. 4:42would say it in Spanish. And this is the
110. 4:44problem. It's not like a
111. 4:47it's not an accent problem. It's the
112. 4:49mother tongue carrying over into English
113. 4:53and influencing the way that you
114. 4:55pronounce things. And this is why it's
115. 4:57so difficult to fix without maybe
116. 5:00working with somebody who's going to
117. 5:02correct your pronunciation. Um in
118. 5:05general,
119. 5:06if you make friends in English, they're
120. 5:07probably not going to start correcting
121. 5:10your pronunciation because
122. 5:12that's just so annoying and not cool.
123. 5:15>> [laughter]
124. 5:15>> Um but some teachers will pick up on it
125. 5:19sometimes. I think in general, a lot of
126. 5:22teachers don't like to deep dive too
127. 5:25much into accents because usually the
128. 5:28more you use a language, the better your
129. 5:31accent will get and same with
130. 5:32pronunciation. But without knowing where
131. 5:35you are from and your kind of linguistic
132. 5:38ticks, your linguistic habits are, it's
133. 5:41very very difficult to correct your
134. 5:43pronunciation, um um kind of hearing it
135. 5:46live.
136. 5:48I do think there are ways to improve
137. 5:52pronunciation. Um a lot of it I think is
138. 5:55you just have to have enough exposure to
139. 5:58the language and really be paying
140. 6:00attention to how words actually
141. 6:04sound.
142. 6:06For example, I can sometimes feel, and
143. 6:09I'm sure you have this in English, too.
144. 6:12Every time I say something wrong,
145. 6:15I can feel it. I literally can feel, oh,
146. 6:18I don't think that sounded right. And
147. 6:21the reason why you build this instinct
148. 6:23is because you just have a lot of
149. 6:25exposure to the language. So, by
150. 6:27listening to lots and lots of English,
151. 6:30you will begin to build up this this
152. 6:32instinct, this feeling as to how words
153. 6:36should be pronounced.
154. 6:38I also know that a lot of people really
155. 6:41really enjoy shadowing.
156. 6:43That is actually not something that I've
157. 6:46tried, um
158. 6:48but I know it's really popular,
159. 6:49especially in the English language
160. 6:51learning space. I see a lot a lot a lot
161. 6:54of shadowing videos.
162. 6:57And I think that's probably a really
163. 6:58good idea. Trying to shadow a native
164. 7:01speaker and and feel where the stress of
165. 7:04certain vowels are or certain
166. 7:06consonants,
167. 7:07and kind of mimic that, I can see
168. 7:10definitely that that would help. But the
169. 7:12reality is that I think the majority of
170. 7:14pronunciation problems get fixed with
171. 7:17exposure.
172. 7:19And also,
173. 7:21really do try and set up a different
174. 7:25almost setting in your mouth for when
175. 7:27you speak another language. Um
176. 7:31in general, if you feel like you're
177. 7:32speaking English and your mouth is
178. 7:35moving in the same way that it does when
179. 7:37you speak your mother tongue,
180. 7:40there's probably going to be some
181. 7:41pronunciation problems because your
182. 7:44mouth needs to have
183. 7:46a different setting, right?
184. 7:49Some people are better at this than
185. 7:52others. Some people just have this
186. 7:54really amazing skill of mimicking and
187. 7:58copying accents and voices. Um you don't
188. 8:01have to be able to do that, but if you
189. 8:04can just feel, "Oh, is my mouth going
190. 8:07into like English mode?"
191. 8:10If you feel like there's a distinct
192. 8:12mode, then you're probably doing
193. 8:13something right, in my opinion. When I
194. 8:17studied or I still do, when I study
195. 8:20Spanish, something that I see a lot is
196. 8:23this conversation over whether you
197. 8:26should be listening to content from a
198. 8:29native speaker or whether you can also
199. 8:32listen to content by somebody who is
200. 8:34speaking Spanish as their second or
201. 8:36third or fourth language.
202. 8:40I actually I've not seen as much of a
203. 8:43discussion about this in the English
204. 8:45language learning community, but I do
205. 8:48have some opinions on this as well. Um
206. 8:52which I thought might be interesting.
207. 8:54This is my take, okay? Like this is my
208. 8:56opinion. It's not based on anything this
209. 8:58week. I've not read any papers that have
210. 9:01told me any of this, but
211. 9:04I do think, especially when it comes to
212. 9:07having a good pronunciation,
213. 9:10listening to native speakers is is very
214. 9:13important.
215. 9:14But obviously there is a huge variety of
216. 9:17pronunciations even by native speakers.
217. 9:21And many native speakers will pronounce
218. 9:23things in very different ways. So, this
219. 9:26is something as well to take into
220. 9:28consideration.
221. 9:30But I do think that especially in the
222. 9:33beginning,
223. 9:34it's probably a good idea to listen to
224. 9:37mostly native
225. 9:40content
226. 9:41um or content by native speakers
227. 9:45just to help you avoid
228. 9:48developing the wrong instinct for how
229. 9:50words should be.
230. 9:52But I actually think with English
231. 9:54learning in particular that listening to
232. 9:57content by non-native speakers is
233. 9:59actually really important
234. 10:01because English is
235. 10:04the kind of most international language
236. 10:07in the world at the moment. If you are
237. 10:10somebody who works with English, you're
238. 10:12going to hear people speaking with all
239. 10:15sorts of different accents and probably
240. 10:18some very different pronunciations.
241. 10:20If you are somebody who loves to travel,
242. 10:23you are probably going to be using
243. 10:25English in a country that English is not
244. 10:27the mother tongue either. So, if you
245. 10:31only listen to native speakers when you
246. 10:34then go out into the world, you are
247. 10:36going to be like, "What is happening?"
248. 10:39And I've seen this with with some of my
249. 10:41students who are business people, they
250. 10:43work with English. It's actually really
251. 10:46difficult for them because they'll work
252. 10:48with somebody who is French or somebody
253. 10:51who is Spanish or somebody who is
254. 10:53Chinese and it's really difficult for
255. 10:56them because this is an accent that they
256. 10:59have literally never heard in their
257. 11:01life.
258. 11:03Because yeah, you you learn English with
259. 11:05native speakers, but the reality is
260. 11:08English is now an international
261. 11:11language. So
262. 11:13really
263. 11:14getting used to the pronunciations of
264. 11:18people from other countries
265. 11:20in my opinion
266. 11:22it's no bad thing.
267. 11:24To conclude
268. 11:26I don't think your accent's a problem. I
269. 11:29think maybe if you really want to spend
270. 11:32time trying to improve your English
271. 11:36speaking
272. 11:37First of all, just speak and be
273. 11:39confident. Confidence is the most
274. 11:41important thing. But if you do want to
275. 11:43work on your accent, I would just
276. 11:45recommend
277. 11:46really really listening to how you say
278. 11:48the vowels, really thinking about the
279. 11:51way that your mouth is set up when you
280. 11:53speak, and really feeling a big
281. 11:56difference between your English mouth
282. 12:00setting and your native
283. 12:02language mouth setting. Go out there,
284. 12:05work on your pronunciation.
285. 12:08Um
286. 12:09Think about the vowels. That's the only
287. 12:11thing I'm going to say. Don't rush them,
288. 12:13draw them out. It will be the best thing
289. 12:16for your accent, I swear.
290. 12:18If you speak a Latin language, maybe
291. 12:20really sit down with those words that
292. 12:23have direct translations like t i o n
293. 12:26words like reformation um or reality t i
294. 12:30t y words and really work on your
295. 12:33pronunciation on these points in
296. 12:35particular.
297. 12:36But in general, if you're thinking about
298. 12:39the pronunciation, if you're really
299. 12:40trying, I think you're probably doing
300. 12:42great.
301. 12:44I am going to go now because I have
302. 12:47booked a tour of this winery.
303. 12:50Um I have 5 minutes to get there.
304. 12:53>> [laughter]
305. 12:54>> So, I'm going to go and do that. I hope
306. 12:57that you have had a lovely time with
307. 13:00this podcast. If you are listening to
308. 13:02this on your way to work, have a great
309. 13:04day at work. And I will see you in the
310. 13:07next video.
311. 13:08Bye.