Your accent is a collection of tongue movements, airflows, and mouth shapes, among others, which you have developed during your entire speaking life. The fundamental part of it is grounded on what you learned in early childhood.
One wants to reduce the local accent to sound like a native in English. Is it possible? And what does and don't are here - you learn from this text.
Can I Sound Like a Native English Speaker?
Countless people, even those, who began to learn a foreign language when they were 6-7 years old, admit that despite they could sound nearly perfectly native at one time, they still struggle to remain native sounding when they are tired or drunk. What is this about? It tells you that everyone can reduce their local accent and fake a native one while speaking a foreign language. Firstly, this process needs a lot of training. Secondly, it does take time. And then finally - you will never be too good at it, so you never reduce your native sounding completely.
Ready for a tough adventure? So let's start.
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How Long Does It Take To Pick Up an Accent
Never you know the answer because time limits depend on several levers.
- presence or absence of an English language environment
- intensity and durability of you speaking English to natives
- regularity of your pronunciation classes (which you do either by yourself or with a tutor)
And the more you have, the more you get.
Having the ambition to become a native English speaker, you need to understand that learning an accent is alike learning grammar or vocabulary. In adulthood, you could hardly get it accidentally and without any reason. You should be ready for hard work. On the one hand, you need to learn how natives pronounce sounds. On the other hand, by doing this, you are about to reduce your native and unique sounding.
There could be many reasons for you to think about reducing your accent. But there are also numerous reasons why and when you do not need to do it. Before you know how to speak like a native English speaker, discover why you should not have such an aim.
Why you do not need to change your natural accent in English
Here are the several reasons:
- Communicating is mostly about understanding. If you speak English and pronounce it so that your interlocutor gets you, you do not need to change your sounding. If your accent does deteriorate understanding, you should take care of your pronunciation. But remember that improving your sounding to a certain point of understandability does not mean losing your native accent. So speaking natively here still is not your goal.
- What stands out in the native English? Besides the accent, there are also fluency and simplicity. Therefore, if you want to know how to speak English like a native, probably you are also looking for ways to remain an interesting and witty person when speaking a foreign language. So for that, you also do not need to change your accent. What you need is to embed main language patterns into your unique way of thinking. That will come with practice, so instead of destroying your way of sounding better help yourself, and learn more native vocabulary by watching standups, texting with natives, or studying Urban Dictionary.
- There are only 25% out of the 1.5 billion English speakers worldwide are native. So, why do the majority of speakers need to speak English like a native? We do not ask natives to normalize their local accents. Instead, we are trying to adapt our language and background to their sounding. That is just unfair.
If you continue to think about reducing your accent as a way to learn another one, the next part of this text is for you.
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How to Speak Like a Native Speaker in English
Pick up one main accent
Two main accents are British and American. But if you go further, you will see that the same words are pronounced differently in New York, San Francisco, and Texas. So to pick up the native accent, you are to start by choosing one of the hundreds.
You do not need to choose it forever, but you need a point where to start. Therefore, do this depending on your usage, plans, ambition, and sympathies.
Try to catch the phonemes
Every language is a complex of sounds or phonemes. If you want to know how to speak like a native, you need to know and exercise all of them. Other languages and accents are much easier to fake because of every letter there is for a sound. But English is more complicated. Probably you have already noticed that there are many sounds, which could be reflected by the one letter.
For you to cope better, there is the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). Look at it and work with it attentively and regularly.
Talk to a native
For learning native English, talking to native English speakers is almost the best option. Talking to them, listening to them, and trying to repeat those small nuances makes a straight way to your like-a-native speech.
Never take native buddy as your coach
Though native English-speaking friends of yours could be an unending source of new knowledge, they are still your friends, not mentors. Sure, you should ask them if they are okay with training you and correcting your mistakes. If they are up to it - great. But, you should not place too many hopes on it. Learning native English is nothing different from learning basics. You do need a lot of training so that you will improve better and faster. With taking to natives, you should think about finding an accent coach or just a native speaker with the accent you need who will teach you. Native English-speaking tutors, both in American and British English, you can always find at the UpSkills Tutor.
Do not mind, if it still sounds bad
Learning foreign languages not only gives us a language to speak. It teaches us how to make mistakes and how to correct them. When grammar and vocabulary could be just an exercise in remembering things, making your accent perfect is a more difficult task. At the same time, shaping your pronunciation could cause losing a part of your identity. So, before changing that, consider twice whether you need it. And when you decide that you are into doing this, you need to accept that you are to be mistaken often. Success would be your reward for all this.
