Why You Have an Accent in a Foreign Language

have you ever wondered why you have an accent why  even though you've been studying English for many  

years you still don't sound like a native speaker  that was my Russian accent well I have and in this  

video I will cover what causes Accents in a  foreign language whether it's a good or a bad  

thing to have an accent whether you can reduce or  eliminate your accent and why most of us have an  

accent when we speak a foreign language the most  significant factor that can cause an accent in a  

foreign language is the influence of your native  language The Sounds intonation patterns and rules  

of your native language can carry over into the  pronunciation of the language you're learning this  

is often referred to as transfer or interference  while preparing all the information for this video  

I watched the super interesting video on YouTube  by Erica orcrand I really hope I'm pronouncing the  

name correctly the video is titled what causes  a foreign accent and I really like how in the  

videos they compare the Sounds in a foreign  language with moving targets when we speak our  

native language we only try to hit the targets  of our native language and we're pretty good at  

it because we've been speaking this language  since childhood of course sometimes we might  

make a mistake or two but it happens so rarely  because we're masters of this language game of  

darts it's our native language after all but now  we decided to learn a new language and basically  

a whole new set of all these moving targets is  now present so what happens is they kind of fight  

for your choice right you think you have to say  this sound but then it's a little bit different  

because maybe you're confused it with the sound  in your native language and that leads us to new  

sound rules because sounds differ language to  language every time you start learning a new  

language you're teaching yourself new sounds and  that's why usually at the very beginning people  

learn the alphabet they learn all the new sounds  because it's important and sometimes there are  

sounds that are so different than the Sounds in  your native language or maybe non-existent that it  

takes you quite a lot of time to actually Master  them like this letter in English is completely  

different from this letter in Spanish even though  the only obvious difference to a foreigner is the  

squiggly line above the Spanish Enya that's  why as a Russian speaker I struggle with these  

sounds for a very long time I couldn't understand  the difference between the words live and leave  

because in my native language we just don't have  this live sound like this e sound like how do you  

even say this and for a very long time I would  say I need to leave and I leave in Mexico which  

is wrong because these two words are pronounced  differently so basically I always went to this  

easy target the target of the sound e because it's  very similar to the sound and we have in Russian  

and if you want to improve your pronunciation in  English and work on your accent there is a great  

tool that can help you here it's the Elsa speak  app practicing your English with Elsa is a lot  

of fun and plus it's really important to practice  English regularly and it's especially important  

to practice real life situations to build your  confidence and start speaking more fluently and  

I'm super happy to share this new Incredible AI  tool made specifically for English Learners Elsa  

AI is a brand new feature of the also speak  app which lets you create your own situations  

and practice English on any topic you can choose  between the four preset scenarios or create your  

own hi welcome to Elsa AI please select one of the  following role plays you're at the cinema with a  

friend you haven't seen in a while it's so good to  see you how have you been hi it's so good to see  

you too yeah everything has been okay I'm really  excited to watch this movie with you today great  

what have you been up to lately so a few weeks  ago I started this new job at an amazing marketing  

firm I'm very excited that sounds awesome how  is it going so far yeah my boss is amazing so I  

really really like it and my co-workers are great  too that's fantastic news and what's in the better  

is that after the conversation Elsa will give  you an in-depth evaluation of how you performed  

as you can see they just gave me the assessment  on my pronunciation vocabulary and grammar and I  

can view the full assessment in more detail LCA  has just launched completely for free for all  

Elsa users if you don't have the Elsa app yet you  can click the first link in the description and  

download the app completely for free and if you  want unlimited usage of Elsa AI you can click the  

other Link in my description and get a very nice  discount on Elsa premium give it a try and let  

me know what you think the next factor that might  play a role in why you have an accent in a foreign  

language is the age of language acquisition a  lot of people always talk about this Factor but  

I don't think it's the overriding factor I don't  think it's the most important one to be honest  

even in my previous videos I mentioned multiple  times that I don't think it's possible after a  

certain age to sound like a native speaker  but right now I need to fact check myself  

again because there are lots of studies that say  that it's actually not true it all comes down to  

this guy named Eric leninberg he was a very smart  person who studied how we learn languages and how  

our brains work and his main idea was that there  is a time when it's easier to learn a foreign  

language and after a certain time it becomes  more difficult he believes that you can only  

learn two languages to this level of fluency from  when you're two years old until you're a teenager  

you know when you become an adult it becomes  practically impossible this idea is connected to  

how our brains work and it suggests that if you  decide to learn another language later in life  

your brain starts to treat your native language  and this foreign language differently and that's  

why it takes more time while adults might struggle  a little bit more when it comes to learning a  

foreign language because their brains are less  flexible it doesn't mean that it's impossible  

and there are numerous studies that suggest that  you can still reduce your accent or even eliminate  

your accent all together as an adult if you decide  to learn a foreign language later in life so now  

let's move on to talking about if it's a bad thing  if you have an accent in a foreign language I have  

to say it immediately it is not a bad thing if you  have an accent I know many of you worry about it a  

lot but please don't because it is not a bad thing  if you have an accent in a foreign language even  

though I have improved my pronunciation in English  a lot I still have an accent and it's totally  

okay accidents are absolutely natural again it's  because all those factors that I mentioned above  

because we have different sounds and because we  have less time to be honest to study this foreign  

language and that's why it's completely natural  to have an accent and a lot of people do accents  

can also reflect your cultural diversity every  time I talk to a person and they hear my accent  

they want to ask me questions like oh Veronica  where are you from and that already shows that  

English is not my native language and that I know  more than one language right because my native  

language is Russian and I can also speak English  and there's so many people in the world who would  

want to achieve that one day but they can only  speak one foreign language so again having an  

accent is natural it can also also reflect your  cultural diversity and you should always remember  

that communication is key if you feel like your  accent is too strong and because of that people  

actually don't understand you then yes of course  you have to work on your accent because when we're  

learning a language it's all about communication  and that's why sometimes when I pronounce certain  

words in English sometimes people are like  what there is one word in English that I really  

struggle with even today the word is quarter like  even right now I just like I cannot make all of  

these sounds you know I cannot hit all of those  moving targets because it's so difficult for me  

when I say the word quarter quarter quarter  quarter quarter and sometimes when I talk to  

a native speaker and I have to say this word  they're like what what'd you say I'm like okay  

guys sorry it's really hard for me to pronounce  this word but I'm trying the reason why so many of  

us worry about having an accent is also probably  because of perfectionism but please remember that  

the downside of perfectionism is that you're so  used to getting it right you completely collapse  

when you get it wrong and so every time I speak  English if I mispronounce a word when I talk to a  

friend of mine it's fine I don't want to collapse  if I get a word wrong it's not the end of the  

world if they understand me perfect if they don't  understand me I try to say this word over and over  

and over again I try to spell this word for them  or maybe you know even write the word on my phone  

because again the main idea is communication when  I talk to people I want to communicate with them  

and when I record these videos for you guys I want  to encourage you and I want to give you tools that  

can help you learn foreign languages successfully  can you reduce or eliminate your accent if this  

is something you're working on right now you  absolutely have to watch this little clip this is  

what I sounded like three years ago hello everyone  today I have prepared a very interesting lesson  

for you about New York slang words pretty insane  considering that it's the same person it's me now  

I think I sound a lot different so what you could  do is you could do a self-assessment and identify  

your weaknesses first I always try to be very  honest with myself I always try to do those little  

self-assessments from time to time I tell myself  okay Veronica you can't say the word quarterly and  

it's fine but you know it's like this your next  goal your next goal is to be able to say this  

word and feel amazing while saying it then you can  take pronunciation classes or work with a coach if  

you're very serious about reducing or eliminating  your accent when you speak English or any other  

foreign language those classes might help you a  lot if it's not within your budget you can just  

use pronunciation apps like bold voice and Elsa  and you can also practice pronunciation exercises  

that's what I did for a very long time because  I couldn't afford taking like classes with a  

professional coach so I used this YouTube channel  called Rachel's English Rachel is amazing because  

she speaks with amazing American accent and she  really helps her audience improve their American  

accent her videos are free but they have a lot of  information the only downside of this approach is  

that you're not receiving feedback and obviously  if you want to improve fast you need this feedback  

and so that's why you know if you can try to take  at least like 1 pronunciation class a month that  

would help you a lot is having an accent a common  experience it is it is a very common experience to  

have an accent when we speak a foreign language so  as I just mentioned our brains change when we grow  

up we honestly lose this ability to understand  all the different sounds because when you're a  

little baby your brain can understand all the  different sounds and can distinguish between  

them like between all the different languages but  once we grow older we start using different areas  

in our brains and that whole process really over  complicates learning foreign languages and plus as  

an adult you probably don't even use your foreign  language that much because for example right now  

I live in Mexico so I I don't have a lot of people  who I could practice English with and that's also  

a very important thing to keep in mind because as  a kid when you are her parents talk to you in this  

language there's no way out you don't have any  other option but to speak to your parents back  

in this language but again as an adult you're  more mature and you have a lot more experience  

than kids and so this gives you a huge advantage  over kids and makes this process of language  

learning easier because you can understand complex  grammatical structures a lot faster and also you  

can understand like idioms and you can memorize  words faster because of this too don't forget  

that a great tool that can help you improve your  pronunciation and work on your accent is they also  

speak app you can use the link in my description  and give it a try if you like this video don't  

forget to give it a thumbs up and subscribe to  my channel and I'll see you guys in my next video