Your (and my) English will NEVER be perfect. And that’s okay.

if you're trying to fix your imperfect English  this video is for you today I want to share a  

new interesting trend on social media connected  to Accents and language learning and share my  

experience with my American and Russian accents  in English so let's begin and watch this video  

together how do I preserve and maintain my accent  I feel like I'm losing my accent and I don't know  

if it's just in my head or not what are you doing  but I feel like I'm losing it and I don't want to  

lose it I want to make sure that I have my accent  what do I do so I really like this video because  

it highlights something super interesting that  is happening right now to certain people who  

move to an English-speaking country they actually  don't want to lose their accents I know for some  

of you guys this might sound quite weird because  for a lot of English Learners out there we want  

to speak more like an American or a British  person and we kind of want to get rid of our  

accent but the funny thing is once you actually  move to an English-speaking country you realize  

that your accent means something bigger and you  actually don't want to get rid of it so what does  

this video mean to me I remember that when I  was in college I was obsessed with improving  

my English accent I wanted to sound as American  as possible and every single time I sounded to  

Russian because I'm originally from Russia I  didn't like that at all but right now I feel  

like I'm changing my perspective a little bit  and I actually got recommended this video at a  

time where I was rethinking what it meant meant  for me to have an accent in English I feel like  

the reason why there is this trend right now on  social media where people want to preserve their  

accent and they openly talk about it is because  accents are often tied to cultural heritage and  

identity I know that I'm not American like I  wasn't born in the United States of America I'm  

Russian and so if I start speaking 100% like  an American I feel like I am going to lose a  

part of my identity being Russian and so that's  why there are some people who want to maintain  

gain their unique sound because this way they feel  like they're honoring their background and their  

roots in the past when I would start talking to an  American and they would notice my accent I would  

feel very self-conscious about that because I  wanted to get rid of my accent like a 100% now I'm  

actually waiting for that moment because I feel  like it's going to start this whole conversation  

like oh where are you from how did you learn  English I know that if I sounded 100% American  

I wouldn't be myself my accent wouldn't represent  my journey you know my journey of learning English  

of growing up in Russia of going to University  and studying English there and so the reason why  

I think Valeria from this video decided to record  it in the first place is because she wants to be  

authentic and she feels like she can be authentic  only if she preserves her accent so yeah it's a  

very interesting conversation so please let me  know in the comments what you think about it do  

you feel like it's better to keep your accent  or are you trying to get rid of your accent as  

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description and find out more so now let's move on  and talk about why I think that being imperfect in  

your language learning is actually perfect it's so  common when you're learning foreign languages to  

want to be perfect to want to never make mistakes  to want to have a perfect accent but the truth is  

in language learning making mistakes isn't just  okay it's necessary for growth and it's actually  

pretty cool to realize that our brains are wired  to learn from errors when we make a mistake our  

brains create new neural Pathways and this allows  us to learn and remember better it's really funny  

because it usually happens in those embarrassing  situations when you have like a presentation in  

English and then you mess up a word you pronounce  it incorrectly or maybe you forget it completely  

and then somebody helps you or corrects you  and you're like all right yes and when this  

happens it's pretty common for you to feel like  you will never forget this word ever again you  

know sometimes when I record these videos I make  the stupidest mistakes that make me cringe when  

I start the editing process and I'm like why  why did I say that like how can I fix it now  

and sometimes I have to like cut of those parts  or I have to like you know write a specific word  

that I meant to use and for some reason I used  a completely different word to help you with  

your mindset when it comes to language learning I  wanted to use this phrase the journey is perfect  

the Journey of learning a language is perfect when  you make mistakes when you forget the words the  

journey is still perfect and actually what makes  the journey perfect is all of those situations all  

of those little imperfect situations when you  forget something when you stumble when you say  

something funny when you say something stupid it's  a part of the journey the journey that's perfect  

and that's why I always talk about the beauty of  recording yourself to have all of those videos of  

when you were speaking English a year ago two  years ago 3 years ago because I have all of my  

YouTube videos to look back on and sometimes I  really like doing that because I can always see  

how much I'm improving I watch my video from like  3 years ago you can actually do the same thing  

right now because I have all of my old videos  on this YouTube channel just scroll down and  

you will be able to see what my English was like  like 3 years ago 4 years ago that honestly gives  

me a lot of motivation and makes me less critical  towards myself when I feel like I'm not improving  

in my language skills because you know day after  day we practice the language and we often don't  

notice our Improvement and the only thing that  is going to help you notice your improvement is  

if you can see see the journey right if you have  all of these recordings maybe it's going to be  

audio recordings or video recordings of yourself  speaking the language okay so now let's move on to  

why I think that Improvement comes from action  so if you're being too critical towards your  

language skills your English speaking abilities  maybe it's time to look at your actions are you  

actually practicing English enough because I  always say that motivation comes from action  

you think that I have motivation every single day  to practice Spanish to speak English absolutely  

not I feel so tired because of work sometimes  that when I have to show up for my Spanish class  

I'm just like I'm sorry I'm here but I didn't do  my homework and I'm so freaking tired if you're  

always looking for motivation to help you start  learning a language you won't find it you won't  

just miraculously one day wake up and feel like  okay I'm ready I'm going to start practicing the  

language and the motivation will help you  do that every single day for the next year  

obviously it doesn't work this way if it did  we would all speak 10 foreign languages when we  

constantly search for motivation what we usually  find is distractions and addictions like let's say  

I don't have enough motivation to practice English  today so let me just grab my phone go on Tik Tok  

and spend the next hour on Tik Tok instead what  I also noticed language Learners really like to  

do is staying in their comfort zone I remember for  a very long time I really enjoyed my group lessons  

because I was a part of the group it was fun and  also because I didn't have to speak that much and  

so once I decided to challenge myself a little bit  and actually start like one-on-one lessons with a  

teacher I realized that I felt so uncomfortable  because I had to speak a lot more I wasn't that  

confident in my speaking skills and that was  when I realized that that is my area for growth  

but unfortunately a lot of language Learners stop  here they get too uncomfortable too afraid and if  

they know that they're really good at grammar  let's say they go back to their textbooks and  

they never speak to a real human being ever again  and so sometimes focusing on transforming your  

knowledge into Massive Action is crucial because  taking action is the only thing that can Propel  

you towards your goals in life if you don't take  action when it comes to language learning you will  

always be stuck in the same place so that's why  I always try to make my videos as practical as  

possible I share a lot of tips a lot of advice  that I want you to implement I don't want you  

to just listen to me and be like okay nice video  like exit I want you to start taking action so I  

think it's going to be it for this video if you  liked it please don't forget to give it a thumbs  

up and subscribe to my YouTube channel if you want  to stay connected when you travel abroad I highly  

recommend all of flight you can check them out by  using my link in the description and my discount  

code in this video I talked a lot about my journey  with my imperfect English and if you want to watch  

the video that I was referring to my old video  from my YouTube channel I decided to save it right  

here so you can click right here and watch this  video and see what my English was like 4 years  

ago I'm sure it will make you feel better and it  will motivate you to keep learning the language