How You Can Reduce Your ACCENT in English (...and Should You?)

When it's cold, I like to eat "soap"  for dinner. This is an example of a  

mispronunciation problem there. There's no such thing as speaking  

English with no accent, because,  you know, everybody has an accent. 

I believe that your accent can also  be changed and altered if you want to.

I'm joined here in the global  studio by the one the only,  

and appropriately sporting his GunsN'Roses shirt,  Axl Pose, of course, otherwise known as Thiago. 

Hey, Ethan. What's up? How's it going, man? 

I'm good. I'm good. Actually, you know, something  funny happened the other, the other day. You know,  

I was trying to watch Peaky Blinders this week  with my wife, and we tried doing it without  

subtitles, and man, it was, it was tough, you  know. I felt like I didn't know any English. 

That is what we would call a rookie's  mistake. Do you know what that means? 

Right. Like a beginner's mistake.  An amateur's (Exactly) mistake. 

Yeah. I believe that comes from baseball, we  would say. Uh, but even, yeah, for me too,  

I have to watch Peaky Blinders. It's like the, the  Birmingham, the old Birmingham accent. I miss a  

lot of it if I watch Peaky Blinders without,  without subtitles. So definitely, definitely  

need those subtitles. It has to be one of the most  complicated accents, which of course, today we're  

talking all about accents. Uh, I actually saw a  comment the other day, and I grabbed it because  

I thought it'd be a nice place for us to start.  It comes from Marcy who wrote this on one of our,  

uh, few weeks ago on one of our past lessons,  saying, "One more wonderful lesson. It's amazing  

hearing Thiago's English, his pronunciation  and confidence to speak inspire us to keep  

learning and improve our speaking skills. I hope  that I am able to reach it one day too." So,  

of course, every single week we try to help you  to achieve your goals, to go from being a lost,  

insecure English learner, to be a confident  natural English speaker, exactly what we wanted  

to do in today's lesson. So be sure to hit that  subscribe bell, the subscribe button, and the bell  

down below so you don't miss a single new lesson. All right. First of all, Marcy, thank you so much  

for the comment. I really appreciate that. And  yes, you can do it. Yeah. Just keep practicing.  

But Ethan, I actually have a question  for you because it is true. Yeah. I mean,  

I have heard so many learners saying that they  wanna speak English like a native speaker. They  

wanna sound like a native speaker. But as a  native speaker yourself, what do you think  

about this? I mean, this goal or this, um, way  of thinking about the language? Any thoughts? 

I think someone like Marcy, or a lot of people  who are watching, they see you, and it's very  

admirable to want to, to speak like you. All the  hard work that you've put in. It's not something  

that just comes overnight right into having  really confident, natural sounding English that,  

you know, almost sounds like a native. I don't  think, you know, your accent is not very clear,  

like, you know, he's from New York, or he's from  LA, or he's from this part, but you have done a  

really good job at imitating a pretty standard  American accent, and that's something that a lot  

of learners I've noticed aspire to. However, I  think that it depends a lot on your goals, first  

of all, because I think it's, it's, it's something  that's, that's kind of sexy, right? It's to sound  

like a native, but most people don't actually  think about, first of all, all the hard work that  

goes into doing that. It's not just something  like, you know, if you study and everything,  

you're gonna get this accent. There's a lot of  precision that has to go into that, which we'll  

talk more about today. But for a lot of people,  it's just not necessary to put in all that hard  

work. So I think it's really important that you  actually think about what are my objectives with  

my English before you say I wanna sound like a  native, because maybe it's not actually something  

that deep down is the best thing for you. That's so true. Yeah. And sometimes I hear  

learners going, Oh, I wanna speak English  with no accent, but there's no such thing as  

speaking English, let me say that again. There's  no such thing as speaking English with no accent,  

because, you know, everybody has an accent.  Yeah? I mean, I, I I, I look at accent Ethan as,  

uh, your style of speaking, you know,  it's how your English sounds in general.  

You know, it's how you dress your English, you  know, to present it to people or to the world. And  

just like, maybe you can, you are free to  choose what clothing you're gonna wear today,  

you can also choose how you wanna sound in the  language. is the presentation of it. Right?  

Um, a great example that one of our team members  gave about this the other day, Izzy, was comparing  

your accent with a font on the computer.  Imagine you have a Google Doc open there,  

you are writing a text and you are using the  font Times New Roman. And then you go, you know,  

I don't want that font, you know, I want, I want  my text to look differently. Maybe Helvetica  

or, you know what, come to think of it, I guess  Century Gothic, you know, Century Gothic is really  

beautiful font. I want that font for my text. So  just like a font or even, you know, your fashion  

style, yeah, Just, just like those can be changed  and modified. I believe that your accent can also  

be changed and altered if you want to, according  to your preferences or goals with English. 

There's this whole thing too, between, you  know, you want to speak with no accent.  

What does that exactly mean? For most people,  it's probably in some sense that you can fit in,  

that people can easily understand you, is more  what they're trying to get out from there. And  

in most cases, I find that what people really are  more needing the, the, the, the, the desire that  

they have deep down is to have clear, accurate  pronunciation. Because if you have clear,  

accurate pronunciation, then you know anyone, at  least from most dialects of English, or if, at  

least if it's global English, will understand  you. So what exactly are the differences between  

pronunciation and accent? Because people  tend to confuse these two terms, right? 

Yeah, that's a great question.  I look at pronunciation more as,  

uh, how you pronounce individual words or how you  pronounce, uh, certain sounds, individual sounds,  

you know, and accent is more like the whole thing.  Yeah. Your accent is influenced by many things.  

Yes. It is influenced by your pronunciation  knowledge. It is influenced by your connected  

speech knowledge and application. It  is influenced by your native country,  

where you come from and what your mother tongue  is. It is influenced by, uh, the type of English  

you consume most of the time. So your accent is  a combination, it's a sum of all those things.  

That's what makes you sound, you know, in English.  Now, pronunciation is more specific things. For  

example, imagine I say, um, when it's cold, I like  to eat, uh, "soap" for dinner. When it's cold, I  

like to eat "soap" for dinner. This is an example  of a mispronunciation problem there, because,  

you know, I guess as a native you'll hear me and  then you go like, yeah, that sounds kind of silly,  

or funny or weird. But I think what Thiago  is trying to say is he, he likes to eat soup  

when it's cold. So instead of saying "soup" I said  "soap". Yeah. I mean, I view pronunciation more  

as that - individual sounds, individual  words. The cool thing about that though  

is that, um, depending on how you work on the  pronunciation sounds and which sound you focus on,  

your accent might change also just by working  on those sounds. Let's take the schwa sound  

for example, which at least last time I checked  it was the most common vowel sound in English,  

in spoken English. If you start pronouncing  the schwa sounds more often, your accent as  

a whole will already sound very different  just by applying that pronunciation sound. 

I think one of the really important things there  as well with you, you mentioned the schwa sound,  

there's the dreaded "th" sound for many people  as well, right? That maybe all these sounds that  

we have in English or in your target language  don't exist in your native language. And so,  

even part of having accurate pronunciation,  of course, many people will understand you,  

even if you don't always have accurate  pronunciation, if you say thing instead of thing,  

or thing instead of thing. If you're not saying,  depending on the language people come from as  

their mother tongue, they might inaccurately  pronounce that "th" in different ways.  

But some people, some natives especially, and  even some, you know, English learners might  

not understand you because they're waiting for the  word thing, not the word thing, or the word thing.  

Or there's even other cases where it actually, if  you mispronounce something, it changes the word,  

like you said, soap and soup. If you're getting  that wrong, you're communicating a different  

object. And depending if you're talking to an  English teacher, we tend to be used to these  

kind of cases, right? But if you're talking to  someone who's not so used to speaking to English  

learners or non-native English speakers, then  that might not be the case. And so they might  

have more trouble wrapping their head around that  you like to eat soap on cold winter evenings.  

Um, I thought something that might be useful here  is, is even giving an example of, because we have  

different accents. You have, for example, the  most common that people learn British or American  

English. But even if you say you're learning  American English, are you learning southern  

American English? Are you learning northeastern  American English? If you're learning northeastern  

American English, are you learning, you know, from  Boston, from New York, from Pennsylvania, there's  

all sorts of different accents. And even within,  you start getting smaller and smaller, people have  

their friend groups that they'll use different  vocabulary with, right? That they'll have inside  

jokes or they'll have certain terms that only  with that group of friends would be understood.  

So you always have these, these details and stuff  to pay attention to. But if we're looking at more,  

let's look at a broader one, like British versus  American, you have pronunciation differences  

between these two accents, right? For example, an  American, most Americans would say the word dog,  

like this with a /ɔː/ sound - dog. However, Brits,  most British people will say, dog, like they say,  

a true /ɒ/, and we say an /ɔː/ sound. That's not  actually an /ɒ/. So that's just one example with  

pronunciation, there are many between British  and American English. Then you have vocabulary,  

you know, for example. So just top of mind, one  word that would be different, for example, shag.  

Now, this is something that has a very different  meaning between the two countries, because if you  

say, you know, shag in the States, people tend to  think of a type of carpet. It's a, the carpet that  

was very popular in the 1970s, that's super long.  But if you say this in, in the UK, it means that  

it's talking about sexual intercourse, of course  is a slang word for sexual intercourse. So very  

different meanings there. Uh, and even there's  some cultural and, and cultural differences,  

of course, because they're, they're very different  countries and, and grammar differences that affect  

the accent. The grammar, for example, uh, the,  the present perfect is used differently in British  

and American English. So as you can see, like an  accent, it's not just about pronunciation. It's  

about so many different things that you have to  consider. And if you really want to have a native  

accent, if you really want to have an American  accent, there's all of these things that are  

bundled up within that. And of course, English is  the global language. So when it comes to accents,  

maybe you're not going to adopt an accent from a  country where English isn't the native language,  

but it is important as English is the global  language that you are prepared to understand  

all sorts of different accents. Because without  a doubt, if you're planning to work in English or  

to travel to different places, you're going to  have all these different ways of modifying the  

English language thrown at you. So, for example,  you know, you might be working in a business and  

you have a meeting with different, uh, branches  of your company. And there's someone in India,  

there's someone in Germany, there's someone in  China, there's someone in the United States. And  

you need to be able to adapt to understanding all  these different ways of interpreting the English  

language. So one really great way to do this is by  having conversations with people from many, many  

different countries. And a really great way to do  that is with the RealLife English app, of course,  

where it's the only place where at the touch  of a button you can connect to another English  

learner in another part of the world for a fun and  dynamic conversation. And the really great thing,  

they're just four to eight minutes each. So, you  know, after each conversation, you're jumping to  

another part of the world virtually. It's almost  like, you know, virtually grabbing your passport  

and taking a trip around the world. So you'll  get to encounter all these different accents  

and you're really going to be tuning your ears to  so many different ways of speaking. So, you know,  

even if your goal is to speak like an native  speaker, it's still really good to focus on  

understanding all sorts of different, uh, English.  And this can also kind of put to the test on like,  

how clear is your pronunciation. Because you  want to find out if a lot of different people,  

no matter where they're coming from, can  understand you pretty clearly. Right? 

That's a great point actually. Yeah. So, um,  developing a new accent is something that happens  

when you get exposed to that accent frequently.  So, um, what I think it's cool about this is that,  

you know, if you reflect on the kinds of  movies you typically watch, or the kinds of  

series or music you listen to, or the kinds of, of  material that you normally consume in English, uh,  

where is that English from, yeah, that you consume  most of the time? So usually your accent tends to  

be influenced by that, by, uh, the type of English  that you consume daily, because it connects also  

with your identity. Think about it, if you consume  those videos or those topics frequently is because  

they are relevant to you, so they connect to your  identity to your preferences. Yeah. So it's almost  

like a child who grows up, you know, uh, in a  family and the child tends to speak just like  

the parents, you know, or the family, the  immediate family around the child, because  

it's what you are exposed to daily. So  naturally you will sound more like your  

parents. So it's something similar to that.  Yeah. Your accent is heavily influenced by, uh,  

what you consume daily in English. The main point  that we are trying to make here in this episode is  

everybody has an accent, and you're free to let  your accent in English change if you'd like,  

because first you're connected with your identity  and then with other people. So by choosing,  

let's say, one specific type of English  you wanna focus on this is connecting it to  

your identity first. Once you do that, then you  connect with other people by, uh, communicating  

with them and being understood by them. I just wanna take a quick parenthesis here, cuz I  

think that's so interesting. And I'm curious if it  all, if people are new here, they might not know  

that you have a great affinity, a great, like for  American rock music, right? Do you think that your  

accent, has at all been, you know, influenced by  that genre of music and that maybe those artists,  

that way of speaking from that time period? Oh, absolutely. For sure. Because, you know,  

again, like, aside from the movies and the  series, I love rock and roll, and, I don't  

know, I, I, growing up I had the dream of becoming  a rock star, then I would imagine myself, you  

know, giving those talk shows, those interviews  as a rock star. So they do have a way of speaking.  

First, most of them come from the US, yeah, most  of the bands that I like to listen to. And yeah,  

I mean, it's that way of speaking that you wanna  sound cool, kind of more laid-back and yeah,  

because that album, when I wrote that song, I  was thinking about this, this, and that. So yeah,  

definitely it was, um, a factor. But that's one  example of something that connects to who you are. 

I think that's a, that's a great example. So  you could have a, maybe you don't just wanna  

have an American accent, you wanna have  like an American rockstar accent, right? 

Yeah, exactly. You see, it's much  more than, than what it seems. 

So we had another interesting  story from our producer, Ice T,  

who is here in the studio listening to us as we  speak. And he was sharing when we're preparing  

for this episode that he had a friend, uh,  a friend who is married to an American who  

has really fantastic Brazilian Portuguese.  Ice T, of course is also from Brazil. So  

he had a recent experience, and I'll  let him tell you guys more about that. 

Hey guys. So this friend of mine, she's married  with an American guy and we were here in Brazil  

for the carnival. So we were just speaking  Portuguese and he was all the time asking  

about his pronunciation. And he has amazing  Portuguese, almost no American accent. So I  

asked him why did he do such effort to speak with  no accent and trying to sound more Brazilian? And  

he told me that it's because he wants to  feel Brazilian, not just sound Brazilian,  

but feel Brazilian, and language is a  very important aspect of that for him. 

Yeah. So I feel like when I was a bit younger, my  feelings were very similar when I was learning a  

language, probably even today to some extent. But  every time I was learning a language, anytime I'd  

move somewhere, really, I wanted to learn the, the  native language. And part of this was because I  

didn't want to feel like a foreigner. I didn't  want to open my mouth in a conversation with a  

stranger and for them right away to be like, oh,  this guy is an American, you know, he's, he's not  

from here and stuff. So I had this need to fit  in and language was a way to fit in. And part  

of that was sounding very native. My feelings  towards this have changed a little bit because,  

well, I'm not learning languages so actively  nowadays, but it's also because I think a part  

of that was the language being wrapped up in  some sense with my ego, not wanting people  

to recognize me as someone who is different or  being a foreigner or something like that. And I  

think nowadays I don't care so much about that. In  fact, even in some situations, if it's a stranger,  

I don't really care because I'm not gonna see  them again. But in some situations, maybe you're  

meeting someone new or you go to a networking  event, or you go to wherever where you're meeting  

people and you're speaking for a little bit, you  know, I'll be speaking Spanish for a little bit,  

say they're going to notice that I'm not from  here at some point, and they'll ask me like,  

where are you from? So in that case, it can be  a nice icebreaker, especially because I'm, I'm  

pretty shy and stuff when it comes to meeting new  people. And so it opens up the whole thing about,  

about living in different places. You'll ask me a  lot of follow up questions. So I even see nowadays  

that having an accent in some cases can be an  advantage. It can make you seem more exotic, for  

example. You know, you're not from here. That can  be a negative thing, but it can also be a positive  

thing. Where I come from is also a part of my  identity. We were talking about identity, right? 

That's certainly true. And the same thing  happened to me too when I was younger. I,  

I think I used to be more obsessed with sounding  a certain way in English, but as time passed,  

I realized that there are so many people who even  though they have an accent, like a clear, even  

strong accent, they can still sound intelligible  and clear. You know, you can understand everything  

they say, and they can use grammar correctly.  They can use vocabulary accurately, even though,  

the accent is not maybe what we are used  to hearing in the movies, for example,  

or from native speakers. So nowadays, also, I  have become more, um, maybe more flexible about  

this. Yeah. And, you know, really focus on what is  the message there? What is the interaction about?  

Rather than what does this person sound like? You know, we're, we're all on our own journeys.  

It doesn't matter where you're at on that journey  or what your goals are on that journey, we're all,  

you know, just focus on you. So I thought it could  be interesting - I, I've had some experiences  

though, where I think at the same point, you do  need to focus on it a little bit. We've talked  

about you, you used the word, uh, intelligibility.  Intelligibility, it's a hard word to say. 

It's a mouthful. Being intelligible. Yeah. What does that mean? 

It's a long word that is difficult to  pronounce. It feels like her mouth is full,  

because it's so many words and syllables,  yeah? That is a mouthful to speak. 

So intelligibility is, is how easily you're  understood. And some people's accents can get  

in the way of that. So I think that there's a  fine line there. You need to make sure that,  

again, we talked about, for example, going on  your app or going somewhere else where you're  

speaking English with many different people  to see, can people understand me? And if not,  

don't take it as like a, a hit to your ego or  something. Take it as a piece of information of,  

okay, this is interesting. Like, what do I have  to improve? Why are they not understanding me? 

Ethan, you said something nice there:  A fine line. What's a fine line? 

A fine line we use when there's two things  that you have to balance, right? And there's  

a fine line between them. There's a line that you  have to, it requires some tact, it requires some  

digging around and really feeling out to make  sure that you're in the right, the right side.  

That you have a good balance there between those  two things. So there's the side where maybe being  

really focused on getting that native accent,  and there's the side where you don't care about  

it at all. And there's a fine line where for  most of us, we want to be more in the middle,  

where maybe we don't wanna have a super strong  accent, or at least we wanna have intelligibility.  

We don't wanna completely ignore that, right?  And when you don't strike that balance, it can,  

it can hurt your, your connection with people.  And, actually it was interesting when I was  

living in Brazil myself, when I was living in Belo  Horizonte, I had two instances of this in the, the  

time I was living there. So one was, I made some  Spanish friends there, and they were a couple,  

a man and a woman. And the woman, she was like,  you know, so open and really enjoying herself  

speaking the language. And she, she adapted to  it pretty well. And I'm sure she didn't have,  

people didn't, uh, confuse her with the native,  but she was having fun with it. She was trying  

to sound Brazilian and everything. And she, she  seemed so natural when she spoke Portuguese. The  

guy on the other hand, he made no effort. He, he,  he was learning Portuguese and everything, so he  

knew, you know, he knew the words, he knew how to,  to speak it, maybe at a, at a lower intermediate  

level, but he made no effort whatsoever to pick  up the accent. And this made, when he spoke it,  

he spoke exactly the same as he would when he was  speaking Spanish. And this made him sound really  

unnatural. And I think it hurt his ability to  connect with Brazilians in the same way that his  

girlfriend could. Oh, and the other story I was  gonna share from this. So when I was in Brazil,  

I also like started learning French. I guess I  really wanted to give myself a hard time living  

in Brazil, learning Portuguese and also learning  French. But I made a French friend there and we  

did language exchange where we'd, we'd switch off  between French and and English. And he was kind of  

the same thing that like, one day I, I asked him,  he had, uh, a fairly strong French accent. I said,  

you know, uh, why don't you try to put on more  of an American accent? And I remember we were  

sitting down like having some burgers and, and  he's like, oh, you know, I'll, I'll try it. And  

he actually did, he sounded like really great,  like really, really American when he actually  

put some effort into it, I was like, why don't  you speak like that all the time? He's like,  

oh man, it's, it's so challenging. Like, I have  to really, really think about it. Well, there,  

there's two things that I wanted to kind of take  away from those stories is, on the one hand, it  

was like the, the Spanish couple that one of them  was willing to feel, feel silly and, and have fun  

with it. The other one wasn't like he, he was just  insecure. He wasn't having fun with it at all. He  

wasn't willing to make himself feel awkward or  make himself seem foolish. And the other one is  

putting the effort. So sometimes we use this term  practice like you play. So I think when you're,  

if you're never trying to do that, and then you  try to do it of adapting more to the accent,  

imitating more using mimicry, then it's going to  be really difficult because your, your mouth and  

your brain and everything aren't used to it. But  if you actually practice, you know, if when you're  

home alone, or even when you're just watching a  TV series, you really like how that actor speaks  

and you stop it and you try to just imitate it  a few times, and you, you do this every day,  

it's going to become easier. Your mouth's going to  get used to it. Your brain will start, you know,  

picking up on that music more of the language. So  

I think that those are two things that  you can adapt more is the, the silliness,  

the willingness to seem a little bit like,  uh, a little bit foolish. Just have fun with  

it. It's part of the adventure. And also just  putting in that effort when you're practicing,  

if that is something that's important to you. Guys, your voice is so powerful. Your voice is  

so powerful, you know, play with it. You know,  you can make voices like this and then you can  

go like this and you know, it's fun. Yeah. So I  guess people, some people are not open, yeah, to,  

to do that. They, they, they, they, they  feel stupid. You know, think of yourself as  

an actor. Imagine you were an actor prepping for  a role, and then you have to speak in a certain  

way. That's what actors do. They modulate or they  modify their voices to match that accent or speak  

more closely to that accent. Think of yourself  as an actor. Yeah. And use your body, your voice,  

yeah, to, uh, communicatie in various ways. This, this actually reminded me of, uh,  

a really funny scene from the movie Inglorious  Bastards. Have you seen that? (I have. ) I, I said  

the scene is funny. I guess it's, it's, it's, it's  also pretty intense and stuff. So I dunno if funny  

is the right word, but kind of the situation is  very interesting and in a sense funny because the,  

so, so there's a British guy who's spy, he's,  he's like spying on the, on the Germans. And  

he's with a, a German actress who is basically,  she's being a traitor to the Germans and she's  

helping out the, the Americans. And then there's  a German colonel who, who walks in, like sits down  

with and starts drinking with him. He notices the  guy's accent is like a little bit off in German.  

So this guy he's a spy, so he has to have, have  really, really, uh, advanced German, right? But  

his accent's a little off, and the guy gives an  excuse. He says, oh, I'm from this small village  

called this in the mountains. Everyone there  speaks like this. And the guy buys it. The, the  

colonel buys it, and they're, you know, they're  having a chat and everything and, and they're  

laughing. So he's, he's the, the spy is doing a  good job. But then they order drinks, and the guy,  

the, the British guy asks for glasses. So let's,  let's watch what happens when he asks for glasses  

for the drinks. So if you're just listening to  the audio, you can't see what is happening in  

this scene. The English spy here asks for three  glasses, in German, of course. At the same time,  

he gestures three using his index, middle and  ring fingers. That's the three fingers in the  

middle of the hand. However, Germans use their  thumb, index finger and middle finger to indicate  

the number three in a gesture with their hands.  So the difference is quite obvious, right? So  

this actually gives him away. We'll, let's  watch, there's a, another clip that I have  

here where the German actress explains what  happened, how he gave, how the British guy  

gave himself away, which basically leads to  a gunfight that this woman, uh, survived.  

That's why she's, she's on a medical table. How the shooting start. Englishman gave himself  

away. How he do that? He ordered three glasses.  He ordered three glasses. That's the German three.  

The other looks odd. Germans  would indeed notice it. 

Okay? So this is really interesting. I saw this  movie after having lived in Germany. So actually  

this is something that I knew and I saw, the first  time I saw this that he gestured like, and like  

you said, as soon as he made the face, I realized  that it's, oh, the guy did that at the numbers in  

the wrong way. So this is something that's, it's  a really interesting example. Again, this guy,  

he has a good accent. He's, he's able to get away  with being a native speaker. He speaks excellent,  

you know, he's, he's not making grammar mistakes.  He speaks the language just like a native would,  

more or less. But he gave himself away because  he was lacking in some cultural insight about how  

they show the numbers, something so simple, right?  And these kind of things happen all the time in a  

language. So it's, it's really interesting, small  thing. But there's other things like this too.  

For example, I've met a lot of English learners or  English speakers, non-native English speakers who  

have exceptional skills in the language, and  they really sound like a native, but they're  

lacking some cultural insights. For example,  cursing too much, cursing too lightly, depending  

of course where you go, uh, within, even within  a country, maybe different parts of the country,  

people will curse more lightly in different parts  of the country people will not curse at all. You  

know, it's kind of really seen as taboo. So this  depends a lot. I know that happens, for example,  

in Spain, if you go to the south, they're  much more, it's much more common, much more,  

people are much more liberal with their cursing.  But in the north of the country, people tend to  

be more tactful with their cursing. So this is  something that I've seen that's kind of like a,  

it's a giveaway for some non-native English  speakers because they're not tactful. They  

haven't really learned, they don't associate the  curse words the same way they would in their,  

their mother tongue. So that's another example  of something you need to be careful about. 

I guess that's why we say that it's  a life thing. It's a lifelong process  

because no matter how advanced you are or  how clearlyor great you sound, there is all,  

there's always gonna be something that you didn't  know or that you learn. Yeah. So yeah. Embracing  

the learning like that, yeah, That it's for life. So we thought it would be really interesting to  

actually look at some non-natives who speak  English well. And there's a lot of celebrities,  

right, who can be really great models for this.  We wanted to look at someone who communicates  

really well, but has a very strong accent  from his country. And we wanted to look at  

someone who has a more native-like accent. So  first of all, we have a clip with an interview  

with Arnold Schwartzenegger, has a very famous  ac..., uh, accent. I'm sure everyone listening  

is aware of it, but let's take a look. Jim Cameron is just a genius writer. Because  

to come up with this idea to make the Terminator  become a protector that hangs out with this kid,  

and because of that relationship, he starts  learning human behavior, how to be more cool  

and how to high five and, you know, and how  to say certain things, certain sayings and  

all this made it very, very precious, I  think, because he was trying very hard. 

So even if you're just listening to the audio,  this podcast, and I had not told you who this was,  

you would know right away by that accent  who that is. Right? It's just so iconic.  

But it's very clear, he's, it's  very clear he's not American, right?  

Despite that. One thing that I think is really  interesting here is he does have a very masterful  

use of the language, many of the aspects of the  language, the same way that a native would, right?  

Um, for example, connected speech, I  thought we could look at, at some of  

the ways he said different things. So I noticed  for example, that he says in the beginning, uh,  

he doesn't say "just a", he says "just-uh". Jim Cameron is just a genius writer. 

That's, that's exactly how a, a native  would say that, right? "Just a" ,turning  

that - we talked about the schwa sound  earlier - so turning that a into a schwa,  

this is definitely something people who master  English really have that schwa sound down. "Just  

uh". He says to come up with talking about the,  the director or the, the, the, the person who came  

up with the script for Terminator two. Because to come up with this idea to  

make the Terminator. So to come up with,  

he doesn't say "to come up with" - this happens  with phrasal verbs a lot. Phrasal verbs pretty  

much always have this connected speech, right?  So he says "to come up with" reducing the,  

the To to a schwa sound. Come up with. Even the meaning of that phrasal verb, yeah, to  

come up with something. This is something that  a typical native would, would speak, right,  

or would say. Yeah. He doesn't, he didn't say, oh,  uh, he created the script, or he wrote the script.

Or he invented it would be a lot of... He invented it. Right. Yeah. So even that,  

like the use of the phrasal verb. I also notice too, something else he uses a  

lot is the American T, which is is, a lot of, even  a lot of people who have really masterful use of  

the language that are living in the States might  not adopt this American T. So he has an accent,  

but he still has adopted this American T on  the words he says. So things like writer,  

Terminator. So a British person would say, writer,  terminator. Probably not. That's like a horrible  

impersonation, but more or less. The final one I  took note of was he said, "how to be more cool". 

How to be more cool. So there's an American T here,  

there's linking: how to be, how to be  more cool, how to be. And he, he said  

this several times. So it's another important  thing to notice here is that he has really  

learned this specific chunk, right? It's important  to learn word chunks, not to just learn individual  

words, which is much more difficult to learn  connected speech, to learn how the words kind  

of flow together if you're just learning word by  word. But he said over and over again, this how to  

be, how to be, how to be. So he really has that  chunk down that it's not supposed to be "how to  

be" supposed to be "how to be, how to be", right? I think Arnold is a great example of someone who  

speaks with an accent. Clearly he  speaks with an accent, but, you know,  

his proficiency level of English is great. You  know, he uses great phrasal verbs and words,  

and the way he uses grammar as well. So, uh, you  can still communicate confidently and naturally,  

even though you have an accent. Yeah. So here,  not even though you have an accent, but even  

though you have a strong accent, let's say. And I, I'm pretty sure I've heard some  

different interviews with him, and I'm pretty  sure that this is something intentional.  

He used that as like a calling card, his accent.  He took advantage of that to differentiate himself  

from everyone else in Hollywood. Even later  going on to be governor of California. He was,  

he was very famous for this, he's just such an  iconic person. He has, he's a, he's a big guy too,  

right? And he has this present and the accent just  really a, it really adds on top of his identity  

like we were talking about, right? So that's  something to, to, to reflect on, right, is maybe  

my accent is an interesting part of my identity. And you don't wanna lose it. Right? 

Exactly. If you're from Brazil, for example,  you might say that's an important part of who  

I am. I was born in Brazil, I want people  to know that I was in Brazil. So I'm going  

to dawn a very Brazilian accent, even though  I'm going to really focus on intelligibility.  

All right, so we mentioned that we were going to  also look at someone who has a more native-like  

accent. You can probably still, if you pay close  attention, tell that she isn't a native, but she,  

she has very excellent, excellent accent in  English. So let's take a look at Gisele Bündchen. 

And by the way, is it true you gave a copy of the  Mastery of Love to all of your wedding guests at  

your wedding? Yes, I have. It's one of my  favorite books. And today, what is a book  

that you would give friends and family? The last  one I read, uh, is called The Infinite View. Have  

you read it? I have not read that, no. I have  an extra copy. Would you like one? Oh! Well,  

thank you. Yeah, sure. Right here. Oh, all  right. This is my, uh, summer reading. And  

how would you describe yourself to people  who don't know you? Loving, creative, and  

my natural speed is about a hundred miles an hour. All right. One thing interesting, I I noticed is  

that, you know, the pronunciation of certain  words. Like, you know, she pronounces book,  

uh, Brazilian learners typically say book,  book, you know, book or even booky, depending,  

but book, yeah. My books. But you know,  she pronounces it correctly. The word.  

Yeah. The pronunciation book. The book, book. Yes, I have, it's one of my favorite books. 

So she's really learned those individual,  I believe you say phonemes, right,  

like the individual sounds really well. And she  does the connected speech really well, as, as  

well. We don't have to go into all of it, but  at the end, for example, it really stuck out  

to me that for various reasons that she said "a  hundred miles an hour, a hundred miles an hour." 

My natural speed is about a hundred miles an hour. On the one hand that she comes from Brazil, where  

you don't use, uh, you use kilometers, not miles,  right? There's just, she, she's mastered the schwa  

sound also, right? A hundred miles an hour, and  there's all sorts of connected speech in there.  

So, uh, yeah, that's, that's really fantastic.  You couldn't say one of them speaks English better  

than the other, right? We could put (No.) them  both down for a test maybe and, and, and actually  

test their, their English abilities, but at  face value, right, they both seem to have really  

exceptional mastery of the language. Yeah. And they have both, they have  

both used, uh, English to advance their  careers, you know, their lives. Yeah. So,  

you know, in, we can see that language at least  nowadays is not a barrier for either of them.  

Yeah. So, I guess one takeaway also that we  can have here is what's the identity you want  

to craft for yourself? Because, you know, you  can have a stronger accent and still, you know,  

communicate confidently. Or you can maybe have  a more native-like accent and also communicate  

confidently. But what do you want? Yeah. What's  the identity that you want to create for yourself?  

By the way, we're gonna discuss more about that,  but just after a message to some of our listeners. 

All right. And we have now a  5-star review from Jessica.

Alright, now it's time for the RealLife Way  moment. And Ethan, I would first of all say  

that it's important to live your English daily.  Yeah. So, um, if you're not leaving your English  

already, you have to start there. Yeah. So  ideally you are consuming lots of content  

in English already, but then what is the next  step? The next step is reflect and ask yourself  

what kind of English have I been consuming  most? Because in my case, for example, uh,  

it was always maybe easy for me to figure that  out because I looked at the movies I watched and  

the series I watched and the bands I listened  to, and most of them were Americans. Yeah. So  

it was a natural thing that happened to me in  terms of choosing maybe to base my English more  

on American English. Yeah. And then I developed  this affinity mostly because of the content that  

I was consuming already when I was, uh, learning  English. So that's the point. Living your English  

if you're not doing it yet. What else would  you say about the RealLife Way here, Ethan? 

So we've been talking a lot about identity, right?  Which is part of connecting English to your life,  

connecting your life to English. And one thing  that I used to do with my students, for example,  

which would help them to build more of this  identity, was actually having them, you know,  

when you learn your native language,  all of us have our mother or our father,  

we talked about this earlier, right? That we're  exposed to them a lot. We tend to end up speaking  

a lot like them. We end up speaking a lot like our  friends that we spend the most time with and so  

on. And even the people that we see on TV who we  admire. So I would have my students deliberately  

choose an English-speaking mother and father.  For example, I had one student who loved Oprah,  

and she loved Oprah's way of speaking.  Oprah is like a really great speaker,  

by the way. So it was a great choice, but she  chose her as her English-speaking mother. So  

she would watch interviews with Oprah every single  week. She'd listen to her podcast and so on. And  

she would mimic the way that Oprah spoke. And it  was like amazing because over the, the weeks and  

the months that we were doing class together, her  English started sounding more and more American  

and like specifically, specifically like Oprah.  So it can be really powerful if you really focus  

in like that into one person who you really like  the way that they speak. Maybe you really like  

Thiago's English, maybe you're, you know, you're  Brazilian, you're like, oh, just like, uh, the,  

the learner that we talked about at the beginning,  they're like, oh, I really wanna speak like  

Thiago. You could be listening to this. Or maybe  you wanna speak like me. You could be listening  

to this and trying to mimic us, trying to sound  more like we speak, or it doesn't even have to be,  

it could be someone famous. It could be Gisele  Bündchen, it could be Arnold Schwarzenegger,  

maybe someone wants to sound, sound like that.  It can be a native speaker, of course. So just  

having more of a deliberate focus on that  identity side of it, of who is that fluent,  

natural, confident version of me speaking English?  What do they sound like? And being more deliberate  

about seeking out how you can get closer to that. I love this idea of having a, an English-speaking  

mother or father. Yeah. And the cool thing  is that you can have multiple fathers and  

multiple mothers in this case. Right? So I  guess the question is who is, or who are your  

English-speaking fathers and mothers? The other  people who you look up to and you go like, oh,  

I wanna sound like that. I wanna speak like  that. So let me imitate them a little bit. 

And that basically feeds back into living  it again, right? Because you're being more  

deliberate. So you're, you're starting to  filter more the things that you're living  

your English with by having those very  specific. And you can make that time,  

even you, you could even use it to activate  it, which another part of the real life way,  

by using those times to deliberately be those  people recording yourself, comparing that to  

the original and so on. So depending on what  your goals are, of course you've got to know  

your goals. But if you're really wanting to  have that native-like accent, or you really  

wanna have an accent like such and such person,  then this is a great way for you to get started.  

Let's jump into today's Big Challenge. So today we  want to challenge you to actually sit down - could  

just be for a few minutes - and actually reflect  a bit about this whole question of identity and  

accent. So we have some questions here that you  could use for, you know, jumping off points for  

your reflection. First of all, you might have  come into this podcast with a certain perspective,  

maybe even a certain reason that you were drawn  into listening to this podcast because you want to  

have a native-like accent, or maybe you don't, it  could have just been curiosity. So is it important  

for you to sound like a native? That's something  to, for you to think about. We would love to hear  

why or why not. You can let us know down in the  comments if you're watching this on YouTube,  

or you can send us an email if you're just  listening to the audio: [email protected].  

And one thing that we're really curious about is  whether or not your mind might have changed while  

listening to this. You can also let us know  why your mind changed or why you still think  

the same. So yeah, we're really looking forward  to hearing your answers. Helps us become better  

to what we do. Do you have any last words,  Thiago, before we wrap up today's podcast,  

which is already becoming quite long winded. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, one final message I have is maybe,  

you know, don't obsess so much about your  accent, but worry more about becoming a better  

communicator. By becoming a better communicator,  you speak English better and you also speak  

your native language better. What do I mean by  communication skills? The way you use your voice,  

you know, modulate more, go up a little bit and  then go down, the way you use positives when  

you speak. Yeah. Or the way you use your body  language or gestures or facial expressions, the  

way you project your voice. Because maybe if you  speak like this, you know, your voice is a little  

bit weak and airy, you know, you might not sound  or feel so confident when you speak, you know,  

so also learning how to project your voice. So  I guess working on your, on your communication  

skills might actually be more beneficial to you  than obsessing so much about sounding like that  

native accent that you're trying to sound like. It's a great place for us to wrap up,  

not just the accent that you're trying to have,  but actually just like Thiago said, the way you're  

communicating. And you said body language, the  way that you're holding yourself when you're in,  

because if you seem really shy, if you seem really  insecure, you're communicating something, even if  

you have the perfect accent, even if you don't  open your mouth, right? So be aware of all these  

things because they're, they're all so important.  It's all about communication, the accent you have,  

how you pronounce things, how intelligible you  are, but also things like how do you seem like  

someone who's confident? Do you seem like someone  who's approachable and friendly and all these  

things. And definitely I can say from personal  experience, you might say the same for your  

English, I bet, that learning other languages for  me helped me to also become a better communicator  

in my native language. So think of it as a huge  opportunity for yourself. And that's a great place  

for us to end, I think is very deserving of an  Aww. Yeah. So 1, 2, 3. (Aww,) Aww yeah. (yeah.)