How To Speak English Like A Native Speaker

Hey guys what's up Stefanie the English coach here from Englishfulltime.com

and in this video I'm gonna talk to you guys about how to speak English like a

native speaker and more specifically how to sound like a native speaker okay so

that when you speak English people actually think that oh wow are

you a native speaker and maybe they they're not sure because you you speak

English so well that you sound like a native English speaker but obviously

since it's your second language or third or tenth I don't know how many languages

you speak you know you're still gonna mess up in certain areas with the

grammar it's just inevitable but you can get to a point where you speak English

so well that people might actually think you're a native English speaker and I

know because this has happened to me in Spanish I learned Spanish I started

learning when I was 14 years old and then I went to study Spanish in

Argentina I ended up living there for about like four and a half years and you

know I got to a point where people thought I was a native Spanish speaker I

mean maybe they wouldn't think that I was a native Spanish speaker from

Argentina sometimes they would actually this this is really funny native Spanish

speakers that were like from Mexico or Spain when they would hear me speak

Spanish they'd go oh wow she's from Argentina but the Argentine

people because they know exactly how their accent sounds they would hear me

and they would go oh are you from Costa Rica are you from Spain where are you

from and so it was really funny so people really do think when I speak

Spanish a lot of them think that I am a native Spanish speaker okay so you can

achieve this with English one I want you to know that that's possible but there

are a few things that you're gonna have to do in order to achieve this and

you're gonna have you may have to change the way you think about English okay so

the first thing you can do to start sounding more like a native speaker is

focusing on phrases that we use in English that native speakers use so

rather than focusing on individual vocabulary words focus on phrases and

putting phrases together to make sentences now everything that I'm gonna

be telling you guys in these videos is based on my experience of going to

Argentina and going from being like basically I spoke

Spanish with a very neutral accent and my vocabulary was very neutral

previously I had only learned Spanish with grammar books and you know in in

classrooms and stuff but my Spanish was very neutral I didn't sound like a

native Spanish speaker so I'm basing all of this on my own personal experience

okay and one of the first things that I realized when I went to Argentina is

that people would use the same phrases over and over and over and over again so

I just started adopting the same phrases that people from Argentina would use and

this means that I also had to drop phrases from my vocabulary there were

certain words and phrases that I learned in my grammar classes where the teacher

said hey you can say it like this and then I went to Argentina and I was like

whoa no they don't say it like this I need to change my vocabulary and change

the phrases that I use to sound more like a native speaker so that's one of

the first changes that I made okay and then I realized that the intonation in

Argentine Spanish is different from the intonation in other types of Spanish and

the same is true for English there's you know different accents as you guys know

UK Irish American southern American there's so many different accents in

English but what you'll notice if you focus on a particular accent is that the

intonation is generally always the same the way that we ask questions the flow

of our words the way that we express ourselves the way that we share ideas

you have to start thinking about English like music okay music has rhythm it has

patterns it has flow and you're gonna start to hear that okay and I want you

to pay attention to that and you have to adopt those patterns of intonation and

you have to speak with those patterns now a lot of people never achieve this

and they never do it because it forces you out of your comfort zone now in your

native language you have patterns too and those patterns are so deeply

ingrained into your mind into your way of speaking that not using those

patterns and using new patterns it feels intimidating

and sometimes we can even feel embarrassed but you're going to have to

get over that and you're just gonna have to start using the patterns that native

English speakers use this means that your mouth and your tongue and your

throat are gonna move in completely different ways than they move in your

native language okay you're gonna have to get comfortable with this okay I

noticed this when I was in Argentina and I was just like okay if I really want to

sound like a native Spanish speaker from Argentina then I'm going to have to

change the way that I speak Spanish change the way that I ask questions

change the way that I make statements or commands etc so that I sound more like a

native speaker now the last tip is that you're going to have to learn our

pronunciation okay you can't take the vowel sounds for example from your

native language and then try to speak English with those vowel sounds okay so

maybe you speak a language that's very nasal you're going to have to learn to

speak English without being super nasal okay because if you do that that's when

native speakers can hear your accent okay when you're taking sounds from your

native language that don't exist in English and then you're incorporating

them into your English speaking okay we can hear your accent because you're not

using our sounds you're using sounds from your own language so again you just

have to think about you know language as being music listen to the music I was in

choir for several years in elementary school and in high school I also learned

a few instruments I didn't get super great or anything but I did learn how to

play the violin the saxophone the piano and you know it that helped me develop

an ear for music and a lot of times I was honestly too lazy to learn how to

read the notes and play the notes so I would play by ear I would just listen to

something and then I would try to play it back myself you can do the same to

sound like a native speaker listen to the way that I speak English okay

practice shadowing my videos if you want to just put them on replay and just

say what I say as I say it read the subtitles do whatever you have to do

you're gonna notice that I use the same patterns all the time when I speak okay

I use the same phrases the same intonation patterns the same type of

pronunciation k and by focusing on this you're really going to start

sounding more like a native speaker and I have one more final bonus tip for you

okay if you really want to sound like a native speaker you're going to have to

focus on a specific kind of English from a specific region okay now in order to

achieve this this might mean that you're gonna have to tune out certain regions

okay certain like let's say you're following a bunch of you know native

English speakers from the United States you're also following some from the UK

and Ireland well having and hearing all that English it's a good thing because

you're learning how to understand so many different types of English but if

you are really trying to focus on sounding like a native speaker you may

have to tune out other native speakers from other regions for a while while you

focus on the dialect that you want to speak with okay because by focusing on

one dialect your ear is gonna become accustomed to just that dialect you're

gonna learn how to speak with that okay and you're gonna improve a lot faster

than if you're learning and listening to so many different types of English and I

know this also because previously when I was studying Spanish in the United

States I had teachers from Spain from Argentina from Mexico and that's why my

Spanish was neutral that's why I didn't sound like a native speaker because I

was just you know speaking I was learning from so many different kinds of

native speakers that my Spanish was just a neutral Spanish so again if you want

to sound like a native speaker you have to focus on a specific kind and when I

was in Argentina that's when I really really learned how

to sound like someone from Argentina because I was so just I was hearing one

type of Spanish all the time all the time so again if you want this for your

English you're gonna have to hear one type of English all the time until you

feel like yeah okay I finally feel like a native speaker

from California or the UK etc so anyways I hope this helps go ahead and leave a

comment and let me know what kind of dialect you are focusing on for

improving your English and if you have any other tips to add if you also have

gotten to a place where you finally sound like a native speaker in English

let us know what your tips are and share them in the comments so that other

people can learn from you as well anyways that's all for this video thanks

guys and we'll talk soon bye hey guys thanks so much for watching

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you guys in another video bye