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How to get a native accent | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Zeitgeist21 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5645 days ago 156 posts - 192 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German, French | Message 1 of 47 11 April 2010 at 11:14pm | IP Logged | ||
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I wrote this in an email but thought it would be interesting to see your opinions on this and maybe if there are other types that I've missed out =)
I noticed a pattern with people who end up speaking a language with no foreign accent. There are three main types I've noticed: 1) Those who have extended exposure to a language without having to speak it (many film freaks who live in Europe fit this category ;) ) 2) Those who have repeatedly recorded their voice, played it back and compared it with natives until they perfect it 3) Those who are good at hearing themselves and adapt their accent as they go, though these people are few and far between. I think it is a skill that can be learnt however, though the only ways I can really see of learning this are repeatedly recording yourself and making fun of foreign accents alot :P I've met several people who fit into the first and third categories and have read stories of about six people who fit into the second. Examples of people who have documented their experiences pretty well are Khatzumoto who fits into the first categorie, Ramses who is sort of imbetween the first and the third (he spoke early and had a bad accent but then avoided speaking however only having a 6 week fully silent period, he immersed himself heavily and recorded his voice alot and achieved a native accent) and FairyFountain. FairyFountain was particularly interesting as she was already fluent in English, writing with virtually no mistakes while also having a strong accent but then she stopped speaking everything and immersed herself in American media. She did this for a couple of months listening to about 12 hours of English a day (give or take 2 hours) and I spoke to her after that and she sounded perfectly American (I can't judge perfectly though I'm a Brit :P). She wrote about her experiences on a language log here but sadly deleted it :( These aren't the only people I know of who have achieved this, just the ones who wrote about it with the most detail. I've met many others and read about more, and after having met so many I don't believe at all that you need talent (a concept I don't really believe in anyway) to get a perfect accent, just certain conditions =) What do you guys think? =) Edited by WillH on 11 April 2010 at 11:16pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Delodephius Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Yugoslavia Joined 5403 days ago 342 posts - 501 votes Speaks: Slovak*, Serbo-Croatian*, EnglishC1, Czech Studies: Russian, Japanese | Message 2 of 47 11 April 2010 at 11:26pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm not yet perfect but I fit into the third category, and a bit of into the first (I watched more movies in English than in any other language in my life). I many times first speak out and then write down my response on for example a forum. :-)
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| ManicGenius Senior Member United States Joined 5481 days ago 288 posts - 420 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Esperanto, French, Japanese | Message 3 of 47 12 April 2010 at 12:02am | IP Logged | ||
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I fit into the third. I've always loved accents as well as imitating and oftentimes catch myself slipping into someones accent when I'm talking with them. Most of the time I've noticed that it puts the other person slightly at ease, but depending on how distant the accent is, it can put them off.
IE: I never end slipping into a non-native English accent. And honestly I have no idea why this phenomenon happens with me. I just go with the flow. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| hvorki_ne Groupie Joined 5386 days ago 72 posts - 79 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Icelandic | Message 4 of 47 12 April 2010 at 12:09am | IP Logged | ||
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Edit: Don't know if I should make this a separate thread, but:
At what point is it best to start trying to get a native accent? I'm sure "as soon as you start learning" is the most reasonable answer, but if your language doesn't have certain sounds, it may take you longer to distinguish the "right" and "wrong" pronunciation of those sounds, so trying to emulate them at first might be in vain or lead to confusion. Any thoughts?
I do the same, sort of. I don't talk to people iwth a different accent often enough, but it happens with films. A strong accent can "raid" my thoughts as well- after watching a french movie, I spent a week hearing everything iwth that accent. It is kind fo cool, but also kind of weird. Not sure if it would help learning a non-english accent... I kind of want to get an australian accent, though. I'm starting to like it. Edited by hvorki_ne on 12 April 2010 at 12:14am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5381 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 5 of 47 12 April 2010 at 2:52am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm in the third category, although I did watch lots of American TV at the time. I've
never recorded myself though. Maybe I was just too lazy to do it. The thing that motivated me the most is that I didn't want people to know where I was from; I wanted them to think of me as one of them, wherever I was. However, I had lots of friends who did exactly the same as I did, including a cousin who was actually even more gung-ho than I was, working even harder than I was, but her accent was never close to perfect. So even though you deny the existence of talent, I must disagree. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Zeitgeist21 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5645 days ago 156 posts - 192 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, French | Message 6 of 47 12 April 2010 at 8:07am | IP Logged | ||
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I see your point Arekkusu but I still don't believe that it's because of talent. Granted you may learn accents quicker than your friend doing the same thing but I'd imagine there are some other factors that you haven't noticed. For example maybe you have always paid more attention to the sounds you here than she does and therefore you're more developed as far as taking in sounds goes and therefore learn them in this case easier. Maybe she's trying hard to fight against identity issues. Maybe the way you have always thought happens to be in someway productive in learning accents and thus you've developed your way of thinking over the years that happens to help your accent acquisition.
I used to believe in talent too, but then I tried something out. I analysed loads of people who learned languages successfully and looked for the patterns. I imitated and tried to put myself in similar conditions and suddenly found myself making huge progress despite the fact that until then I had always struggled with languages and thought that to learn a language from immersion require "talent." I found the same thing with most of what I learn, talent is just doing some of the right things at the beginning without being told or having the right frame of mind. If you talk to people who have talent and can work out what they are doing different to everyone else or how their frame of mind differs to yours when they do something, often you find the key to to the so-called talent. Sometimes it might be a little slower at the beginning because these frames of mind, or ways of thinking may be a little unusual for you and undeveloped but after a while you'll learn with the same speed and ease as the talented people =) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| buhrahyun Newbie United States Joined 5354 days ago 24 posts - 25 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 7 of 47 12 April 2010 at 7:27pm | IP Logged | ||
As someone beginning to learn my second language, I'm very interested to benefit from some of your observations, Will. Would you mind sharing from your research some of the right things that I could be doing at the beginning and the most beneficial frame of mind that you're referring to? It could end up helping some of us reach our goals much more quickly. You can get an idea of what I'm currently doing in my log here: http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?T ID=20110&PN=1 Thanks in advance. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ilcommunication Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6692 days ago 115 posts - 162 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Russian, Portuguese, Mandarin | Message 8 of 47 12 April 2010 at 7:43pm | IP Logged | ||
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Accent is one of the funnest parts of learning languages for me. I don't know about the list above, but I find that it's just a matter of turning into a parrot when you listen to native speakers. I enjoy hearing the melody and parroting it back. Also, don't be self-conscious, think with your tongue and not with your mind (better yet, don't think at all!). Play with it and have fun, and be brave. That's helped me a lot. Edited by ilcommunication on 12 April 2010 at 7:44pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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