Accent reduction

I agree with Mr. Steve that listening plays a significant role while pronouncing the sounds. I also noticed that the more I listen the better my English pronunciation is. Moreover, when I stopped speaking my mother tongue, my English learning process became fast and easy because of the absence of double translation in my head i.e listening in English and translating from my native language into English.

I find this topic fascinating! 25 years ago, I started college taking classes for Radio and Television. One of my classes was Voice and Diction. We had to learn IPA. I enjoyed it as I had never been exposed to it before. That being said, I couldn't recognize it if I saw it now. Like you say in many videos. "Listening" to announcers, DJ's, etc. helped more than anything. Our instructor, even while teaching us IPA, always said, "You'll learn more in a week on the job..."

"...than in your entire time in college." And he was right. Not only in regards to speaking, but as far as technology too. I mean we were training on equipment that was dated even then. If I only had the money to spend on LingQ, I would most definitely give it a shot.

Thank you very much ! ! !

The Hollywood Method will show you how to: Significantly reduce your accent, quickly and easily Speak clearly and distinctly Enunciate properly and with the correct intonation Communicate more effectively

Can u please answer? I don't hv accent but I don't have native sound to give u one example most african americans don't hv accent but they have diffrent sound but not all.

Amazing language skills! What`s your job?

wonderful

You yourself in this video have an accent too sir

I have just kept repeating words and that way I have gotten rid of my Finnish accent. However, my mouth starts to hurt after a while. Same thing happens when I try to speak any other foreign language.

thank you! Now I feel more confidence!

I hate doctors with thick heavy accents who over enunciate  trying  sounding superior

Hi Steve, do u speak swedish?

"We will all like to sound more like a native speaker, even though we can't achieve it" How so? There's many English speakers that I didn't even realise aren't native in London. I mean, I guess it depends how picky you are.. like if Luca just spoke to me in the street I would more than likely assume he was from North America somewhere. Maybe for someone from North America its more obvious that he isn't a native (I'm English). 

Hi steve,i am in france now trying to improve my french,but it has already been 1 month and my accent has just remained the same,what should i do ?

Thanks so much, Mr. Kauffman

"Accent reduction becomes more a question of vanity."  ???
I don't think so.

Hey Steve can you speak dutch ?

To me, accent and pronunciation is a physical skill just lika playing an instrument. Saying "why would you want to reduce your accent if you're completely understandable with your current accent?" is just like saying "why would you want to become better at the piano if people already like what you can play now?"

I don't know. It took me about 2 weeks, with some flaws of course to get the rhythm of the chinese (mandarin) language.

Could you make a video giving tips on the Japanese accent, specifically, or make a video about accent in Japanese? (^^)

If you have no need or want to lessen your accent, why are you here bashing those that do? Find something else to do.

Hey Steve!
I'm studing German about 3 weeks.
Thanks for your tips, your videos inspired me a lot!

What he said for me is very relatable. For you to sound like a native speaker, you need to DESIRE doing that, you need to CARE about accent and pronunciation, and most importantly, you need to LIKE doing that. Also, it heavily depends on how immersed you are on the language's country. If you are visiting for the first time, you will have accent. If you've been living there for a decade, and you attend those first conditions, you'll most likely sound like a native.

I don't get the point of accent reduction unless (like Steve said) it's getting in the way of being understood. Let's be honest - who doesn't like listening to foreign accents? Having a foreign accent can actually work in your favour (unless you're Australian like me, then you sound like an idiot even speaking English lol).

This is a really good clip! It is quite useful to understand the process of learning a second language!

You nailed it... Thank you!

you can wiggle your ears!

Excellent video! thank you!!!

Why not look at it another way? Instead of looking to reduce your native accent perhaps look at it as acquiring another accent. In that way you are not losing anything but you are gaining.

Listen to newsreaders in the language you are learning. They are usually the most consistent speakers in their language and the ones to model and it's the easiest way to pick someone to model. They are chosen for their clarity of their voices and subtitles running along the bottom can help as well.

The toughest part of getting rid of accent is when your friends tell you you have cute accent and they really like your rolling Rs. It is really big hit tomotivation to improving pronounciation.

I don't care what you people say I'm going to chieve to sound like a native speaker. It's not gonna be perfect but I will try really hard.

When it comes to minority languages like Breton or Irish for example, accent is a lot more important. Every language has a unique sound and without it they are dull and boring.

Sadly for Breton it's difficult to find Breton speakers after the seventies who don't sound French.

Similar for Irish except they are lucky enough to still have communities with native speakers who speak with the languages natural/historic sounds, and there is a wealth of recordings of native speakers for people to use for learning. The fight for the preservation of Irish has to deal with people who learn it and insist that their English pronounciation of Irish words is correct because they are Irish and the language 'belongs to them too.' But it currently has a big advantage over Breton. There is also a challenge for younger native speakers not to succumb to English sounds because they grow up surrounded by English now and tend to be more competent in the dominant language of the country.

Excellent title to explain an important point for ambitious non-native speakers! :)

I’ll never forget the eureka moment I had in Thailand - previously I’d been saying my thai phrases in my own natural voice with mixed results regarding comprehension by the locals - then I decided I’d try and mimic their accent and the outcome was like night and day! I knew my understandability had shot up just in the facial expressions I started getting

The most strained video

This is also my approach and theory. And I also agree with the timeframe of about 6 months. I'm convinced you can actually get to a native-like accent but you have to put in the work first, like a baby who spends its first 6 months training the phonology of its native language before anything else. Adult learners don't get that native-like accent not because they can't but because they are too impatient and want to start to speak as fast as possible thinking they can work on the accent later and they are not willing to only focus on phonology. The problem is, of course in the beginning there is too much interference from their native language, so they will use equivalent phonemes of their native language as approximates of the target language. As the approximates are usually "close enough" to be understood, the brain doesn't have a reason to get a precise pronunciation. And with getting by with being understood, incorrect pronunciation fossilizes, and once fossilized it's much harder to lose the now established phonological neuronal connections and reestablish new ones for the correct pronunciation.

Nothing beats shadowing in terms of achieving flow and pitch perfect accent, especially if you're a musician. Depending on your "genes", it'll get you the pitch perfect target accent if you have the mettle to breakthrough obstacles, technical and psychological.

Who is this chinese guy? I'd like to see a video of him speaking english

My late father spent a fortune in language classes to keep his German accent, one could cut it with a knife. 😁

Thank you so much sooooooo interesting

"Accent reduction is vanity".

"There's nothing wrong with with accent reduction"..

You make a bunch of good points! Also, we see eye to eye that intonation or the so-called "Melody" of the language should be the main priority in order to emulate native-like speech. However, I take the term "accent-reduction" with a grain of salt; for me, it's the wrong mindset. To put it another way, I think we would be better off trying to think of it as follows: One should rather try to adopt / master the respective target language while- at the same time- maintaining traces of one's natural accent. Just my two cents;-).

Fantastic video. I appreciate your thoughts regarding individual sounds vs intonation and imitation.