Don't lose your accent!

Ciao a tutti!

Daniel Tanner here and welcome back to ChatBubble, the weekly newsletter that helps Italian professionals communicate more effectively with their English speaking colleagues and clients. 💼 

Let’s get started….

A common goal I hear amongst English learners is the desire to speak with an authentic native accent.

First of all, I love when my clients have this kind of goal, because it means they care about the English they’re producing and are visualising their progress and their success with the language. All great stuff! But…let me tell you what I tell all my clients. 

English doesn’t belong to any one place. It’s a global language and there is no such thing as a one true accent to rule them all. Sure, you can have a personal preference of the kind of English you’d like to focus on, which is usually either standard English or American (sorry, rest of the English speaking world, we still love you for your rugby, BBQs and maple syrup), but each accent is as valid as the next, and with there being so many accents in use amongst native speakers, trying to emulate one to any authentic degree is honestly an unnecessary and misguided goal. In other words, a bit of a waste of time.

Instead, your energy would be better spent focusing on improving your pronunciation.

But what’s the different between accent and pronunciation?

Accents are regional variations of a language, which usually reveal where the speaker is from. Pronunciation, on the other hand, is how you say words. 

Focusing on pronunciation will make your English clear and easy to understand. For example, can you pronounce words like though, through, thought and thoroughly correctly? How about rough, cough, enough? Do you apply appropriate intonation to your sentences, and do you know which syllable to stress when saying words like content, performance or independence? If you answered yes to all the above, you can probably stop here, your pronunciation is fantastic just the way it is! If not, don’t worry, pronunciation like anything else can be easily improved with the right approach. 

What’s more, I’m a firm believer that foreign accents are not something to be discarded or shunned. On the contrary, the charm that only you as a non-native English speaker can add to the language should always be celebrated and cherished. 

As an English coach, I specialise in helping Italian professionals communicate more effectively with their international clients and colleagues, so if you’re reading this and you’re already one of my students, congratulations, you won the accent lottery! The musicality of the Italian accent is an especially welcome variation of spoken English.

That said, the only time when accents are not OK is when they interfere with pronunciation, i.e. the clarity and comprehension of your speech. That’s why, in next week’s newsletter, I’ll be giving you an in-depth guide to help you improve your pronunciation step by step, as well as a collection of common mistakes to avoid. For now though, I’ll leave you with this video from The Economist which explores the question of why foreign accents exist in the first place.

Watch the video and reply to this email with a summary of the elements mentioned in the video that can affect your pronunciation when speaking English as a second language.

That’s it for this edition. If you have any questions or topics you'd like me to cover in future newsletters, feel free to reach out.

Grazie mille and see you next time!

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