When learning a language, one of the most complex elements is to master the accent. The sounds that we are able to pronounce often depend on the language we learned as a child. As a result, many native English speakers struggle to pronounce the German ‘CH,’ a sound that does not exist in English. John F Kennedy’s ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’ stood out not only by his confusion with the word Berliner (which means donut in German) but also by his poor pronunciation of Ich!
English is particularly hard to pronounce as often the words are said in a different way to how they are spelled. The word knight is the perfect illustration of this. Not only does KN make the sound ‘NI,’ but the ‘GHT’ makes the sound ‘ITE.’
Here are some sounds that many non-native English speakers struggle with:
1. TH, e.g, FaTHer
2. ED, e.g, StoppED
3. GH, e.g, ThorouGH
But no fear, it is in fact possible to master the English accent and to speak like a native British person. Robert Maxwell, the disgraced media tycoon, is the perfect example of this. Although Hungarian and only learned to speak English as an adult, he perfectly mimicked the British accent. Check out this video of him, would you have guessed that he is not a native English speaker?
So, how to speak like a native? Firstly, you must decide what British accent you would like to adopt. Not only is the Mancunian accent wildly different from the Southern English accent, but dialects within London vary too. Once you have chosen the accent, there are three steps that you should undertake that will help you to obtain it.
1. LISTEN
You must listen to that accent. Here you are in luck as there are several English resources available, and you can learn to speak a language through discovering a new series, whilst simultaneously learning new words. You can choose a show to watch based on your preferred accent. For example, the characters from Peaky Blinders have a different accent to those in Harry Potter. The more you listen to native English speakers, the easier it will become for you to mimic sounds. MyDialogue understands the benefits of listening, which is why it has incorporated a listening task into each lesson.
2. LEARN THE RULES
To be able to pronounce words correctly, you need to learn the basic rules, how letters are spoken. For example, the letters gh in the middle of a word are not pronounced, e.g. weight and tion is pronounced shon.
3. PRACTISE
Once you have heard how the words are pronounced and understand the phonics, you need to practise speaking them. First, say them to yourself. You can do this by focusing on repeating sounds that are difficult to pronounce, and once done, you can start to read English out loud to yourself. When you are feeling confident, you should start to speak with native English speakers. This will not only improve your speaking by improving your listening, but an English speaker will also be able to notice your mistakes and correct you, teach you the correct pronunciation of words, and it will help you to learn slang and you will be able to really convince people that you are a native speaker!
MyDialogue recognizes the importance of practicing with a native speaker, which is why it gives every student a native speaker tutor!
