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Improving your accent

How does everybody perfect their accent in the language they're learning? I'm doing French and while I think my French itself is getting better (I'm on my year abroad) my accent doesn't really seem to be improving. People still understand what I'm saying and apparently they find the English accent quite charming, so it shouldn't be a problem but I'd still like to sound a little bit more French.
So I just wondered if anybody has any tips? Or do you not bother trying to sound French/Russian/Italian etc, so long as people can understand what you're saying? Does it affect your confidence when you're speaking another language, if you feel you sound too much like a foreigner because of the sound your voice?

Reply 1

sylarfangirl

10

I hate my non-existent French accent!
I know what you mean, you feel weird as you clearly sound English or Scottish or whatever.

My French teacher advised that we look up accent "instructions" on the internet, don't know how helpful this is though.

Reply 2

hannah_dru

2

It bothers me a bit because people can instantly tell I'm English but most have said my accent is quite good. I tend to listen to my English colleague at work speak German to see if I can pick up on any similarities and listen to everyone else. Of course there's some sounds that I can't do that well- my best Bavarian friend really rolls her r's for example and I can't do that at all.

Reply 3

rbismee

2

I know of a couple of people who have the same problem...I think the general consensus is that the best way to improve an accent is just to spend more and more time around native speakers really! Not alot of help there lol

(btw I'm very jelous of your year abroad I'd looove to do that!)

Reply 4

computersaysnooooo

13

I feel like a ******** when trying to prononce French properly, so if I was to try and improve my accent it would be a case of letting go of feeling like that I suppose.
btw nobody can have an accent as bad as my mother, when we were in France she went around going Bonjooooor bonjooor to everyone in the thickest Cork accent :colondollar:

Reply 5

ormaybeitsjustnarcissism

14

I don't know any other languages that well so I haven't tried it myself, but it might help if you try and learn it technically, rather than just trying to listen to yourself, and thinking 'Yeah, that sounds alright'. I would recommend studying the IPA a bit, seeing what symbols go with what sounds, and writing down some words phonetically that have the sort of sounds you get stuck on and practice saying it that way and feel your tongue hitting the right parts of your mouth. My lecturer said he found speaking Italian a lot easier once he learnt that they do a lot of their 't's a certain way (dental or alveolar or something, I can't remember) :smile:

Reply 6

Tefhel

12

Listen to lots of French people eg. On TV, Radio etc. And copy them. And practice speaking a lot. I have a pretty good French accent, and that and having a teacher to correct you helps.

Reply 7

Sapientia

11

Tefhel

Listen to lots of French people eg. On TV, Radio etc. And copy them. And practice speaking a lot. I have a pretty good French accent, and that and having a teacher to correct you helps.

Pretty much this. You'll eventually come to pronounce it like them, when you expose yourself to the idea that that is the *only* way to pronounce that word correctly (in essence).

Reply 8

CatatonicStupor

15

I make a point of putting on an accent. If you don't, with certain languages you sound like a total ****, in my opinion. "Vo-lee-o di-ray kay so-no fe-lee-chay, mah non soh per-kay..." sounds a lot worse than "Vol-yo di-rr-eh ke so-nò fe-lee-cheh, ma non sò per-ke" where you're pretending to sound Italian.

It's a pain that people don't bother to attempt it. A lot of people complain they can't get the accent, but I reckon if you can do a 'french accent' in English, or a stereotypical [accent of your language] when you're taking the mick, you can pretend to sound like you're vaguely from their area. It's less a case of putting on an accent, and more a case of learning proper pronunciation - at least with Romances I find, where the differences in letters, like "o" makes a lot of difference to how you speak.

[O in Italian is more like an ò [a short sound], O in Spanish is kind of similar but slightly longer, and O in Catalan sounds like a U. So, I've learnt the differences and forced on fake accents through pronunciation.]

Eventually, you'll get it. But, it takes practice.

Reply 9

Fleece

15

At school I used to feel like a tit when doing the accent because no one else would. However, as I got to uni then I'd feel like a tit if I DIDN'T do that accent. I hate hate hate hearing languages spoken with an English accent. I speak German and people can't tell I'm English so that's good for me! It's all about listening very closely to pronunciation and emulating it yourself. Your year abroad is a prime time for this.

Reply 10

SiaSiaSia

16

I sound SO english when I speak french :sad:

Maybe just constantly repeating?

Weirdly, I sound french when I'm speaking german apparently hahah

Reply 11

xmarilynx

18

SiaSiaSia

I sound SO english when I speak french :sad:

Maybe just constantly repeating?

Weirdly, I sound french when I'm speaking german apparently hahah

Even more weirdly I speak all foreign languages with a French accent :colondollar:

Was quite embarrassing/entertaining when I tried to learn Mandarin!

Personally OP I just listen to French people talking (either in person, TV, radio etc) and try and copy them exactly. I practice it by talking to myself, which sounds a bit weird, but if you feel self conscious when you speak in an accent it's a good way of getting used to it before speaking in front of other people.

Reply 12

Cunning Linguist

3

I think ever since I started learning French in school, I always made a point of getting the accent right - I think that's what motivates me to learn languages - wanting to sound like the natives.

At the moment in my YA, French people honestly don't know that I'm foreign until I tell them (or I suddenly can't find a word I'm looking for). That's not to show off, it just shows what the YA can do.

Reply 13

Fleece

15

Cunning Linguist

I think ever since I started learning French in school, I always made a point of getting the accent right - I think that's what motivates me to learn languages - wanting to sound like the natives.

At the moment in my YA, French people honestly don't know that I'm foreign until I tell them (or I suddenly can't find a word I'm looking for). That's not to show off, it just shows what the YA can do.

I found that to be a double edged sword at times though - like if I said a word which perhaps wasn't quite right, they just thought I was a retard and not foreign :p:

Reply 14

Cunning Linguist

3

Fleece

I found that to be a double edged sword at times though - like if I said a word which perhaps wasn't quite right, they just thought I was a retard and not foreign

Lol ye but if you're in the middle of a sentence and you really just can't find the word.. and you're like "comment dire déjà... ummm...ummm.." then it starts to give it away.

Reply 15

*Supernova*

OP

1

Thanks for all the replies everyone, it's been very useful and made interesting reading. I'm in awe of (and a little intimidated by!) the people who already get taken for native speakers because of their accent. People compliment me on my language but then straightaway can tell I'm foreign because of my accent. :o:

Slightly off-topic, but to all the people who have already done their year abroad, what was your and everybody else's language level like after the year? I'm talking about other foreign students you might have known on your year abroad, as well as your classmates back at your home university.

Reply 16

Fleece

15

*Supernova*

Thanks for all the replies everyone, it's been very useful and made interesting reading. I'm in awe of (and a little intimidated by!) the people who already get taken for native speakers because of their accent. People compliment me on my language but then straightaway can tell I'm foreign because of my accent. :o:

Slightly off-topic, but to all the people who have already done their year abroad, what was your and everybody else's language level like after the year? I'm talking about other foreign students you might have known on your year abroad, as well as your classmates back at your home university.

I found it totally depended on what they spent the year doing (uni/working/teaching assistant). Usually the people who chose to work would have the biggest improvement in their language. I went to Uni and whilst I was being constantly exposed to the language and having to write 15 page essays etc in German, there was a massive Erasmus community, so it would be easy to lapse into English.

In my first Semester my German got really good, because all my friends were either German or other foreign students so our communal language was German. In my second Semester I actually made friends with a load of Americans, Brits and Aussies, which obviously made my German slightly worse. Still, it was heaps of fun and I don't regret that!

Long story short - you'll only get out of it what you put in. Really make the effort to use everything to your advantage when you're there. The people whose language didn't really improve were the ones that had little interaction (usually the teaching assistants, because outside of teaching English a few hours a week, there is a lot of free time to just hang out. At least with uni you're having to read lots and lots of books and practice your writing skills a lot).

Reply 17

Helen4Morrissey

I think the biggest thing is not to be afraid of sounding like an idiot. Really listen to something someone says (on the radio for example), and then imitate them so extremely that you feel like you're taking the piss! This is actually how people speak, you see, even though it does of course sound a bit extreme to the ears of a non-native speaker.

And native-speaking friends are pretty essential. Preferable ones who correct you on even the small slips!

Reply 18

Cunning Linguist

3

Fleece, I think if you're a ELA, you actually have a much better chance of improving your language/accent because you're constantly interacting with the pupils (and if you've got a very low ability school like mine, it's almost always in French). Outside of work, I'm always surrounded by Frenchies! Once I saw this English guy and I started to speak in a French accent at the beginning 'cause I hadn't spoken English for so long:s (I think the pupils' accent kept drumming in my head)

If you're an Erasmus student, you'll want to stick with anglophones and hence won't improve your language very much.

Reply 19

Fleece

15

Cunning Linguist

Fleece, I think if you're a ELA, you actually have a much better chance of improving your language/accent because you're constantly interacting with the pupils (and if you've got a very low ability school like mine, it's almost always in French). Outside of work, I'm always surrounded by Frenchies! Once I saw this English guy and I started to speak in a French accent at the beginning 'cause I hadn't spoken English for so long:s (I think the pupils' accent kept drumming in my head)

If you're an Erasmus student, you'll want to stick with anglophones and hence won't improve your language very much.

I dunno, I don't think that's really fair to say about wanting to stick with anglophones. You're in lectures and seminars with natives, you make native friends. Your writing gets so much practice as you're writing academic essays, your speaking improves as you're giving presentations and talking to friends. Your reading improves as you're reading academic text books and about 5 novels a week.

I'm just going off what happened to the people at my uni who were ELAs and who went to uni.

Improving your accent

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