The real reason accent reduction doesn't work

[00:00:00]If you're thinking that you need to reduce your accent to be a good speaker or fluent speaker, then [music] this is for you. Because today I want to talk about something really, really important. The [music] difference between accent reduction and clear communication. When I first started acting school, I had a noticeable non-native accent. And my speech teacher at the time, she told me, "I hate the term accent reduction because you cannot reduce an accent." [music] And here I was thinking, "Well, that sounds actually really good because I really want to reduce my foreign accent." And she said, "You never reduce your accent, you just acquire another accent." And that stayed with me until today, and this is what I teach my students. Because as you know, I teach pronunciation and I help students speak English with clarity, confidence, and freedom. And I love the American accent.

[00:00:54]This is the sound that I use. The way I sound right now is my natural sound in English. I don't have to turn on the accent when I speak to you. But at the same time, I want to seriously talk about the difference between acquiring an American accent, reducing an accent, and clear communication.

[00:01:18]So, what is the difference between all of them? But before that, I just want to say that I am a non-native speaker of English, and I've been teaching pronunciation, speech, and mindset for almost 20 years. And if you want to learn more with me, then definitely check out my website at hadarshemesh.com.

[00:01:37]I also have a free masterclass that you can watch whenever you want, even right now after this video. And it's a pronunciation masterclass, and I teach you the elements that are going to help you sound clear and expressive in English. And it's going to probably contain things that you've never learned in your conventional English studies.

[00:01:59]All right, so back to accent reduction.

[00:02:01]When people talk about accent reduction, they talk about eliminating any foreign features that might indicate that you are not from here. Now, again, the definition of here is very different. If you're in Minnesota or in Boston or in New York, here sounds different. So, people identified something called General American, which is a neutral American accent commonly used in California, but even there there are slight nuances. And when people want to speak without a regional accent, they usually study General American or they revert into General American, where it's not necessarily identifiable where you are from. Now, my thoughts about this is that there's nothing wrong with a non-native accent, and you don't need to hide it.

[00:02:54]And the thought of reducing your accent usually comes from a limiting belief as if you won't be taken seriously or you will not sound fluent unless you sound like an American or unless you sound like a native speaker.

[00:03:10]Now again, I teach pronunciation.

[00:03:13]I talk about the nuances. So, it's going to be hypocrite of me to say, "Oh, you don't have to sound like a native and it doesn't matter." Because I understand the need that people have. But it's important to identify what is leading you in your pursuit of speech work, of accent work, pronunciation work.

[00:03:36]Because if the need is to eliminate any element of you being a non-native speaker, then I recommend that you start looking at the value that you have as a non-native speaker, at the fact that versatility is great, that we all sound different no matter where we're from, even in our own native language, and it is okay not to be the same as anyone else.

[00:04:01]And this is why when I teach, I don't aim for people to lose their non-native accent, but I usually aim for really optimizing pronunciation work for clear and confident communication, which is the second thing I'm going to talk about today. It means that when you speak and when you learn a language, specifically English, because we're talking about English here, you opt for predictable pronunciation. Predictable pronunciation is when you know how people expect to hear a sound and you are making a sound that is predictable, that is aligned with that sound. I'm going to give you an example. In American English, we have the L sound, l l l.

[00:04:50]>> [snorts] >> And there are some speakers who might not pronounce this L sound like that, they will pronounce it as w w w.

[00:04:59]Now when native English speakers hear w, they associate that sound with the W sound, a different sound. So when you say goal and it sounds like go with a w sound at the end, native speakers will perceive it as go because they they won't hear that sound that they expect to hear. That pronunciation was not predictable. That creates lack of clarity and confusion for the listener. Now, they may get the meaning from the context, but it might take them longer. They might make that face of not understanding you, which will impact your confidence and your fluency. When you are not distinguishing between two sounds like sheep and ship because you don't have that distinction and you say something like, "That's a great sheep."

[00:05:50]People will hear the e sound and associate it with sheep and not ship.

[00:05:56]That's all predictable pronunciation.

[00:05:59]So, when I teach, I teach the sounds as they are expected to be perceived. And when you know that, and when you know the sound that you're supposed to make and how to make it, and you train yourself to make it consistently, that's when your pronunciation becomes clear and you become more confident simply by doing that. All of these elements are not just a sound like a native speaker, they are critical for speech. They are going to help you build confidence. And the most important part is that when you work on speech elements, it trains your brain to listen to these elements, and then you start understanding reductions, fast speech, you start recognizing sounds, nuances in the voice, and these are things that you don't learn in traditional or conventional English studies, but they are so important for you to know and to recognize. Now, there is another aspect, which is acquiring an accent. And as an actress in my past, this is what I have done. I have learned how to speak with an American accent because I wanted to get roles in New York and not only get cast as the foreigner. And back in 2003, they were less open to hearing different accents and different voices. If you had to play an American, you had to have an American accent. But the work that I've done has really opened up a lot of doors for me when it comes to communicating, when it comes to feeling expressive, when it comes to um feeling effortless and more like myself in English. Now, I have a a of students who are actors, singers, who have done a lot of work in English and they want to have that edge. And they are curious and passionate about sounds and accents and intonation and they want to go deeper.

[00:07:56]And that is more of a passion. It's like music. Like I really want to own that.

[00:08:00]Not because of what people might think about me, but because this is how I self-actualize myself. This is how I feel like English is just another extension of who I am, my personality, and my voice.

[00:08:16]Maybe people feel slightly limited with their voice and they feel like there are some things that still prevent them from sounding super clear. And that is where you want to go to that higher level of working on the nuances of speech. And let me just kind of like explain [clears throat] it. To speak with clarity and confidence, you don't have to put in a lot of work to gain massive results. To really nail down an accent, an American accent, British accent, it's a lot more work for working on those nuances. This is why I only recommend it for people who have some experience, who are more advanced, who are really passionate about it, and who are willing to put in the time and the effort into working on all those little nuances of the voice and intonation and fine-tuning all the schwas and the sounds and the similar sounds.

[00:09:14]And that part requires discipline and more control. And this is why I'm saying this is something that is a privilege in a way. And it's almost like a hobby that you develop versus speaking with clarity and confidence and aiming for predictable pronunciation, that is something that has to be essential and an integral part of any language training. Because you can learn all the grammar in the world and all the vocabulary, but if you're saying something and people don't understand you, what have we done with that? And that creates frustration, and frustration get gets you to stay quiet or feel frustrated and avoid and not do things, and you know, that's not the point. We want to speak. That's the whole point of learning a language. So, for a quick recap, we want to eliminate the concept of reducing or eliminating an accent.

[00:10:09]Eliminate the concept of eliminating an accent because everyone has an accent, and we want to aim for predictable pronunciation. Most of the people, predictable, clear, confident communication, learning how to use intonation, rhythm, and stress to be clear, to deliver a message, to sound expressive, and to understand others more and better, right? And that does not require a lot of work. You just need to understand the concepts, work on the sounds that are challenging for you, that are not predictable, and understand the elements of prosody, intonation, rhythm, and stress so you can incorporate them. But that is the work that I do with my students, and that is the work that I find most impactful on not only clarity and confidence, but also fluency. And if you want to embody a certain accent, whether it's an American accent or a British accent or Australian accent, and you want to work on the nuances, it is possible, but just take into consideration that it is more work, and the programs that I teach, you can definitely use them to reach that level, but it requires more discipline and more time. And I wanted to talk about it today because an accent, a non-native accent or a foreign accent, is not a problem.

[00:11:29]Okay? The problem is the people who say it's a problem. The problem is the people who say that you need to sound like a native speaker. You don't. You need to have predictable pronunciation and you need to speak with as little effort as possible and you can do that by optimizing your speech and you have to understand the speech patterns and intonation patterns to sound expressive and to understand others. That is it and that is actually critical.

[00:11:59]>> [snorts] >> And if you want more than that, absolutely, but that is already luxury. So now let me know in the comments, where do you categorize yourself? Are you the learner who just wants predictable pronunciation, clarity, confidence, and ease and invest 20% or are you the one who wants to nail a certain accent and invest 80% of the effort to nail all the nuances? So which one are you? Let me know in the comments. And as we close this episode, I want to say your voice matters. It doesn't matter if you make mistakes, if you get stuck, >> [music] >> if you feel like your sounds are not clear, it doesn't matter. The most important thing is that you speak up and you learn how to improve along the way, but sharing your voice, sharing your opinions, sharing ideas is what makes this world >> [music] >> so special and unique. We don't want everyone to sound the same, right? So that's it. Have a beautiful beautiful rest of the day and I'll see you next week in the next video.

[00:13:05]Bye.