What to do with the foreign accent?

Like many immigrants, I came to Canada with a set of English skills and a dream to start a new page of my life. As a professional translator, I didn't have any difficulties understanding the others. Imagine my surprise when I figured out that people had a hard time understanding me. Having an accent became a huge barrier for me. I had to face the reality - I needed to do something about my accent to be able to find an interesting job and have a full life. It took me years and one good linguistics teacher in college (who was not a native English speaker) to understand a simple truth - It’s OK to have an accent.

Why people have accents

There is a term 'critical stage' of second language acquisition, and it means that kids can speak as native if they start learning the language no later than 10 years of age. This period can be extended until puberty (17-18 years), but the opportunity of speaking without an accent narrows down with age. (Research is provided by National Institutes of Health and MIT’s Center for Minds, Brains, and Machines)

Thus, it’s nearly impossible to sound like a native speaker, unless you’ve been living in an English-speaking environment since you were a kid. 

The truth is - most people will always be affected by their first language. It might sound like a hard pill to swallow, but here is another truth - we don't have to be native speakers to be able to speak clearly. There is always a place for improving our speech, and today I will share 3 tips that helped me not only to become a better speaker but be confident enough to teach ESL myself and present my writing projects in public.

Practice in an environment where you can really grow

In my first couple of months in Canada, I found an entry level job as a cashier, and I hoped that I would get good practice with native speakers. Well, I was wrong. In fact, I met many customers who liked to tease me and make a joke about my pronunciation. As a Russian, I had difficulties with a soft "r" sound, and somehow people found it hilarious. For me, it was insulting, but I couldn't do anything about it but cry it out and move on, because the only way to overcome my difficulties was to communicate with people more. 

Of course, not considering insulting jokes, customer service still was still practice, but I realized that it was not an environment where I could grow my skills. Thus, I started communicating with immigrants who didn't laugh at me and had the same goal - to keep practicing their speaking skills. And it helped. Later on, I joined a local Toastmasters group, where I could also keep practicing in a friendly environment. Thus, I brought my speech fluency to a high level and also gained my confidence in speaking in public. 

Slow down

One of the most valuable lessons I received during my Toastmasters experience was to 'slow down.' The thing is - people have accents, and it's OK to have them. However, we often try to speak as fluent as a native speaker, and as a result, we ‘smash’ our speech and make it extremely hard to understand. I tend to speak fast when I’m nervous or excited. When I do so, I take a deep breath, make a pause, and keep talking at a normal speed. This trick had a weird effect - sometimes I seemed to behave like a sloth from a Zootopia cartoon, but people who observed me from the side said that I had a normal and clear speech. I practiced this exercise, and I eventually got used to it. Now I can freely communicate with others by slowing down my speech.

It's OK to keep learning

Somehow most people have an impression that our learning ends when the doors of the school or college close behind us. In fact, it’s just an illusion. People of all professions constantly keep mastering their skills: doctors, engineers, hairdressers. People join training, exhibitions, meetings, where they can share their experience and learn something new. It has sense because the world is constantly changing - science, fiction, business, and fashion industries keep developing. People who don't work on improving their qualifications eventually stuck with their careers or quit, because they can't adapt to the new standards.

So the question is - why do we think that the knowledge about the foreign language we gained before our English exam is enough? 

I don't think that we should be ashamed of learning. I felt a strong necessity of improving my pronunciation when I started working over the phone at the reception desk. So I bought an audiobook for pronunciation and kept repeating the words and phrases while I was driving. It helped. It also made me understand that there is nothing impossible, and later on, I enrolled in a college program as a linguist to be able to teach ESL myself.

Looking back, I see that my path of learning and mastering my English was full of surprises. I had ups and downs. I learned techniques that worked well and didn't work at all. Eventually, I developed my own set of skills that opened a lot of new opportunities for me in this amazing country. After all, it’s impressive to be a person who can freely communicate in two languages, and not so many native speakers can brag about it. So there is no reason to be shy of your second language. The ability to speak in 2 languages is a huge reason to be proud of yourself.

Written by Lubov Leonova, Canadian author and blogger.

To read more of Lubov’s work, please follow her @authorleonova