Learning an American accent is NOT IMPORTANT!!

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Many English learners worry so much about having an "American accent", but should you? In this video, I look at a quiz that pinpoints my accent, and discuss if having an "American accent" is important for learning English.

[davesenglish]

Another thing I would like to say about accents is that in the United States, your accent is less likely to matter. The reason is that we are a country of immigrants, and therefore are used to people with accents. I think that a lot of people who are worried about their accents might come from countries where the number of immigrants is low, and therefore having an accent is easier noticeable. But in the United States, having an accent is not just normal, it's extremely common. It also doesn't hinder one's mobility in society here. So, in the US, I would say that accents are not as important.

[dessyyasmita]

I think what people mean is American pronunciation, not regional accent. So basically 'General American Pronunciation' which is also different to British English. The true T into flap T or flap D and the r sound are the features.

[Todd_OutstandingEnglish]

Those videos for “losing one’s accent” are really only useful if someone plans to become an international spy or needs to change their accent for a role in a movie. In either of those cases, they’d likely need the help of a speech-language pathologist instead of YouTube. For the vast majority of learners, prioritizing accent reduction over other language skills hinders overall proficiency development. An accent is a natural and unique part of one's cultural and linguistic identity. English is spoken differently around the world and exposure to various accents enhances listening skills and cultural understanding. It’s better to celebrate linguistic diversity and focus on effective communication rather than achieving a specific accent.

[ryanahmadzod]

Congratulations, sir on 1k subscribers. You truly deserve a lot and I was wishing to see you get more recognition. I'm so delighted a true teacher like you slowly getting more recognized. Wish you all the best!

[jairorubenmendoibarra]

As a Mexican who has worked on accent reduction I could tell you that I try Standard American accent (although most people say I sound Californian, probably because most of the media I've consumed such as news, series are from LA), but true, grammar, intonation are vital if you want to use the language properly, and since I'm an English teacher I intend to be updated with everything, I always ask native speakers if I commit a mistake and I ask them what to say instead, so yes, to every American I meet I'm like, is my English fine? My goal is to sound as fluent as a native speaker and understand not only the words but also the context, the humor, getting immersed into the culture.

[meguellatisabrina]

I don't understand this 'have the native speaker's accent ' thing. I'm not a native and never will be, so I prefer to put more effort into mastering the construction of correct English and understanding native formal and informal styles. I'm ok with being labelled a foreigner because I AM a foreigner and I'm proud I learnt something new....

[brain_respect_and_freedom]

You are touching such important aspect of learning the second languages journey. A few years ago, I was thinking a lot about accent and etc. Right now, I realized it was a part of linguistic racism. I don't try to change my Polish accent. I try to learn more about placement* to be more understanadble in English. I'm from Poland, and I speak to people from diffrent countries. They talk in English with they own "brand" like me.👍
*Placement is one of the hardest topics to teach, but it can have a huge impact on your accent. /Rachel's English/

[kjr]

Texans and Southerners do stand out when they speak, everyone else not that much. NY accent is pretty cool, I'd choose it, sounds straightforward and bold.
I think your students just want to get rid of their native accent, because it gives them away, they'd rather sound more like a native speaker. Lots of people argue and say: "Oh, it's not so important, your accent makes you unique, blah blah blah". Nah, when you're a foreigner and you speak so good that the natives can barely recognize you're a foreigner, this is art. Just like the guy from TN, or the girl from the last video. This is about perfecting your skills, when the grammar, vocab etc.are all left behind, i.e. the advanced level.

[LukasKamin]

wow, 7:50 so what's the actual meaning of freeway??? Does it mean different in various ares across the US?

[eustaquiozambrano]

Thank you so much.
Have a good one! You too. 👍

[SO-ymzs]

Question 8 was pretty funny. As a native English speaker (the algorithm popped this video into my feed for some reason), I've never heard/read some of those. I'm thinking some are spurious coinages for the quiz or first-generation immigrant imports from other cultures.

[ifsomasiauc]

I believe when people say about "american accent" they rather have in mind something like "neutral accent". There are many clips on youtube about the 'neutral accent'. When people mock something specific in pronunciation (specific britt accent, vocal fry and so on), keeping something strong from their native language/pronunciation, it sounds foolish. We call it (in Russia) "to forget unfasten the parachute".

So, the main goal is to remove your national accent, rather then adopt something from us/uk.

For example, russian (ukranian) have troubles not only with sounds like 'th', 'ee' vs 'i', 'r' and so on. There is something more deep, russian pronunciation are more soft, with soft transitions between sounds, in russian people use 'head voice' instead of 'chest voice' as us/uk. People just don't want to sound like russian/indian/arabian and so on.

[retrodesignworkshop]

What is your opinion about ELSA speak?

[Anonymous.]

Well, English is my 4th language, it's very hard for me to learn totally different accent, thanks for this magnificent lesson

[mistersteward]

Hi Dave, I like your videos a lot. I'd like to ask you what's your take on differences between focus on "accents" vs. focus on actual pronunciation mistakes. I'm personally not obsessed with accents, but I hate it when I find out I've been outright mispronouncing some words for ages. For example my version of Arkansas rhymed with Kansas and my version of Chicago started with the same sound as China. And my version of work, word and world, featured "o" sound. Since I don't live in an English speaking country, and most of my exposure to English is through reading, I'm quite certain there are lots of words whose meanings and written form I know very well, but I probably mispronounce them. So when I read a text aloud, there's often some guesswork when I come across words I don't know how to pronounce.

In short you make an excellent point about not obsessing about "accents", but I think a lot of students who say they worry about "accents" might actually have more legitimate worries about actually wrong pronunciations. English is not helpful in that regard as it has practically no rules on pronunciation. A foreigner would definitely not pronounce "colonel" correctly unless they explicitly read it in a dictionary or someone teaches them. And there are lots of "colonels" in English.

[LukasKamin]

wow I thought bootlegger is mafioso ??? so somewhere it may mean a drive-through liquor shop?

[spoonerboy]

Nice dude, other thing i'd like to say is that happens in every language and in general people learn the capital accent and pronuciation. For example i'm not able to sound like an "American" but in german my argentinien accent is reduced and French i sound like a person from Paris. Also in Germany is very knew that is the every federation or "Bundesland" is a dialect completely different from standart german and sound like a another language.

[SO-ymzs]

In addition to the carbonated beverage question, another pair that quickly differentiates people's origins is "cart" versus "buggy" for a "shopping cart." And I've heard deep Southerners say "go to the pictures" instead of "go to the movies, " the former being more common to British English, afaik.

[dmitrymashkov]

That guy you showed on the video had the same melody and intonation when speaking. Absolutely yes. However, I noticed that you two pronounce the word "because" differently.

[sayaman]

That is why I encourage students to learn Standard American Accent because we just need to make sure are being understood.