Living in a Multilingual World
Since late 2011, I have been living in a multilingual world. That is, surrounded by people who do not automatically speak French, especially since I started teaching French as a foreign language. I was very surprised to realize how important it was for non-French speakers to have a correct accent when speaking a foreign language.
The Desire for a Perfect Accent
It’s true that I remember learning English at school, dreaming of having a beautiful “British” accent, but never quite achieving it. As you know, I’m honest, and although I wanted that lovely English accent, I clearly made no effort to acquire it. The same went for my classmates. I even think I remember that students who had an almost correct accent were ridiculed in class (obviously out of jealousy).
Why Accents Matter
As you can understand, today we are talking about accents. Discover three tips and tricks to “lose your natural accent” as much as possible, but also why you should never feel uncomfortable about having an accent when speaking a foreign language.
Accents: A Universal Reality
Regional Accents in France
When talking about accents, the first thing people think of is the accent we have when speaking a language other than our mother tongue. Maybe we feel self-conscious about speaking differently from natives, and also because we fear not being understood. Let’s not forget, the main reason we speak and exchange is to communicate.
But even though accents change when we move to a different country and language, remember that accents can be very different from one region to another. In France, for example, we have around a hundred accents.
Feel free to check out the French Accent Sound Atlas to discover them. I invite you to listen to the Lillois (people from Lille) and then a Marseillais (a person living in Marseille). Do you feel like these people speak two different languages? Well, no, they both speak French, one from the North and the other from the South.
As you can see, very different accents can exist even in a country the size of France. And generally (95% of the time), French people, even with a different accent, manage to communicate and understand each other without effort or changing their regional accent.
The Accent in a Foreign Language: Goal or Not?
The Reality of Your Accent
Before explaining how you can improve your French accent, I invite you to watch this video of French people speaking English during a street interview in Paris: **Parisians Try to Speak English**.
Let’s not talk about their level of English; that’s not the point of this article, but rather their very French accent when speaking a foreign language. Despite their very strong natural accent, and of course with the help of subtitles, did you manage to understand what they were saying? Yet, they have a thick accent.
Why Your Accent Is Beautiful
Are you starting to understand where I’m going with this? Your accent is beautiful and you will never really lose it. Will you ever manage to pronounce the French “R” correctly? Will you completely lose the accent that comes from your native country? Maybe. But none of these points should be one of your goals when learning to speak a foreign language. The most important thing is not your accent, but that your interlocutors understand what you want to communicate.
How to Improve Your Accent
- Watch/Listen to TV without Subtitles
When I started learning English, I spent six months watching children’s programmes, even for toddlers. I used to watch/listen to *Blue’s Clues* every morning for an hour, without subtitles. These programmes are designed to teach children to speak and work very well for adults. They offer simple phrases, a lot of repetition, and images that correspond to the vocabulary. But be careful, don’t use subtitles, as soon as you read, you’ll revert to your natural accent.
To discover programs suitable for toddlers that can also help adults improve their listening comprehension, check out this selection: Jolies histoires pour enfants de 2 à 4 ans.
- Take Classes or Have Conversations in the Language You’re Learning
Practising is one of the best ways to improve your accent as well as your vocabulary. But be careful, if you choose this option, it is very important to speak (have conversations) with natives. I’m not saying that a non-native can’t teach you a foreign language, but he/she will never have the native accent. Even though I give conversation classes, I know very well that there are certain nuances I can’t teach.
- Travel
I know that this option is not available to everyone; travelling to France can be very, very expensive, even for me. But there’s no better solution than total immersion to improve your accent. That way, you are immersed in a 100% French world…
Be Proud of Your Accent
Don’t be ashamed of your accent and if a French speaker criticizes you for having too strong an accent, speak to them in your native language. You’re making the effort to speak in a language they can understand; they can also make a little effort to understand.
