Re: Proven ways to get a native-like accent
Posted: Mon Apr 10, 2017 12:08 am
I once spoke to a German girl with an RP [received pronunciation] accent. It was very good, but the fact that it was that good gave her away as non native.
You see, she spoke an older and more conservative form of RP which is almost unheard of nowadays. Even the BBC has allowed traces of regional accents to creep in, creating a more 'modern' form of RP. In addition, even the Queen herself has changed her accent slightly and has allowed certain vowels to be modernised ie no longer using an [ɛ]-like vowel in words like land etc
Furthermore, RP [modern or not] is quite uncommon amongst young people . The very rich and posh ['native' RP speakers] tend to make up a very small percentage of the population by default, and their kids an even smaller percentage of the population. Thus one rarely hears 'pure' RP from young people, but rather a sort of hybrid accent which features aspects of RP but still contains other traces which is enough to give the speaker away as being from a particular region.
Her accent contained no such traces, at least to me, and gave me the feeling she was actually a news presenter from the 1950s who had been trapped in a time bubble for the last few decades.
For the Americans here, a good but not entirely accurate comparison would be between 'modern' American English and the now extinct transatlantic accent which was employed decades ago. Link here ====> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLT-SQUBRDw
In essence, I'd say it's not quite possible to be entirely indistinguishable from a native speaker. You may reach a level that's so good that native speakers may be confused as to whether you're native or not, but sometimes you may also reach a level that is so good that it almost immediately gives you away as non native.
You see, she spoke an older and more conservative form of RP which is almost unheard of nowadays. Even the BBC has allowed traces of regional accents to creep in, creating a more 'modern' form of RP. In addition, even the Queen herself has changed her accent slightly and has allowed certain vowels to be modernised ie no longer using an [ɛ]-like vowel in words like land etc
Furthermore, RP [modern or not] is quite uncommon amongst young people . The very rich and posh ['native' RP speakers] tend to make up a very small percentage of the population by default, and their kids an even smaller percentage of the population. Thus one rarely hears 'pure' RP from young people, but rather a sort of hybrid accent which features aspects of RP but still contains other traces which is enough to give the speaker away as being from a particular region.
Her accent contained no such traces, at least to me, and gave me the feeling she was actually a news presenter from the 1950s who had been trapped in a time bubble for the last few decades.
For the Americans here, a good but not entirely accurate comparison would be between 'modern' American English and the now extinct transatlantic accent which was employed decades ago. Link here ====> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLT-SQUBRDw
In essence, I'd say it's not quite possible to be entirely indistinguishable from a native speaker. You may reach a level that's so good that native speakers may be confused as to whether you're native or not, but sometimes you may also reach a level that is so good that it almost immediately gives you away as non native.