“I sound like I’m dead.” 

“No you don’t!” I cried, doing my best to send good vibes through Zoom.

My student in St. Petersburg had just played for me the recording of a work presentation he delivered in English. And, to be honest, he did sound a bit unenthusiastic.

He was a personable, funny young man who spoke very good English. And he had a terrific goal: to be a dynamic speaker at work, where English was frequently used.
But whenever he listened to a recording of himself, his heart sank. He sounded “dead”.

He blamed his accent, and in a way he was correct. Yet, completely losing his accent was neither realistic nor necessary to enliven and elevate his spoken English.

Why's that? Read on …

Why is English Pronunciation Challenging for Russian Speakers?
It’s not. I mean that sincerely.

Russian speakers of English are generally quite easy to understand. Once in a while, I help one of my Russian students fine-tune the vowel sound or syllable stress in a particular English word. But that’s about it.

What about consonant sounds, such as substituting /w/ for /v/? With context—which the listener almost always has—these substitutions typically don’t impact intelligibility (the ability to understand someone easily.)

So, do Russian speakers of English have any pronunciation challenges?

Yes. But those challenges are generally not with the pronunciation of individual words. The challenges are with the overall feeling of their spoken English—rhythmic features  such as intonation, stress, linking, and pausing. These characteristics comprise the “music” of a language.

Which brings us to an unfortunate truth: native Russian speakers can sound unfriendly, bored, or angry when speaking English. This is not a reflection of their personalities. It reflects what can happen when speakers use the music of their first language to speak a second language.

Needless to say, it works both ways. Americans who speak another language can often sound too enthusiastic, too friendly, too crazy, even, in that other language.

Why? Because we’re importing our happy-go-lucky American English rhythm into a language that has a completely different feeling. It’s like oil and vinegar. They don’t mix well.

The “Music” of Russian versus the “Music” of English
Let’s start with the good news: Russian and English are both stress-timed languages. In other words, if you listen to someone speaking English or Russian, you will hear contrast: some words are stressed; some words are not.

But that contrast is expressed differently in English and Russian, leading to big differences in the feeling, or the personality, of each language.

Key Pronunciation Challenges for Russian Speakers of English

1. Syllable Stress
Syllable stress—also called word stress—is the emphasis placed on the vowel sound in a specific syllable in a word. Stress has three features: length, volume, and pitch change.

Russian speakers of English tend to have two challenges regarding syllable stress:

a. Losing the secondary stress in long words
Long English words often have secondary stress. For example: exhibition (ex-hi-BI-tion).

In this case, the vowel sound in the third syllable /ɪ/ receives the most stress, meaning the most length, volume and pitch change.

​The vowel in the first syllable /ɛ/ gets the secondary stress; meaning, a bit less stress, but still some.
​
Russian speakers of English tend to lose the secondary stress. Without that secondary stress, the word can sound too rushed or monotone, making it difficult to understand.

​The problem is doubled with two adjacent long words, such as simultaneous exhibition (si-mul-TA-ne-ous ex-hi-BI-tion).

Listen for yourself. At :27, when Garry Kasparov says simultaneous exhibition, the phrase sounds fast and flat, making it challenging to comprehend. That stands in stark contrast to the rest of his spoken English, which is easy to understand.

b. Using volume instead of pitch
Think of vowel sounds as musical notes. When I ask my Russian students to add more stress to the vowel sound in a syllable, they tend to pronounce it louder rather than at a higher pitch. Unfortunately, stress that relies on volume rather than pitch change can make the speaker sound angry or annoyed.

2. Sentence Stress
Sentence stress refers to the words in a sentence that get the most emphasis. For Russian speakers of English, identifying those key words is easy. But, as with syllable stress, they typically face two challenges.

a. Emphasizing the first word in a question
Russian speakers often stress the beginning of a question, rather than the end. For example:

Do you speak English?

Russian speakers typically emphasize do. This, unfortunately, gives the impression that they are interrogating their listener!

In contrast, native speakers will emphasize the final key word: English

Do you speak English?

By simply shifting the main sentence stress from the beginning to the end, Russian speakers of English can overcome the impression that they are unfriendly or angry.

b. Monotone or flat sentences
As I was working with one of my Russian clients on his music of English, he remarked: “I feel like I’m singing.”

That’s because he was used to speaking English in a much more narrow range, using volume, not pitch, to indicate stress. Spoken English bounces up and down the musical scale.

If the key words in your sentences are insufficiently stressed through pitch change, your English can sound monotonous. And monotonous English lacks impact and emotion. It sounds, as my student so bluntly put it, dead.

2. Final Intonation
The pitch change at the end of a sentence or phrase is generally referred to as final intonation.  The pitch can go up, down, or even stay the same, depending on meaning and feeling. So, incorrect final intonation is not an intelligibility challenge. It is a feeling challenge.

Final intonation is a broad topic. Here are two common final intonation mistakes that I hear my Russian students make.

1. Yes/No Questions end with a fall
In English, simple yes/no questions should finish with rising intonation.

Do you speak English?

When you say the word English in this question, your voice should first fall on the first syllable (En) and then, more critically, rise on the second syllable (glish). If instead your voice falls on glish, you can sound rude or harsh.

2. Not rising before falling
At the end of declarative sentences, it’s the reverse. The voice should rise before it falls.

I speak English.

Here, the voice should rise on “En” before it falls on “glish”. Russian speakers don’t rise (or rise enough) before the fall. This, again, gives a flat feeling to their language, as if they are bored.

So what should a Russian speaker do to improve their English pronunciation?

Step One: Get a Pronunciation Assessment
Speak with a professional pronunciation teacher who is familiar with intelligibility research. Ask them to conduct an assessment. This will ensure that you have a realistic and achievable learning plan.

Step Two: Work on the “Music” of Your Spoken English
I suggest first working on the rhythm, or “music”, of American English. In addition to syllable stress and sentence stress, the “Music of English” includes pausing in logical places. If you pause more frequently, you will slow down your speech in a natural way and allow time to add stress to your English.

Step Three: Improve Your Pronunciation of High-Impact Consonants Only
As mentioned above, very few consonant substitutions made by Russian speakers of English impact my ability to understand them easily.  So don’t work on consonants that have a low impact on your intelligibility. You have better things to do with your free time!

Are You Ready to Work on Your English Pronunciation?
Well Said Coaching offers all of the above: a pronunciation assessment, a course on the Music of English, and, for those who need it, additional lessons on individual sounds.

Interested? Please check out our pronunciation coaching, and then schedule a free consultation. 

Remember, you don’t need to completely lose your beautiful Russian accent, nor should you. But if the feeling of your spoken English is holding you back from your career, education, or social goals, then consider giving your English a little more lift, and a little more life!

Before I taught English, I worked as a copywriter at an advertising agency. Some of the television ads I wrote for a local fitness center were translated into Spanish.

I always loved the Spanish versions! They sounded so energetic and dramatic—like a bull charging at a matador.

The English versions had energy too, but a more peppy kind of energy. Like cheerleaders rooting for a football team.
​
Listen for yourself:

Why do Spanish and English sound so different?
The answer lies in the rhythm of the languages.

Every language has a unique rhythm. Some of these rhythms are similar to each other, such as the rhythms of English and Dutch. Other languages have rhythms that are quite different, such as English and Spanish.

The chart below illustrates this concept. It shows the rhythm of eight different languages according to certain rhythmic features. 

​Don't get lost in the the statistics! Just focus on the big picture.

English (EN) and Spanish (SP) are in different groups because they have different rhythms. And it is those different rhythms, more than individual vowel or consonant sounds, that can make English pronunciation challenging for Spanish speakers of English.

Figure 2.1: Classification of 8 languages along rhythmic dimensions %V and ∆C. Figure reproduced from Ramus, Nespor, and Mehler (1999).

The Rhythm of American English versus the Rhythm of Spanish
What is rhythm in language?

Rhythm is the timing patterns among syllables.  And a syllable is a word, or part of a word, with a vowel sound.

For example: “Pass” has 1 syllable because it has 1 vowel sound.  “Password” has 2 syllables because it has 2 vowel sounds.

Different languages have different syllable, or rhythm patterns.

English alternates between stressed syllables and unstressed syllables, and stressed words and unstressed words.

For example: I want to improve my pronunciation of English.

The syllables in bold and underlined are stressed. The other syllables are not. The words in red are emphasized. The other words are not.

This is called contrastive stress. 

Spanish has much less contrastive stress. Every syllable is spoken with almost equal length and volume, and little change in pitch. And if you don't stress different syllables, then all the words sound equally emphasized as well.

Is there any contrastive stress in Spanish? Yes, but much less than in English.
And, of course, there are many different Spanish accents around the world. Some Spanish accents have more contrastive stress than others. But all varieties of Spanish use a syllable-timed rhythm.

This image can help you visualize the difference between the rhythm of Spanish (syllable-timed) and the rhythm of English (stress-timed.)

Where Do You Put the Stress?
An additional challenge for Spanish speakers is to stress the correct syllable.

Since there are many similar words in English and Spanish ("education" / "educación"), it is natural to use the stress placement of your first language. But in English, the stress in this word is not on the last syllable, as in Spanish. It is on the third syllable: "education". 

Are there rules for stress in English? Yes. Particularly for words with suffixes (like "cion"). There are many YouTube videos and textbooks that review these rules.

Are they many exceptions to these rules? Yes. So be prepared if you learn the rules to also notice and practice the exceptions. And don't look for accent marks to help you. Unfortunately, English doesn't use those.

Other Vowel Challenges for Spanish Speakers of English
Spanish has five vowel sounds. American English has about fifteen vowel sounds (depending on the regional accent.) So that means that Spanish speakers of English need to work on distinguishing and producing many more vowel sounds.

The good news is that there is some flexibility with English vowel sounds. As long as they are “close enough” (and said with enough pitch change and length!), a Spanish speaker of English can be understood fairly easily.

What about Consonants?
Yes, consonants are important for Spanish speakers of English. But research shows that some consonant sounds impact the listener’s ability to understand you more than others[1].

Plus, changing individual sounds is an extremely time-consuming process. For many adults, it is not even possible. That is because Broca’s area—the part of our brain that is responsible for speech production—gets less flexible as we age. That flexibility starts to fade as early as puberty.

So it’s important to prioritize the consonants you work on.

Before you devote months and possibly years trying to address all the consonant challenges for Spanish speakers of English, I suggest you get a pronunciation assessment from a professional teacher. An assessment will identify which consonants in particular are tricky for you, and which ones matter the most.

So what should a Spanish speaker do to improve their English pronunciation?

Step One: Get a Pronunciation Assessment
As suggested above, have a professional English pronunciation teacher who is familiar with intelligibility research conduct an assessment. This will ensure that have a realistic and achievable learning plan.

Step Two: Work on the “Music” of Your Spoken English
I recommend first working on the rhythm, or what I like to call the “music”, of American English. In addition to syllable stress and sentence stress, the “Music of English” includes pausing in logical places. If you pause more frequently, you will slow down your speech in a natural way and allow time to add stress to your English.

Step Three: Improve Your Pronunciation of High-Impact Consonants
Don’t work on consonants that have a low impact on your intelligibility. You have better things to do with your free time. See a movie. Grab a coffee. Watch the sunset. Have fun!

Are You Ready to Work on Your English Pronunciation?
Well Said Coaching offers all of the above: a pronunciation assessment, a course on the Music of English, and, for those who need it, additional lessons on individual vowel and consonant sounds.

Interested? Please check out our pronunciation services, and then schedule a free consultation. 

Don't Lose Your Accent. Lose the Confusion!
If you change the “music” of your English, you will be amazed at how much more easily people will understand you. The best part is that you don’t need to completely lose your beautiful Spanish accent, nor should you!

​As Argentine-American actor Fernando Lamas once said:

[1] Brown, Adam. Pronunciation Models. Singapore, Singapore University Press, National University of Singapore, 1991.

A good friend of mine is Japanese-American. Born in the United States to parents who emigrated from Japan, she is fluent in both English and Japanese. 

On the few occasions when I say a word in Japanese, I can see my friend cringing! Arigato, Kyoto, Tempura.  Her face says it all: my Japanese pronunciation is pretty awful.

​Why is that?

Because when I pronounce the few Japanese words I know, my brain is relying on the sounds and rhythms of my first language: English. Broca’s area—the part of our brain that is responsible for speech production—gets less flexible as we age. Unfortunately, for almost everyone, that flexibility starts to fade as early as around the age of 10.

As a result, it is natural for people, particularly adults, to use the sounds and rhythms of their first language to speak a second language. And for languages as different as Japanese and English, that creates many challenges.

Why is English Pronunciation Challenging for Japanese Speakers?
This chart illustrates just how different English and Japanese are.  The x and y axis represent different rhythmic features of a language. Without getting into the details, you can see that English and Japanese are on opposite ends of the spectrum. And that creates challenges.

The Rhythm of American English versus the Rhythm of Japanese
What is rhythm in language?

Rhythm is the timing patterns among syllables. A syllable is a word, or part of a word, with a vowel sound For example: Learn has 1 syllable because it has 1 vowel sound.  Learner has 2 syllables because it has 2 vowel sounds.

Different languages have different syllable, or rhythm patterns. English alternates between stressed syllables and unstressed syllables, and stressed words and unstressed words. For instance:  I want to improve my pronunciation of Japanese.

The words in bold are stressed. The other words are not. The underlined syllables are stressed. The other syllables are not. We call this contrastive stress. In English, contrastive stress is made up of volume, pitch and length.

Japanese does not use contrastive stress in the same way as English. Pitch is used, but each syllable (or, to be precise, each mora, which is the unit of rhythm in Japanese) is said with equal length. As a result, English vowels are often too short when pronounced by Japanese speakers.

This image shows the difference between a language that has a very even rhythm, such as Japanese, and a language with a lot of rhythmic variation, such as English.

​Vowel Challenges for Japanese Speakers of English
As described above, a major challenge for Japanese speakers when they pronounce English vowels is the rhythm, specifically the length.

In addition, just the sheer number of vowel sounds in English is challenging. Japanese has only five vowel sounds. American English has about 15 vowel sounds (depending on the regional accent.) That means that Japanese speakers of English need to work on distinguishing and producing many more vowel sounds. 

The good news is that there is some flexibility with English vowel sounds. After all, there are dozens and dozens of native English accents, and vowel pronunciation varies. As long as the pronunciation of English vowels is in a "range of recognizability" (i.e., close enough that the word can be deciphered by the listener) and the vowels are given enough length to make the stress clear, you can be understood fairly easily.

What about Consonants?
When it comes to English pronunciation, do consonants matter?

Yes, they do.

However, research shows that some consonant sounds impact the listener’s ability to understand you more than others[1].

Plus, for many adults, it is not even possible to change the pronunciation of individual sounds to any great degree. That is because of the above-mentioned Broca’s area.

So it’s extremely important to prioritize. Before you devote months and possibly years trying to address all the consonant challenges for Japanese speakers of English, I suggest getting a pronunciation assessment from a professional teacher. An assessment will identify which consonants in particular are tricky for you, and which ones matter the most.

Consonant Priorities for Japanese Speakers of English
Based on research of which consonant sounds have the biggest impact, I typically recommend the following consonants as a starting point for Japanese speakers of English.

• /l/ vs. /r/. Glamour is pronounced Grammar, or Arrive is pronounced Alive.
• /b/ vs/ v/.  Very is pronounced Berry.
• Articulation of final consonants: Japanese speakers often delete consonants that occur at the end of a word. Shine sounds like shy.
• Consonant clusters: Because Japanese has few consonant clusters, these may be broken up with a vowel sounds.  Ski sounds like Suhki.
• Extra final vowel sounds: Japanese speakers of English often add a vowel sound after a final consonant. Match sounds like Matchi.

Yes, there may be other consonant challenges, but it’s all about prioritizing. 

What Should a Japanese Speaker Do to Improve Their English Pronunciation?

Step One: Get a Pronunciation Assessment
As suggested above, have a professional pronunciation teacher who is familiar with intelligibility research conduct an assessment. This will ensure that have a realistic and achievable learning plan.

Step Two: Work on the “Music” of Your Spoken English
I suggest first working on the rhythm, or what I like to call the “music”, of American English. In addition to syllable stress and sentence stress, the “Music of English” includes pausing in logical places. If you pause more frequently, you will slow down your speech in a natural way and allow time to add stress to your English.

You will be amazed at how much more easily people will understand you if you change the “music” of your English. For many of my clients, who are busy professionals with not a lot of time, we can stop their pronunciation lessons here.

But sometimes, it is necessary to address consonant issues as well.

Step Three: Improve Your Pronunciation of High-Impact Consonants
Don’t work on consonants that are low-impact. You have better things to do with your free time!

Are You Ready to Work on Your English Pronunciation?
If you’re ready to improve your English pronunciation, Well Said Coaching offers all of the above: a pronunciation assessment, a course on the Music of English, and, for those who need it, additional lessons on individual vowel and consonant sounds.

If you’re interested to learn more, please check out our accent coaching and pronunciation services, and then schedule a free consultation.  

It’s true. Japanese and English pronunciation are very, very different. But with the right training and lots of practice, you can become a clear, confident English speaker. 

[1] Brown, Adam. Pronunciation Models. Singapore, Singapore University Press, National University of Singapore, 1991.
 

One of my clients was a wedding singer in Vietnam many years ago. She had a lovely singing voice. When she sang an old love song, “Yesterday Once More”, by The Carpenters to me, I understood all the words perfectly.

But when she spoke English,  she was quite challenging to understand.

Why?

The reason is clear, if you know why spoken English pronunciation is challenging for Vietnamese speakers.

Why is English Pronunciation Challenging for Vietnamese Speakers?
There are a number of reasons why Vietnamese speakers have difficulty with English pronunciation.

But let's start with the good news: the vowels of English are not that difficult for my Vietnamese students to pronounce. They are usually able to distinguish the different vowel sounds and pronounce them accurately or close enough to how they are pronounced in American English.

So that’s the good news. Here's the problem:

Vowels are not pronounced in isolation. Vowel sounds are the basis of syllables. And syllables, especially stressed syllables, are critical to the rhythm of English. If the vowel sound in a stressed syllable is not clear to your listener, you may be difficult to understand.

The Rhythm of American English versus the Rhythm of Vietnamese
What is rhythm in language?

As mentioned, a syllable is a word, or part of a word, with a vowel sound. Rhythm is the timing patterns among syllables.  For example: Tax has 1 syllable because it has 1 vowel sound.  Taxi has 2 syllables because it has 2 vowel sounds.

Different languages have different syllable patterns. Putting these patterns into distinct categories is not so simple, but in essence, there are two rhythms: syllable-timed and stress-timed.

• Syllable-timed rhythm: each syllable takes approximately the same amount of time to say.
• Stress-timed rhythm: some syllables are stressed by making them longer, and other syllables are not stressed. 

Vietnamese is a syllable-timed language. The syllables are spoken with equal length. For example, ba-na-na.

English is a stress-timed language. It alternates between stressed and unstressed syllables. Some syllables are longer. Some syllables are shorter. For instance, we stress the middle syllable in ba-nA-na by making it longer, louder, and at a higher pitch. We do not pronounce all three syllables with equal weight, as Vietnamese speakers  do. 

This image shows the difference between syllable-timed and stress-timed languages.

Are There Other Syllable Stress Challenges for Vietnamese Speakers of English?
Yes. When it comes to syllable stress, there are two additional challenges for Vietnamese speakers of English.

1. Syllable stress in long words: Vietnamese words typically have only one syllable. But English contains many words with multiple syllables. Some examples: drama (2 syllables), dramatic (3 syllables), and dramatically (4 syllables.) There are patterns for syllable stress, but there are also many exceptions. Therefore, knowing which syllable is stressed is something that must be learned.
2. Pitch: Vietnamese is a tonal language. If you change the pitch, you change the meaning of the word. Pitch in English functions differently. It doesn’t change the meaning of the word. It changes the speaker’s meaning. “Mom!” has a different pitch change (downward) than “Mom?” (upward). But both are referring to your mother. Since Vietnamese speakers use pitch differently than English speakers, intonation and even syllable stress can be challenging.

 
As you can see, when it comes to rhythm, Vietnamese and English are very different. So why was my client from Vietnam so much easier to understand when she sang English?
 
Singing English versus Speaking English
When you sing, especially a slow love song, the musical notes are often extended. And when notes are extended, it is almost always on the vowel sound. So vowel length is built into singing. And that length makes English easier to understand. 
 
Look at all the vowels in this snippet from “Yesterday Once More”:

Every sha-la-la-la
Every wo-o-wo-o still shines.
Every shing-a-ling-a-ling
That they're startin' to sing's so fine.

If my client had spoken these lines, she would have 1) given all the vowels equal length and 2) made each vowel very short.

But when she sang the vowels, she extended them. As a result, much of her accent melted away, and she sounded a lot like Karen Carpenter!  Just listen to all those long, gorgeous vowels ...

Consonants Matter, But Some More than Others
What about consonants? Aren't they important for clear English pronunciation?

Yes, they are. But research shows that some consonant sounds impact the listener’s ability to understand you more than others [1]. So it’s important to prioritize.

What’s more, changing individual sounds is an extremely time-consuming process. For many adults, it is not even possible. That is because Broca’s area—the part of our brain that is responsible for speech production—closes as we age. That closure starts as early as puberty.

So before you devote months and possibly years trying to address all the consonant challenges for Vietnamese speakers of English, I suggest you get a pronunciation assessment from a professional teacher. An assessment will identify which consonants are tricky for you, and which ones matter the most.

Based on research of which consonant sounds have the biggest impact, I usually recommend working on the following consonant challenges.

Consonant Priorities for Vietnamese Speakers of English

• Initial Position:  /p/ vs. /b/ (example: party is pronounced barty)
• Final Position:
  • Articulation: Vietnamese speakers often delete consonants that occur at the end of a word (example:  shine is pronounced shy)
  • Voiced vs. Unvoiced Consonants: Distinguishing voiced from voiceless final consonants (example: cap and cap are pronounced identically)
• Consonant clusters: Sometimes, Vietnamese speakers will delete one of the two consonants in a cluster.

So what should a Vietnamese speaker do to improve their English pronunciation?
Here are the steps I suggest:

Step One: Get a Pronunciation Assessment
Have a professional pronunciation teacher who is familiar with intelligibility research conduct an assessment. This will ensure that you have a realistic and achievable learning plan.

Step Two: Work on the “Music” of Your Spoken English
Work on the rhythm, or what I like to call the “music”, of American English.

In addition to syllable stress, the “Music of English” includes key word stress (emphasizing the most important word or words in a sentence) and pausing in logical places, which slows your speech down in a natural way.

You will be amazed at how much more easily people will understand you when you change the “music” of your English. For many of my clients, busy professionals with not a lot of time, we can stop their pronunciation lessons here. But sometimes, it is necessary to address consonant issues as well.

Step Three: Improve Your Pronunciation of High-Impact Consonants
Only work on consonants that have a high impact on your ability to be understood easily. Skip the low-impact consonants. You have better things to do with your free time!

Are You Ready to Work on Your English Pronunciation?
If you’re ready to improve your English pronunciation, Well Said Coaching offers all of the above: a pronunciation assessment, a course on the Music of English, and, for those who need it, additional lessons on consonants.

If you’re interested to learn more, please check out our Accent Coaching services, and then schedule a free consultation. 

We look forward to helping you improve your pronunciation so you can speak English as clearly as you can sing it!
 
[1] Brown, Adam. Pronunciation Models. Singapore, Singapore University Press, National University of Singapore, 1991.
 

That’s what one of my Korean clients told me after we worked on her English pronunciation. The stress she was talking about was syllable stress.

Why is syllable stress so important (and sometimes stressful!) for Korean speakers of English? Let’s explore ...

The Rhythm of American English versus the Rhythm of Korean

What is rhythm in language?

Rhythm is the timing patterns among syllables. ​A syllable is a word, or part of a word, with a vowel sound.  For example: Pass has 1 syllable because it has 1 vowel sound.  Password has 2 syllables. 

Different languages have different syllable patterns. Putting these patterns into exact categories is not so simple, but in essence, there are two rhythms: syllable-timed and stress-timed.

• Syllable-timed rhythm: each syllable takes approximately the same amount of time to pronounce.
• Stress-timed rhythm: some syllables are stressed by making them longer, and other syllables are not stressed. 

Korean is a syllable-timed language. The syllables are spoken with equal length. For example, the word "banana" is pronounced with equal stress: ba-na-na.

In contrast, English is a stress-timed language. English alternates between stressed and unstressed syllables. Some syllables are longer. Some syllables are shorter. In the word "banana", the middle syllable is stressed: ba-nA-na. We do not say all three syllables equally, as Korean speakers tend to do.
 
Here’s a simple illustration that I show my Korean-speaking clients to make the difference clear:

As you can see, Korean and English have very different rhythms. If you use the rhythm of one language to speak the other, that contributes to your accent. In other words, accents are not exclusively due to the pronunciation of individual sounds (vowels and consonants.) Rhythm plays an equally important part.
 
If you do not stress a syllable, or if you stress the wrong syllable, your English becomes difficult to understand. This can leave your listener frustrated, which is clearly not your goal.
 
An example: You are making a presentation, and you say ...

Our sales increased drAm-a-tic-ly

Your audience may be confused. Why? The word should be pronounced dra-mA-tic-ly.
 
Please remember, it goes both ways. Americans who learn Korean as adults will want to use the stress-based rhythm of their native tongue. And this impacts how hard their listeners have to work to make sense of the Korean that they are hearing when spoken by an American.
 
On a recent trip to Korea, I tried to learn a few phrases. As an American English speaker, it’s very hard for me to say kamsahamnida (thank you) without stressing a least one or two of the syllables. Even a simple word like umma (mom) is a challenge for me: I desperately want to say Um-a, like the actress Uma Thurman, who is definitely not my umma!

What about the individual sounds? Aren’t they important to clear English?
It’s true. There are several individual sounds in English that are challenging for Korean speakers: the L, R, Q and W, for example.

In addition, sometimes Korean speakers of English will insert an extra syllable at the end of words (bus is pronounced bus-u) or between consonant clusters (skirt is pronounced suh-kirt.)

These pronunciation errors do affect your intelligibility (your listener’s ability to understand you easily), but not as much as you might think. With context, I will have no trouble understanding whether you are talking about the importance of human rights or human lights. Probably, you mean the first one – human rights!

What’s more, changing individual sounds is an extremely time-consuming process. Most of my clients are busy, working professionals. They have jobs and families and very little time for the repetitive practice needed to change individual sounds in their spontaneous speech. In fact, many of my clients are relieved to learn that they don’t have to completely change how they are pronouncing individual English sounds.  I mean, who has the time!?

So what should a busy professional do to improve their American English pronunciation?
I suggest working on the rhythm, or what I like to call the “music”, of American English. In addition to syllables stress, the “Music of English” includes key word stress (the most important word or words in a sentence) and pausing in logical places.

To be clear, my clients from Korea speak English at a high-intermediate to advanced level. I am not talking about lower-level English learners. Vowel and consonant pronunciation is critically important to speaking English clearly.

But for higher-level English speakers with limited time, try improving the “music” of your English. This will provide you with the best and fastest path to speaking English more clearly and confidently.

Are You Ready to Work on the Music of English?
“The Music of English” is one of Well Said Coaching's most popular packages. In just a short amount of time -- typically five to eight lessons -- we teach you the essential elements of this music. Plus, you receive plenty of practice.

If you’re interested to learn more, please check out our pronunciation lessons, and then schedule a free consultation. 

We look forward to helping you improve your English dra-mA-tic-ly.

“My vowels and consonants are not correct.”

I hear this frequently during my consultations with native Mandarin and Cantonese speakers who want to improve their English pronunciation. These are advanced English speakers who use the language comfortably at work and in their communities.

The truth is, more often than not, their pronunciation of individual sounds (vowels and consonants) is generally correct. 

What’s not correct is the overall rhythm of their English. And rhythm impacts the pronunciation of individual sounds. So that’s why I said “generally” correct.

Chinese speakers who use the rhythm of their native language when they speak English can be either difficult to understand or sound choppy. And choppy English means your listeners have to work harder to comprehend your speech, since it is not the language’s natural “music”.

Once your listeners have to work harder to understand you, they can get tired, frustrated, or easily distracted. If you are trying to influence or persuade people at work, which many of my clients are, that can be a problem.

The Rhythm of American English versus the Rhythm of Chinese
What is rhythm in language?

Rhythm is the timing patterns among syllables. A syllable is a word, or part of a word with a vowel sound. For example: “Pot” has 1 syllable because it has 1 vowel sound.  “Potato” has 3 syllables.  

Different languages have different syllable patterns. There are two common patterns: stress-timed and syllable-timed.

• Stress-timed rhythm: some syllables are stressed by making them longer, louder and at a different pitch and other syllables are not stressed. 
• Syllable-timed rhythm: each syllable takes approximately the same amount of time to say.

​English is a stress-timed language. It alternates between stressed and unstressed syllables. For instance, we stress the middle syllable in po-tA-to. We do not say all three syllables equally: po-ta-to.
 
In contrast, Chinese is a syllable-timed language. The syllables may have different tones, but they are essentially all pronounced with the same length and volume.
 
Here’s a simple illustration that I show my Chinese-speaking clients to make the difference clear:

As you can see, the two languages have very different rhythms. If you use the rhythm of one language to speak the other, that contributes to your accent. In other words, your accent is not based only on how you pronounce individual sounds. Your accent is also based on the rhythm of your English.
 
Remember, it goes both ways. Americans who learn Mandarin or Cantonese as adults will want to use the stress-based rhythm of their native tongue. Plus, they will likely have challenges with the tones. Both of these impact how hard their listeners have to work to make sense of their Chinese speech.

What is the Number One Thing Chinese Speakers Can Do to Improve their American English Pronunciation?
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Work on the rhythm, or what I like to call the “music”, of English.

To repeat, my clients speak English at an advanced level. I am not referring to lower-level English learners. Clear vowel and consonant pronunciation is critically important to speaking English clearly.

But at advanced levels the challenges I hear most are with rhythm, not sounds.

Rhythm not only includes syllable stress, but also which key words you emphasize in a sentence. In the illustration above, "pronunciation" and "important" are the key words in the sentence. I have found that key word stress is more intuitive for my Chinese-speaking clients than syllable stress. If you know the language well, you can feel which words are the most important. But syllable stress is more challenging.

Last but not least, there are pauses. Looking again at the illustration, do you see that break between the words “Pronunciation / is important.”? That break represents a small pause. English is full of pauses. They are a natural and essential part of the "music". Sometimes my Chinese-speaking clients do not pause enough and speak too quickly. This is especially true when they speak to groups and the nerves kick in!

Are You Ready to Work on the Music of English?
Many of my clients are relieved that they don’t have to completely modify how they are pronouncing individual English sounds. Changing individual sounds is extremely hard. Because of the repetition required, it's really time-consuming and can be a bit boring. What's more change is simply not possible for many of us. By the time we are adults, the way we make vowel and consonant sounds is too hard-wired in our brains and in our mouths.
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That's why “The Music of Spoken English” is one of our most popular pronunciation/accent clarity packages. In just a short amount of time, we teach you the essential elements of this music, and provide you practice both between lessons and after the package.

If you’re interested to learn more, please read about our pronunciation services, and then schedule a free consultation. 

I look forward to meeting you / and helping you achieve clear / confident English!

Let’s look at more ways to sound more like a native English speaker.

Recall from Part One of this post that none of our recommendations involve losing your accent. As discussed previously, accent elimination or even marked reduction is virtually impossible for most adults (learn why).

But sounding more like a native English speaker? Yes you can!

In Part One, we focused on understanding idioms and what you say in your conversation (the content).

Here, in Part Two, we will look at key aspects of your speaking skills, including vocabulary and grammar.

Please note:  In this post, I use examples from American English. Remember, the U.S. is a big place! So not all of my examples apply to different regions in America, and certainly not to the English spoken in other countries.

1. Use contractions
Native English speakers in the U.S. typically use contractions when they speak.

• “I’ll see you soon.” (not “I will see you soon.”)
• “I can’t believe it.” (not “I cannot believe it.”)
• “I’m hungry.” (not “I am hungry.”)

If a native speaker doesn’t use a contraction, it’s usually for extra emphasis or clarification. For example, if you say, “I’m hungry” and your listener says, “You’re not hungry?”, you'll respond:  “No, I am hungry.”

Some of my clients have difficulty pronouncing certain contractions, such as I’ll. That’s ok. Don’t use it. Just say I will.  But, wherever possible, use contractions to sound less formal and more local.

2. Use phrasal verbs
Another way to sound less formal and more local is to use phrasal verbs.

A phrasal verb is a verb made up of 2 or more words. There, I just used one: “made up” (meaning comprised.)

Because phrasal verbs are more informal, English speakers tend to use them frequently in their everyday speech. Some examples:

• Say: “prices are going up” instead of “prices are increasing”
• Say: “my Amazon package never showed up” instead of “my Amazon package never arrived”
• Say: “the plane took off on time” instead of “the plane departed on time”

Just like idioms, there are thousands of phrasal verbs. You don’t need to learn every one; just the most common ones used in your target English.

3. Use the local vocabulary
What’s one of the top tourist phrases in any language?

That’s right.  “Where’s the bathroom?”

But should you say “restroom”, “loo”, “WC”? It all depends on the country, or region, or even city. One of the easiest ways to sound like a native speaker is to simply use the local vocabulary.

Here's an example: I am originally from New York. I call soft drinks, such as Coca-Cola, “soda”. One of my college roommates from Illinois (in the Midwest) called them “pop”. My other college roommate from Kentucky (in the South) called any soda “Coke”.

Confusing, right?

But that’s why it’s so important to interact with native speakers, as we suggested in Part One. It’s a surefire way to learn the local lingo.

4. Use the local pronunciation
English pronunciation also varies by location. I am not referring to the accent, but things like singular versus plural, silent letters, or syllable stress. For example:

• Math. Americans say math. The British say maths.
• Herb. Americans don’t pronounce the “h” (it sounds like “erb”.) The British say herb (with the “h”.)
• Innovative. Americans say “Innovative” (the stress is on the first syllable). The British say innOvative. (the stress is on the second syllable.)

There is no right or wrong pronunciation. Again, there is just the preferred way in that region. As with vocabulary, listen to and copy how the locals say it.  

5. Grammar
Another key to sounding like a native English speaker is to use the grammar typically used in the area. For instance:

1. Conditionals: “If it rains, I will go to a movie” (not “If it will rain, I will go to a movie.”)
2. Singular versus plural nouns:  “information” (not “informations”)
3. Articles: “When does the movie start?”, not “When does movie start?”

The grammar of our first language is deeply embedded in our brains. So even advanced English learners, who score 100% on written grammar tests, can make these minor mistakes when they speak.

The good news is that these types of grammar errors don’t typically interfere with your listener’s ability to understand you. But it is a sign that English is probably not your first language.

So if your goal is to sound like a native English speaker, you’ll want to try to eliminate as many of these small mistakes as you can. There is no magic pill: improvement takes dedicated time and practice.

We’re here to help!
If your accent is making it difficult for people to understand you, Well Said Coaching can help you gain clarity and confidence in your spoken English. If you’re not sure about your intelligibility, schedule a free consultation with us. We’ll let you know.

But if you’re already easy to understand, then we hope you will embrace your beautiful accent. Instead, try some of the other approaches we suggested to sounding more like a native English speaker.

Cheerio. Later. See ya. Bye for now.   [How do they "goodbye" where you live?]

When people meet me for a consultation, they often start out by telling me: “I want to sound like a native English speaker.”  That’s a great goal, I say.

Next, they mention their solution: “So I need to lose my accent.”

Here’s the challenge with that solution: losing your accent is virtually impossible for the vast majority of adults (learn why.)
 
Because accents are so resistant to change, Well Said Coaching focuses instead on intelligibility: how easily other people can understand you. If your accent prevents people from understanding you easily, then it makes sense to work on it.

However, once you have achieved intelligibility, sounding like a native speaker can be more easily accomplished in other ways than by losing or even reducing your accent.

If you want to sound like a native English speaker without losing your accent, here are our top tips. Part One of this post covers the first five tips. Part Two covers the next five tips.

10 Tips for Sounding More Like a Native English Speaker
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1. Choose which native English speakers you want to sound like.
English is the official or most commonly used language in dozens and dozens of countries. That means there is a vast number of different English dialects and accents.
 
So which English are you aiming for? Is it the English used 

• where you currently live?
• where you plan to live?
• by co-workers, colleagues, or clients?

 
If you identify which native English speakers you want to sound like then the following tips will give you better and faster results.
 
2. Understand Idioms.
Idioms are sayings or expressions that can’t be guessed from the actual words in the phrase. In other words, idioms are not literal.

For example, “It’s raining cats and dogs” means it’s raining a lot, not that animals are falling from the sky!

So why do I suggest understanding idioms, but not using them in your own speech?

Two reasons:
a. Because idioms are not literal, they are difficult to memorize. In the middle of a conversation, it’s hard to remember exactly which animals are falling from the sky. So you might pick the wrong animals and say: “It’s raining rats and hogs”. Whoops! 

No one will notice if you don’t use an idiom. But they will notice if you use it incorrectly. So keep it simple. Just say: “Wow! It’s really raining hard.”

b. On the other hand, understanding common idioms is essential for listening comprehension. As in any language, native speakers use lots of idioms in their speech. Some examples:

• Wow, that test was a piece of cake.
• You really hit it out of the park.
• That sushi was delicious! I wolfed it down.

 
To respond appropriately, it’s important that you understand that “a piece of cake” means easy, “hit it out of the park” means you did a great job and “wolfed it down” means you ate it really fast.
 
There are thousands and thousands of idioms. They vary by region and change all the time. So you don’t have to familiarize yourself with every single idiom; just the most common ones for your target English.
 
3. Get comfortable with small talk
Sometimes my clients tell me: “I hate small talk! What’s the point?”

Small talk, with its focus on unimportant or trivial topics, may seem pointless. But this kind of informal conversation serves an important purpose. It builds connections and relationships between people. And creating rapport was one of the main goals of losing your accent, right? 
 
So in a place where small talk is customary, try to get comfortable with it, if you are not already. There are many good blogs, YouTube videos and books devoted solely to improving your small talk skills.

4. Talk about the local scene  
There are two main reasons why some of my clients struggle with small talk.

a. They run out of topics quickly.
One of the best ways to keep a conversation going is to become familiar with the local scene. By "local scene" I mean the food, the pop culture, the sports teams, common getaway destinations, etc. You don’t have to actually enjoy any of these. You just have to know just enough about them to be able to make a bit of small talk.
 
For example, you have no interest in American football? That’s ok. I don’t either! But if the local football team is in the playoffs, that’s helpful to know.  If your conversation partner brings up the team, you’ll at least be able to acknowledge their successful season.
 
b. They put too much pressure on themselves to do the talking.
My favorite piece of advice about small talk is to ask questions. People love talking about themselves or their interests. Going back to the football example, there are lots of potential small talk questions: “How long have you been a fan?” “Did you ever play football yourself?” “Do you go to the games?, etc.
 
If you express curiosity and ask questions, then you don't have to do most of the talking. But you’ll still be building rapport. It's a win-win!
 
5. Talk to native speakers
If you are new to your English-speaking environs, or your English level is still not quite advanced, it’s tempting to continue studying English in classes or events specifically for ESL learners. I completely understand why.
 
But try to branch out. In order to speak like a native, you have to hear the language spoken. Yes -- TV, movies, and YouTube are all helpful. But you don’t have conversations with video. You have conversations with people.
 
So seek out opportunities to mix with native speakers. Focus on events and interactions that don’t rely on advanced language skills. Do you like the outdoors? Join a local hiking group. How about cooking? Sign up for a class. Want to help a native speaker learn your language? Join a language exchange group.
 
Feeling nervous? Ask a friend or family member to join you. Just make sure you agree to talk to other people!
 
Choose your English. Understand idioms. Chat with native speakers. These are a great place to start if you want to sound more like a native English speaker without losing your accent.

In Part Two we’ll look at five more tips. These will focus on your speaking skills, including vocabulary and grammar.

“I want to change my accent. Like actors do.”

I hear this frequently during my consultations with prospective clients. These are non-native English speakers who would like to speak with an American English accent. They tell me that they know actors learn specific accents for different roles. So, losing your accent and speaking with another one must be doable.

Right?

Let’s talk about actors and accents. I used to be an actor, many moons ago. So I can speak from a bit of experience. Here are three key points:

1. Accents within your native language are the easiest to learn.
If you are an American actor and you need to speak English with, say, a British or Australian accent, it’s typically not as difficult as having to speak with an accent from a foreign language. Many (not all) of the native English accents spoken around the world have lots in common already – particularly the overall “music” (the phrasing and stress.) You have to make some changes, of course, especially to the vowel sounds. But generally speaking, swapping one English accent for another is the easiest scenario for native English speaking actors.
 
Even in this case, not all actors are successful. I recently attended a play where an excellent actor from the UK was trying to use a New York accent. Unfortunately, she kept slipping back into a British accent. So it happens, even to the best of us.
 
The relative ease of speaking with different accents in your own first language is not unique to English. One of my clients from Spain was able to imitate accents from around the Spanish-speaking world:  Spain, Mexico, Latin and South America. It was a tour de force! But he couldn’t imitate my American accent – which is perfectly understandable.
 
2. How many native English-speaking actors do you hear doing foreign accents?
In contrast, there are relatively few very actors who are able to convincingly master a foreign accent for a role. American actor Meryl Street and Australian actor Cate Blanchett come to mind. But they are the exceptions, not the rule. And even those who are exceptionally gifted at accents may have help, lots of it, from #3 … 

3. Actors have the benefit of prepared language and dialect coaches.
Unless you are an improvisational actor, you deliver memorized lines from a script. Prepared language provides three enormous advantages over impromptu speech.

1. You can mark up your lines in advance with the features of an accent (deleting the “g” from deletin', for example.)
2. You will likely work with a dialect coach – a professional speech coach paid to help actors master an accent.
3. You will practice those lines repeatedly until you can speak them in a way that sounds natural and spontaneous. And I do mean over and over and over again:  40, 50, 100 times. Whatever it takes. Because that’s an actor’s job. 

But … you might say … I heard this actor in an interview, and they were using the accent they learned for a role in their impromptu speech. How did they do that?

Well, not all actors can retain an accent without the benefit of prepared lines. But for those that can, remember, they have probably immersed themselves in that accent for months and practiced their little hearts out. And that level of intensity can carry over from scripted to impromptu speech. Believe it or not, I can still do a pretty good Cockney accent from a play I was in decades ago.

So, back to the question: If actors can change their accents, I can too. Right? 

Hopefully, the answer is now clear.

• Not all actors can speak with another accent.
• For those who can, accents within their first-language are easier to achieve.
• For those who can master foreign accents, they are helped by having: 1) a script; 2) a dialect coach; 3) an exceptional gift for accents and 4) time for hours and hours of practice.

The last point is key. It can take years (no joke) of tedious daily practice to try to acquire an American accent in your impromptu speech, if it is even possible. That’s why I always ask prospective clients in my consultations: “Why do you want to lose your accent?” That helps me steer them toward an achievable goal – one that, yes, requires practice, but won’t take years.

After all, the old saying “time is precious” is oh-so-true, no matter what accent you say it in!