Why You Have a Foreign Accent in a New Language [Part 2]

For those who haven’t read part 1 of this blog series about why foreign accents exist, I would recommend you to do so first. Now, I have still not answered a lot of deeply fascinating questions (of course not, why would you read this article if I had?). Let’s make it easy: I will make each of the questions a subtitle and answer one by one! Let’s get ready to ruuuumbleeeee!

Why are people often inept to imitate the exact pronunciation of native speakers?

Once upon a time, we were all cute little babies. Our language consisted of “Gugu”, “Gaga”, shouting, and crying. Then, between the age of nine to 18 months, something magical happens. A baby says its first real word. Do you remember your first proper word? Mine was my legendary nickname: “Pepi.” Oh, what an egocentric little brat I was, choosing my name as my first name, wasn’t I? Anyway, let’s get back to the topic!

Babies are a lot more sensitive than adults to sounds around them. They learn to speak by repeating and imitating what they hear. This is the reason why your genes do not matter at all. Take me as the best example. My parents are Balkanites to the core and you hear that when they speak German. Shouldn’t I talk German with a Serbian accent then (as Serbian was my first language). Well, no. I speak all of my foreign languages with a slight German accent. Interestingly, my German accent is the least salient when I converse in Serbian, but native speakers of Serbo-Croatian will notice my foreign roots anyway after a while.

What happened in my case? I was still very young when I learned German (I was three) and had extensive contact with this tongue in kindergarten. This converted German into my core mother tongue, pushing Serbian to the second place.

While you learn your first language, even before birth, you learn to pronounce all of the sounds required to speak this language. This means, on the other hand, that you don’t acquire the skills to pronounce any letters that don’t exist in this language. Now, while Germans from the northern parts have a hard time to roll the “r”, Balkanites or the Spanish cannot pronounce the German “ü”, and the Japanese can neither distinguish nor pronounce the “l”- or “r”-sound correctly.

What is the reason foreign accents sound so wrong or funny to us?

Well, this is a question all of you already know the answer to. At least you feel it unconsciously. As we are conditioned to a particular accent and intonation of words, we gradually get used to it. We hear it day in day out. We are surrounded by people who speak in a very similar manner that we use to do.

Now, what happens when you hear somebody talking your language and accenting words differently? It sounds funny to us. Unfamiliar. The person is a stranger to us. At least we feel a sort of strange feeling of unfamiliarity. Why?

One theory suggests that this has to do with how our ancestors lived. In ancient times, groups of humans or “tribes” lived together in small and isolated societies. The contact with “strangers” or neighboring human communities happened only, if ever, seldom. Those “others” spoke differently: they had foreign accents. Recognizing these subtle or apparent differences in speech helped us to identify potential enemies!

Thus, we are speaking about a crucial self-defense mechanism. One that has not ceased to exist yet! Or else how would you identify supporters of your favorite football club rival? All jokes aside, there really is no reason anymore to feel threatened by “strangers'” foreign accents. Therefore, feel free to have a nice laugh about it with him or her instead and cherish the existing linguistic varieties!

What factors do foreign accents depend on?

Well, we all know that it depends on where you come from. But, what else is decisive for your accent? Have you ever heard, e.g., that the French speak nasally? Our about the common perception that the Asians speak in a high pitch?

These differences in accents also come from the differing physical factors amongst different ethnicities. Members of distinct ethnic groups have differently formed noses, throats, mouths, and chests. This explains why East Asian people tend to speak in a higher pitch as they have thinner noses, smaller mouths, and tighter chests.

Finally, accents might be heavily influenced by the way you look, but they are also prone to changes as we interact with other people. Germany is a splendid example of this due to its central position in Europe and the intense interaction with manifold different peoples. As a result, the German-speaking area is estimated to contain an astonishing 250 different dialects/ accents!

What are the mechanisms in your brain when trying to utter a word in a new language?

I have written a little bit about this topic in my first post about accents. What remained unanswered was the reason why people speaking a new language often pronounce its words in an unusual way.

Some sharp listeners (as I am, of course) notice, say, that as flawlessly as Dutch people might speak English, they still have a Dutch accent. A Dutch will pronounce the “u” in “product”, “lunch”, or even in “Dutch” not like an English native speaker but rather like the “ü” sound in German. Why does this happen, even though Dutch would also contain the correct English u-sound for those words?

As I told you before, our native language(s) heavily determine(s) the set of sounds we are able to produce. Other languages often possess letters that might look the same as in your first language but are pronounced differently. Our brain then chooses the most similar sound that you can vocalize and approximates the sound in question as best as possible. Take a German man and the word “very” or “video.” He is prone to pronounce the “v” in the beginning as a “w.” The reason is that the “v” sound does not exist in the German language. This also happened to me until my English teacher scolded me.

On the other hand, the sounds often do exist (see the Dutch example). So, is our brain, in this case, failing to do its job? Yes and no. It seems like our brain loves to take the shortcut in these cases and pronounce certain combinations of letters, especially in similar words, in an accustomed way. This is a nice site about this happening for Dutch speakers. Another example are words that end in a “d”, which the Dutch would always pronounce as a hard “t.” This is why foreign accents arise!

How Can We Get Rid of Our Foreign Accents?

Now, you know what causes your accent. But, how can you get rid of your foreign accent and sound like a genuine native speaker? Is this even possible, given the influence our mother tongue has on our pronunciation? Of course, it is! And I will show you how you can adapt a true British or American accent or how you can make people think you come from Madrid. I plan to do an extensive post or again a short series about this highly captivating topic! So, stay tuned!

Why You Have a Foreign Accent in a New Language (Part 2) – The Advent of a Different Blog

In this blog, you will discover a bunch of proven tips on how to crack the language-learning game! Just give me a bit of time. I am convinced that you now have a better understanding of your accent and why it exists. I will also show you how to make it disappear easily. Be on the lookout!

There will be a loooooot more articles coming! 

Are you asking yourself: “Who is this guy whose words I am reading right now?” You will find some information about me here.