How to Sound Natural in Your Target Language

[@-.Germanicus.-]

As someone who's an american in germany, the best way is full immersion. Turn your favorite games/movies into your wished language. Listen to music in that language and sing to it! Don't be dramatic about it. people really do love it when you try to speak their native tongue.

[@AVKnecht]

This can have it's downside. An Indian friend of mine did his masters in Franconia and learned German here. He then went on to Hannover were people have a hard time understanding him because he speaks with a thick Franconian accent🤣

[@-.Germanicus.-]

@AVKnecht I'm in franconia too 😆 but it's not that hard of an accent. He'll be fine

[@EpherosAldor]

From an American here, something to also consider in trying to sound natural is mimicry or impressions. We all made fun of Madonna when she spent time in England and decided she had an English accent, but this is actually rather good practice for getting your bearings to sound natural. Find an actor or celebrity or other personality (like a KZbinr) in your target language and start doing impressions of them. Watch interviews or programs in which they speak a lot. You'll start picking up the vocal influences and begin getting a knack for the rhythm and delivery of the target language. If you aren't paying attention to your own growth in a foreign language and just think you're fine, you end up sounding like those thick, nearly incomprehensible Indian accents we deal with in English and making it difficult for natives of your target language to understand you. It may feel like you're trying to act and that you'll "get caught" faking it but you can really start to dial in how you perceive language and actually relaxing into the language's natural efficiencies of pronunciation and delivery.

[@lolajl]

I found this very interesting. I had an interesting experience years ago, when my husband and I signed up for a Russian class at my parish. The retired teacher was a native Russian speaker, an emigre of aristocratic origin, I think. I was born deaf, and I have only 10% hearing without my hearing aids. I had to have extensive speech therapy as a child, so I have that deaf voice and I have a definite accent even though I'm a native English speaker. Sometimes I even mispronounce words; for instance my husband couldn't understand the way I was saying "Bud" because I was using the wrong sound for "u". But, when I said basic Russian words and phrases in classes, she went on and on about how I had perfect accent. Yes, I do sound like a Russian speaking English and I can often "recognize" myself when I hear Russian people speaking English. Sometimes one accidentally sounds natural right off the bat. No, I didn't continue with the class. Life intervened and I've never been able to find someone to teach me Russian and practice with. But it was still an interesting experience.

[@brawndothethirstmutilator9848]

I like this story 😂. Thanks for sharing.

[@roytaylor2161]

Your English sounds really natural. It's your hands that give you away!

[@valerietaylor9615]

Absolutely!

[@JerryEboy69]

I hear seldom a hint of Italian, and so far, it might be 10% of his intonation (when speaking English). Amazingly natural

[@DensityDennis]

I had major issues with the Th consonant in words like: the, through, North Korea, think, etc. What I did is I went on a practice streak, that whenever I was out and about, I'd practice the word through, by dismantling it into two phonetics. So, I'd go like: the-rough, the-rough, very slowly to let my mouth adjust to the sound it's supposed to make. Then I gradually sped it up until I felt comfortable enough to practice using it in a sentence. Now I never substitute the th for a D anymore. I'm Dutch and native Brits and Americans think I am American when I speak English. I'm a happy man 😂

[@danielantony1882]

Well, i learned American English so "the" is much more likely to be pronounced as "de".

[@evilmindmula2373]

Dude it’s amazing how well you understand English, let alone all the other languages you know

[@thegreekguy1124]

You've promised us too many dedicated videos by now Metatron

[@nvdawahyaify]

Thank you for this video. In Ireland the "th" that is pronounced like a "t" ist not the same as the normal pronunciation of "t". The "t" is an alveolar stop. The "th" is a dental stop. Its a distinction that is hard to hear if one is not used to it. But it is easy for people born and raised around it.

[@Octa9on]

thanks for this detail. I knew that Irish people pronounced "th" as a stop consonant, but I had no idea it was a dental stop. very cool

[@nvdawahyaify]

@@Octa9on you are very welcome.

[@silverkitty2503]

Just to say some do some dont... @@Octa9on

[@Octa9on]

@@silverkitty2503 good to know, thanks

[@Likexner]

But the way you say "three" sounds exactly like the way an English person says "tree".

[@gugusalpha2411]

I'm french and it took me years to realize the English /ɪ/ (i) sound. No English teachers ever taught us that. I feel like I can be understood a lot easier now, but I still tend to overcompensate. For example I often find myself puting /θ/ (th) instead of /s/. It makes me sound like I have a lisp...

[@Alex-cs6en]

One thing, overcompensation, I think, is actually a good thing for starters. If you overcompensate, then you exercise the muscles needed for speaking correctly in a ‘too much’ way, but then, when speaking correctly, you do it with such an ease compared to the previous ’too much’ way, that it becomes the most natural way possible. It’s only my theory, but seeing my bf exaggerating German words all the time just to have fun with me, he now has such a good accent and I’m way behind him 🤔

[@neo4436]

I'm really loving these daily uploads, thank you :)

[@pierreabbat6157]

A week ago I heard a hypercorrection (overcompensation). A Brazilian was talking in Spanish at a joint church meeting and said "coración". The Portuguese word is "coração", and many Portuguese words in "-ação" correspond to Spanish words in "-ación". But this word in Spanish is "corazón".

[@simoklownz2267]

After learning spanish and english i recently moved to Bali and is so refreshing to have a language to learn that has very little difference in phonetics to italian even if so different...

[@rosacuore15]

Me neither, I don’t sound like a native when I speak English even if I’m living in the United States for eighteen years now. I agree with you about school in Romance languages countries, as well as regarding the overcompensation. Personally, I prefer to pronounce the words correctly as possible, because I want people to understand what I am saying, and use proper spelling, structure to convey my message to others. Thank you for the suggestions 🙂

[@jake-qn3tl]

The sad truth is that to a native English speaker, people who speak English as a second or third language will never sound like native speakers.

[@qbasic16]

I may be a noble one, but you are certainly the noblest one.

[@jameshumphreys9715]

There was a sitcom called mind your language, which was set in a classroom, there is an Italian character called Giovanni, it be great if you did a reaction to it. I would go for the home countries, Leicestershire and Northamptonshire area as I'm sure they aren't strong accent like Geordie or West Country, and this were PR orginated from, avoid accents from the North and West of UK area and a pick one from South or East UK.

[@inaleyen2737]

Excellent video.

[@corinna007]

I started learning Finnish eight years ago because of music. In those eight years, I've only spent about a month total in Finland itself, and I only started using italki to work on my conversational skills about two years ago. I know I have an accent, but surprisingly my tutors have told me that it isn't as strong as it sounds in my head, and one of them specifically said she thinks it's because I listen and sing along to a lot of Finnish music, which helped me with pronunciation. So it seems my foreign accent is probably stronger when I speak German.

[@barbarabaker1457]

This may also be useful in crossing accents in your own language. Example James marsters the actor on bucket of vampire Slayer and angel played someone with a British accent. Now he was tutored by Anthony Stewart head and overtime he got better but I've seen many reactors that are from England left because they're like noticing that his accent bounces all over the place. Even if most people didn't notice. In the end, he settled into Anthony Stewart's head's natural accent, which is very different from the one he uses on the show because Anthony's trying to sound pompous.

[@stezstezic4450]

Loved the dramatic pause before ‘in’ at the very end of your opening sentence. I do suspect, however, that you slipped an ‘in’ into the construct earlier on thus rendering redundant your final preposition.

[@Tony32]

You Italian accent seem to come and go 🤣 The first time I watched one of your videos (on your main channel) I didn't noticed any accent, until you said "focus" I was like, wait a minute, this guy's not native? 🤣

[@crnel]

7:59 - When the Cockneys and maybe other Brits drop their "h's" - I notice that they're replaced by a glottal stop/start - i.e. not "have" but " 'ave " - with a harsh break-in to the "a" sound of 'ave. That also happens with "t's" in the middle and end of words - Bottle = "Bo ' ' le".

[@zachariahjonahmaldonado5897]

Apparently I spoke Spanish with an Argentine accent. But I don't even speak English with a natural accent (depending on who you ask I'm either from Boston, New York, or some weird European dialect).

[@masontillman6856]

I found this very helpful, thank you 😀

[@yana_1547]

Great video again. I think that overcompensation may be inevitable and even useful while you are learning, but it's surely better not to stay there in the long run. I've come across such case, and I guess that was the person's choice, but it sounded really weird and even embarrassing to me. It feels much better when a person speaks with some of their native accent, it has its own charm. :)

[@nazarnovitsky9868]

Thank You so much for filming the video on this topic ! 😊

[@AD.DOMINVM.ROMANVM]

i am Bosnian and one of the languages i learn is Russian and i dont worry about accent that much bc both are slavic languages, it kinde goes for other languages i interacted and who are simmilar with like Hungarian,Polish,Bulgarian but with some other languages i interacted like German,Greek,Italian,Romanian etc accent is noticeble.

[@LouisMcK]

Make sure to capitalise ' I '

[@AD.DOMINVM.ROMANVM]

@@LouisMcK Yeah i forgot thanks for a remeinder

[@justaguy9224]

As a Hungarian, I am pretty astonished how similar Serbo-Croatian phonology is to Hungarian

[@barbarabaker1457]

8:33 🎶 "… In Hartford, Hereford, and Hampshire...? … Hurricanes hardly happen."

[@holycameltoe124]

you really do sound natural. you speak english so much better then most of my fellow dutchmen who renown themselves for being able to speak many languages. you're an amazing teacher pointing out the less obvious differences and some great tips towards nuances in spoken english. I recently tried learning dutch though duolingo and being a native dutch this really opened my eye's towards how difficult it actually is to learn a language. I'm familiar with all the different accents in dutch (and being a small country we do have plenty). also the way of speaking being taught is very traditional and would sound completely weird to a native dutch person. its mostly grammar but a language is a living thing that changes over time, so when you learn a language, you're learning a language spoken in a historical context. dutch proves this in many ways, because 100 years ago we didn't have many grammer rules, but the sentences were much more lengthy and more descriptive, now we have so many rules but sentences are short and more vague yet pretty accurate in what you want to communicate. I do like to read my children older children books and I often chuckle at the grammatical mistakes, though at the time it was perfectly acceptable, but its a much more descriptive language allowing you to direct your imagination much better and the grammer really doesn't matter when conveying the message. we dutch have chosen practicality over descriptiveness and it may result in a more effective way of communicating (though not always) but our language has become less beautiful, because I always do fall in love with the language when I read the dutch translation of the Illiad and I don't really like the modern translations. so I guess my point being; if you really want to lean a language, learn the basics (vocabulary) through books, and programs but always immerse yourself in the current language, watch tv shows, listen to talk radio, be around the language that is spoken right now and not learn through a lesson that's based in the language of 10 years ago. tbf I can hardly understand todays youth, they all use slang combined from dutch and immigrants languages.

[@sphtpfhorbrains3592]

You need to learn when to use capitalisation.

[@Avram_Orozco]

@@sphtpfhorbrains3592no op doesn't this a KZbin comment not an English test

[@sphtpfhorbrains3592]

@@Avram_Orozco You could do with an English test.

[@Avram_Orozco]

@@sphtpfhorbrains3592 Your name isn’t a a correct word, as you should separate “brains” from the jumbled letters.

[@holycameltoe124]

@@sphtpfhorbrains3592 I know but I don't like to so I probably wont.

[@leakanddestroy]

I've known a few Italians who first lived in London then lived in the US. Their accent just sounded very Nu Yawk, like they were from Brooklyn or south Bronx.

[@shutterchick79]

Italians are the reason for that style of New York accent. It comes from Italian immigrants...

[@valerietaylor9615]

I think there are influences from other languages, as well. Yiddish, for one.

[@lukec1146]

You sound around 80% native English. You sound a lot more English than all of my Italian friends who've lived in London for very long. So you're very unusual for an Italian, in my experience.

[@dewilew2137]

Jamaicans also don’t pronounce “th”, but that’s because of years and years of Irish immigration and integration. 🇮🇪 🇯🇲

[@aleksmeetsworld6873]

Wish this video existed when I was a kid. I'm Russian-American, so Russians think I sound American, Americans think I sound Russian.

[@bharath2508]

Privyet

[@shutterchick79]

Accents in English can be very specific to an area. I can tell if a person is from my area if they say the name of my town right. In my valley's accent, in the middle of a word, d's will often turn into t's and t's will often become a glottal stop. Even at 43 years old it still feels awkward to pronounce my town's name and words like latin as written....

[@aleidius192]

I often find I prefer the way Europeans sound with the accent of their native country to the standard American accent as it is spoken by young people today. Sounding like you do not have difficulty forming your thoughts in the language is mostly what makes someone pleasant to listen to.

[@محمدالقحطاني-س1ق4ف]

You sound american and british and little bit italian

[@Likexner]

Dont try to translate the foreign phonemes to similar ones in your language. Just learn the foreign ones right away. Just listen and repeat. You dont need to know what the phoneme is called in academic terms, you dont need diagrams that show where youre supposed to put your tongue. Just do it.

[@janetcarson6034]

My Italian friend completely refuses to pronounce H. He said it makes him out of breath. He doesn’t pronounce the s at the end of words and he adds vowels at the end of words ending in consonants. Sometimes he pronounces v like a w.

[@pierangelosaponaro2658]

Italian and French do not have an h sound.

[@FlagAnthem]

As far as my Romagnol "S" doesn't get in the way is fine for me. Last time I visited London they thought I was Irish 😅😅😅😅

[@sandrios]

12:31 amaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaareeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

[@edwartvonfectonia4362]

As an italian native, what italian accent will you recommend implementing. In your opinion, what is the most beautiful and "warm" accents of Italy?

[@ashleybennett4418]

I think he would recommend the prescribed pronunciation of Standard Italian

[@edwartvonfectonia4362]

@@ashleybennett4418 I understand the logic. But it's boring learn that way, I stumbled upon point with no further progress at this moment. When I learned english I had chosen South England accent from Tv Show Peep Show.

[@ashleybennett4418]

@@edwartvonfectonia4362 it's a very funny show

[@jacquelyns9709]

I have some tone deafness. I couldn't always hear the difference in the example words you spoke. I am a native speaker of American English and have lived in several areas of the US. My mother always told me she could hear differences in the way I spoke after I had lived in a new place for several months. (My mother was a great singer. She even had the honor of singing in an A Capella choir for President Truman.) I couldn't tell the difference. I have studied other languages for varying amounts of time from a week to two and a half school years. I am not fluent in any of them. I spent the most time studying Latino Spanish and Latin (both Church and Classical Latin pronunciations). To me, you speak very good English. I hear more British English only when you use British vocabulary instead of US vocabulary. I do enjoy your language videos as well as your history videos.

[@martinsenoner8186]

I have still my German accent in Italian and English

[@axisboss1654]

Overcompensation for me would have been pronouncing /u/ and /y/ after I learned how to make that sound. Basically adding the umlaut to every u.

[@PaulFromCHGO]

Being from Chicago, my accent can be easily spotted. These, Them, and Those become deez, dem and doze. :)

[@bos2011rocks]

America never stopped being metal

[@paulwalther5237]

Sure sometimes over compensation is avoidable like when someone imitates an accent off the cuff without studying a language at all. But it’s quite hard for serious learners to avoid too. Studying tongue/mouth position can help although it’s really annoying. I just flat out avoided pronouncing certain words in Japanese because I knew I would overcompensate and butcher it: I hated 旅行　りょこう and anyone whose name had a りょ in it made me want to cry. I implied serious students wouldn’t imitate the stereotype accent of a language because after studying it seriously for even a short time one would expect they would quickly apply the pronunciation explanations in the textbook etc but I know this isn’t always the case. I took an upper beginner Korean class (Korean is difficult for Americans so everyone in the class had already invested some time in the language) and this middle aged lady who was doing her best literally sounded like she was imagining herself in a king fu movie while talking. The poor teacher had no idea where these mistakes were coming from but as a native English speaker I could tell (I was truly embarrassed).

[@danielantony1882]

I þink if you understand "ñ" ðen it's relatively easy to understand りょ. It's boþ a matter of practice and making sure you understood someþing correctly. My personal þeory is ðat ðe reason you struggled wið りょ is because you tried to use ðe English rough R. Japanese R is like an in-between of Soft R and L. Unfortunately, ðough, not many languages have soft R in ðeir phonology so you were bound to struggle wið ðat one.

[@jopeteus]

My problem is that I KNOW exactly how to pronouce every sound in English. But I have to take effort to say the words like a native. And when I talk like that, I talk really slow. I want to speak as I think, which means I have a slight accent.

[@thorthewolf8801]

Honestly, Im a bit of an outlier, I like mixing and matching accents. There are some words I like more pronounced in a certain accent, but I dont like everything in that. Why should I subscribe to only one accent? After all, Im not a native speaker, and its a unique way to express yourself.

[@egorbasist9532]

i have this problem with the accent, I live in Spain and studied local variety of Spanish, but most of my Spanish speaking friends are Latinos, so I tend to change the way I speak when I'm with them. I guess i need to choose )

[@lolajl]

Stick with castellano if you live in Spain.

[@kylesmith7539]

Been having the accent problem with learning italian its hard grom me im from the southern usa and are vocabulary is very specific and the rs get me i can read okay but speaking is another story

[@JohnA-l4g]

I would never guess you’re Italian by your accent.

[@lukec1146]

Although you sound 80% native , I'll give you a little friendly feedback. The way you say " characteristic" is the only word that stands out. You said it about six tiimes so might be good to focus on. Basically you hit the vowels a bit too sharply, they need to be softer so less of a "machine-gun " sound. Spanish and Italian speakers all do that.

[@tartufo4870]

I agree ,but I still want to sound natural 😃

[@stevencarr4002]

So if you want to sound Italian, you shouldn't pick Chico Marx as your model?

[@xneapolisx]

Exactly! Choose Peter Griffin of Family Guy fame instead (boopity boppity?) 😅

[@larrywave]

I would be awful language teacher 🤣

[@Msmasajes]

The short "i" you mention is actually called "schwa". Schwa is, curiously enough, a Latin letter by origin.

[@pedroalves6560]

No, he mentioned /ɪ/. /ə/ this is the schwa.

[@joksal9108]

Obviously you learned English in the UK, but to my American ears, if I didn’t know you were from Sicily, I wouldn’t be able to guess your native tongue/origin. To me you sound vaguely Greek. I don’t hear Sicily or Italy at all. Maybe the occasional vowel sound, but you could parse those more than one way. On “water”-you don’t want to hear the Philadelphia version! It’s something like wooter, with the -oo sounding like the vowel sound in wood. Pretty unpleasant.

[@burkhardschmorell3973]

Well, if applied linguistics wasn't infested with political ideologues who (1) oppose pronunciation training on the principle that "dat's wacist," and (2) oppose behavior-analytic techniques because they falsely believe "behaviorism" had something to do with audiolingualism; your question would be very, very easy to answer. But those of us who know what we're doing have to tiptoe around all the woke know-it-alls who somehow think their fuzzy logic merits the protection of government licensure.

[@loupaulo1205]

Drink your water

[@LD-wm7jm]

Trying to learn Serbo Croatian is hard but my accent being a scouse one is actually an advantage. I can say harsh K sounds better than most

[@LG-bs1rs]

Great thoughts to share as always. Thank you for continuing to produce videos