Sounding native - Vladimir Skultety at the Polyglot Gathering 2015

[@jercol7320]

listen to this man's tips. seeing as English isn't his first language and it's almost perfect he knows what he's talking about

[@6Uncles]

yeah, I'm so curous about his English learnin story. Like when did he start learning? He's got a music more convincing American accent than even Luca Lampariello, who's already quite good & trying to improve it.

[@testingsomething5280]

​@@6Uncleswhen he was either 8 or 10

[@byronwilliams7977]

His english is incredible.

[@CrazyLeiFeng]

Learned it in New Jersey...

[@claudeyaz]

Byron Williams yeah i can only tell by the shape of his mouth. Native Americans are a bit more lazy unless they are theater trained

[@6Uncles]

Almost native. Very very subtle

[@baronmeduse]

@@6Uncles He actually makes a lot of unimportant errors: 'as a native speaker..' instead of 'like a native speaker..'. at 4:59. 'How to call it...' instead of 'What to call it...' He says 'very good' at a moment that requires 'very well'. Many others. Like I say they're unimportant, but they are the line between native speakers and non-native speakers.

[@6Uncles]

@@claudeyaz lol, I'm a native english speaker, so a lot of this is subconscious for me. Becareful with "Native American". That refers to aboriginal people, rather than native english speakers of american accent/dialect etc.

[@anastasiiaromanova7521]

Amazing talk! Brilliant approach to learning a language! Thanks for all the tips! And your English, Vladimir, is unbelievably good!

[@braziliaan]

Now I'm his fan. You're an inspiration to me!

[@quadgod77]

My native languages are: English (L1) and Spanish (L2), and my non-native languages are: French, German, Italian, and Russian (with varying degrees of fluency). My goal isn't to pass for a native, but it is to become a proficient speaker of the languages I learn, which could result in using the language like a native. Sure, I could end up speaking a language better than a native, but I'll never be one! I want to speak with a good standard accent, have great grammar, diction, and vocabulary. That's pretty much it! This goal agrees with me because I like to learn and speak languages for fun, though I would like to make a career out of using them. I more or less want my languages to be like Vladimir's level of English! :D

[@krystal5954]

This is so interesting! This guy is awesome and his English is near perfect! I hope one day to speak multiple languages well! And the commentary from people in the audience was interesting too! :)

[@NathanIfill]

Great presentation, thank you so much!

[@KevJYT]

Awesome presentation. Thanks.

[@filobonda]

One question remains: where does Vladimir's passion for pottery come from?

[@furqanali4621]

THE comment.

[@spacevspitch4028]

Man, I'm always impressed when a native speaker of a Slavic language can speak English with virtually no foreign accent. Slavic languages tend to be so heavy in the throat and it's hard to let go of the muscles in the throat and learn to speak mostly from the front of the mouth. Because of the physical location of the lips and tongue when pronouncing our chewed "r" sound and breathy "th" sound, all the other sounds have to gather around that so we can be ready to pronounce them at any time. It becomes a "set point" where all the sounds of the language can be reached at all times. Similarly, take Russian for example. Russian has no "th" or dry "r" sound like English. They have letters "ы" and "х" which require the back of the tongue to be ready and on call to close off the throat in the back at all times. As a result, there's near constant tension there so that when a Russian tries to speak English, they speak from that set point which is almost polar opposite of the English set point.

[@panner11]

This is interesting information indeed. Though considering that Vladmir is a polyglot with a good amount of experience in 20 languages and a particular proficiency in speaking like a native speaker, his accent in English is far from his most impressive feats, especially when you consider that he did learn it at a young age.

[@collegesuccess]

08:19 min. mark. Excellent presentation, Vladimir: Would be a great bullet point/chapter, etc. for your book on this subject. Just reflecting back, as you may not be using YOUR phrase, yet--You should!!! Cheers...

[@qtredhead]

There's something undefinable about sound, or being taken for a native speaker, my second language is French, which I have studied for 13 years in total. The point raised at 29.00 resonated with me, I just don't 'look' French, I'm English, but am frequently mistaken for being Dutch or German. I was once asked in France where I was from, with the comment "you sound like you are from Nantes, but you don't look like you are from Nantes..."

[@szervosz]

He is from Slovakia

[@RonaldMcPaul]

42:00 LOL yeah I could see how British people would think he's maybe born and raised in America. I'm American and can hear the accent as well as some other things, using "as" instead of "than" in a comparison, besides a slight grammar mistake, I'm always looking for people trying to avoid the "th" sound as that's the normal instant give away for 99% of people that don't have thick accents. Also he refers to himself as seeming like a "Native American," it takes some cultural knowledge and subtlety but you have to put a pause in, or change up the inflection, or do some other creative handiwork to make it clear that you're not referring to being an indigenous tribe type of Native American, which a native speaker won't even always do, but they're likely to be called on it if they make it sound like they are saying that, and will be quick to follow it up with a terse joking disambiguation or the like. Anyway, he has quality public speaking skills on top of his English skills, as well as being thoughtful with a (I'm assuming) diverse and interesting background, so in that regard he is higher than your average native English speaker, at least for the topic at hand. Also, as someone who is in Taiwan for a couple months working on Mandarin Chinese as a fourth language, there's a lot of tough love/good advice in here.

[@BojanKordic]

This was really helpful ! Well done ! :D

[@mickwang9199]

His Chinese pronunciation is amazing.

[@AzuReGravity]

English isn’t his first language? Wtf i couldnt tell at all until he said something about it

[@nathanpiazza9644]

Just curious if your strong Taiwanese accent (which I'm sure Taiwanese people really like) has ever been an issue working as an interpreter outside of Taiwan, or if you've ever felt the need to minimize it?

[@levteshler4178]

nice presentation

[@mcdonnellpadraic]

I say pronunciation the wrong way according to him. But it is the correct was here in Ireland. His English is excellent.

[@phillipdavis1418]

As a former resident of New Jersey, I'm terribly sorry.

[@honslo9263]

Hey, Americans! Can you discover some subtle features in his pronunciation which could reveal that he is not an American English native speaker?

[@CPEren-fj4rc]

His pronunciation of "go--" words like "good" and "going". He says something more like "gewd" and "gewing"--a little too short for a native. Also his "S" sounds are a bit soft. His accent is so very very good--I could never get another language as close as he was able to... but as a native New Yorker you can hear the very slight accent.

[@honslo9263]

On the other hand, as I see it, his rhetorical and verbal skills surpass an average American English native speaker. Right?

[@alecrosewell6959]

Eric Pendoff He seems so. But are amercians that bad at english? I went to amercia. It was ok.

[@pascalrouen]

Just some very subtle features indeed. One I noticed in particular was when he said "with you" he left out the "th" sound and said something like "wityou".

[@janslovak1887]

I'm not a native and I don't feel entitled answering your question, but I think he mispronounced the word "preferably", 11:25. I just know /ˈpref.ər.ə.bli/, whereas he put the stress on the second syllable. But It may not be wrong. Anyway, his English is fabulous and making small mistakes isn't a distinctive feature of non-nativeness.

[@nictegki]

@09:50

[@TheFamous35]

His S's would give him away, if you looked for it.

[@alecrosewell6959]

haha 我恨。xp I can never say I hate my parents in chinese..man will they be mad!