Accents

- English is spoken with a lot of accents, native or non native. No accent can be said to be superior to or better than another! As advanced learners of English you need to get used to as many accents as possible. Understanding an accent relates to how often you have heard it.
-  No accent can be said to be right or wrong. It is ignorant and aggressive to say some people speak “bad (Spanish, English)” when you are referring to their accent. Right or wrong refers to grammar, vocabulary choices, pronunciation ( e.g. word stress), formal or informal language etc.
- So, mispronouncing is not about accents, but about making mistakes when we pronounce a word. If someone´s pronunciaton is clear, understandable, their accent does NOT matter! Having an international ´foreign´ accent in English is just as OK as having a, let´s say, a Scottish, Maltese, Australian or Nigerian accent.
- You also have to be aware that, in today´s mobile world,  many people speak ´perfect´ English (after years of studying the language and/or travelling, living or working in international contexts) with a foreign accent. On this blog we´ll listen to some of these successful bilingual speakers (see label on the right toolbar): advanced English students, writers, politicians, world travelers etc because it is the reality of English as a global language nowadays. I hope you will find them inspiring!

WATCH THE VIDEOS WITH DIFFERENT ACCENTS:

Maltese accent- Ira Losco (represented Malta at Eurovision some years ago); international German sounding accent-  interviewer:

Nigeran accent: writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie:
Saoirse Ronan, Oscar nominated actress- Irish accent; host Stephen Colbert- American accent: Indian accent: Kunal Nayyar (Raj from ´The Big Bang Theory´) wrote a book called ´Yes, my Accent is Real´: