The Accent is a Strength, not a Weakness.

What is real English?

Is it American English? Is it British English? Or is it something else?

No, My English is real English. Your English also is real English. Our English is all real English.

Ten years ago, when my mom told me that we were moving to America, I was very excited. When I was in high school in America. I find most second-generation immigrants, like me, are English learners. Many foreign friends say I have different accents when I speak English. I tell them this is because I come from China, and I have lived in China for sixteen years. Because Chinese, the language, I think differently. Just like if you translate Chinese characters into English literally, you will find some sentences they are formed are not natural English, and it is hard to understand.

I felt like a lot of people who are learning a new language are quite obsessed with accents. The accent is something that bothers people when they are learning new languages. In certain situations, you would want to have better pronunciation. This is normal. But is having a perfect accent important? I would say, yes, but not necessarily.

When I study English at the beginning, there is sometimes have this idea in my mind: I think learning a new language is like fills up a cup, slowly fills up with language, and then when I get to the top, when the cup is full, I will speak like a native. Anytime that the cup is not quite full, I am kind of like a failed native because I haven’t quite arrived and speak English fluently.

It is really rare for people to study a second language and achieve a native-like accent, even in the world. At this time, I begin to think about: is it necessary that I have to achieve that native accent? If I set this target, I will feel that there is this target, I need to try to speak like a native. I know, most people are hard to reach, even never reach, including me, too. So, I have to ask myself, have I set the right target? is speaking like a native really a reasonable target?

But I gradually found out that this was not the case.

When you speak English, or when you speak any second language, you don’t forget your native language, and you don’t forget where you come from. The accent just becomes something that is yours. It becomes a tool that you are used to, and it is something that you can use in the way that you see appropriate.

My accent is part of my identity. It carriers my own culture. If I can say something about who I am, and where I am come from in the accent of my first language, why not in the second language? But if I speak to other people in Chinese accent English, they didn’t understand what I am saying because of my accent, that is a problem.

What I’m slowly understanding now is, the importance when speaking English is I am intelligible because other people need to understand me. If other people can understand me, then does matter if I have a Chinese accent. What matters is that you are not afraid to use it, and you are confident when you are trying to say things, even though there are mistakes, but it’s fine, you know, no one is judging. What I need to do is forget about my Chinese accent, and focus on practicing to speak English.

Anyway, if you want to have an American flavor or British flavor to your English, I will say “That is great, do that. If you can do it. Do it”. Some people can, but if you can’t do it, or as long as your accent isn’t so strong that it impedes being understood, it is maybe not that important. If people can understand you, if you can communicate, then your accent is not so important. Please remember, the accent is your feature, not your flaw. If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it, because it is not required. Contrarily, maybe you can take that as an advantage to show how different you are.