Hey there! This is TOP episode 97. Love Your Accent!
My name’s Ola and I am an English teacher. My goal is to help you start speaking English with confidence and get rid of speaking barriers. I believe it is achievable for you and it’s time you started speaking English fearlessly! Go to my website for full transcripts and worksheets to each episode. Happy learning!
Hello and welcome to another episode. Today I’d like you to think about changing your perspective. Rethinking your approach to accents. Before we start the main discussion let me tell you that I have big plans around TeacherOlaPodcast, I have big visions and big ideas. I have no idea when I’ll implement even the first of them but I really work hard on it. I just want you to know that even though I run this podcast after hours, and it’s my free time activity, I am serious about this and I have plans on how to develop this project. If you want to contribute and help me and support my work here please share, please tell someone about this podcast. Do you know someone who struggles with language anxiety? Fear of speaking, fear of making mistakes? Let them know about this podcast. Thank you! You’re the best!
Today we’re going to talk about different accents. You’ll learn who or rather what Bouba and Kiki are and thanks to them we’ll find out that we can draw meaning from things without meaning. Next we’ll talk about our own-accent bias. We’ll look at why English has so many accents and whether it has them at all and I’ll tell why not. We’ll talk about language security and why we all tend to think that our mother language is normal and other languages are weird. Next, why is Queen’s English perceived as the standard and correct version of English? How did the standard american accent develop? What’s special about Ohio when it comes to accents? What influence do we all have on the discussion about accents? And many more questions will be resolved today. Finally, you’ll practice speaking by repeating 14 sentences out loud.
Firstly let me start with a video I saw on Ted’s website. This video, which I’ll link in the show notes, deals with accents obviously. When you watch this video you’ll see two shapes, they were created for some research purposes. They were studying our perception of meaning. Meaning we can draw from words which have no meaning whatsoever. So there are two shapes: one is called Bouba and the other one is called Kiki.
Participants were asked to state which shape was called Bouba and which Kiki. Maybe you are even able to create in your mind’s eye those shapes on your own, and clearly see the difference between them. The point is that we are all able to draw meaning from things without meaning. We are able to convey meaning from other things, not just sounds. We convey information from body language, tone, pitch and of course, accent.
When you are listening to me right now you are probably thinking that I’m speaking with an accent. But guess what! I haven’t noticed that. To my ears this is not an accent. I share this way of speaking with the people around me. If I was born and raised in another part of Poland I would sound differently. To me, you have an accent. So we call this own-accent bias. We all have it. We are all biased towards our own accent.
I’m sure you’ve been asking yourself why does English have so many accents? English doesn’t have accents. In some ways, English doesn’t even exist. Picture that, language is just an abstract concept.
Language comes to life when you hear it, and people, all the people around the whole wide world have their own accents. People have accents.
English was spread around the world through colonisation and the people developed their local ways of speaking this new language. It didn’t happen overnight, it took years, decades, centuries.
Now, let’s talk about linguistic security. There’s another video about that term in the show notes, so if you wish to learn more about that, I personally find it fascinating, go to teacheroal.com/97 and see the link in the show notes. Linguistic security is this idea, it’s when you think that only your mother tongue, your native language is correct and standard.
As a child I used to think that our Polish language was the normal, standard one. God must speak Polish, right? Like… it’s the basic language there is and then we have all those variations, types, translations. Other languages basically. We all, as adults, subconsciously carry this linguistic security.
The same goes for accents, because it’s our identity. Imagine that people in Ohio are absolutely certain that their English accent is the best. The clearest, the most standard.
What is correct English? What is the correct language? Well, different languages have their own social history and because English and French languages were considered most educated and somehow attached to people in power we have Queen’s English and Parisian, aristocratic French. People speak with different accents, but the correct one is the one spoken by the queen, by the aristocracy. Ain’t that funny?
But that is not the only way languages developed in Iceland, it was the opposite. I will link another film in the show notes so that you can learn what happened with perception of standard accent there in Iceland. It’s fascinating and I know I keep saying that a lot. Linguistics along with pronunciation were my favourite subjects. Go to teacherola.com/97 and find the link in the show notes.
Accents were always there, they were first. Only later standard versions of them artificially emerged. The way standard American English developed is particularly interesting. It’s all in that tedx speech by Catherine Campbell Kibler I would like you to check out, the link is you know where. Anyways, accents were always there. Suddenly, at some point people figured that the language should be brought together, unified and standardized. Well, they thought it would bring everyone together, connect and create a sense of community. Finally, thanks to the radio, the national news would be presented in this one standard American English. That was the idea and in fact Ohio was appointed, chosen as the place which should act as a role model. Still, even there people speak many different accents. Northern Ohio, Southern, central and so on.
Let’s ask ourselves now. What does it mean to have an accent? Well, we have an influence on how this discussion goes anytime we make judgments on people’s accents, so you figure out who they are, you create new definitions. Thinking that an accent, speaking with an accent is less educated, so the person speaking with an accent is less educated, well I don’t think this is the direction we should follow.
Sounding like you, carrying your origins, your culture, identity with you everywhere you go doesn’t mean being less educated, it’s ridiculous. It’s just like thinking that every speaker of English should sound the same. How boring would that be, oh boy! Thanks God it’s not going to happen
Next time you hear someone speaking English with Pakistani, Colombian, Italian, Indian, Swedish, Russian, Spanish or any other accent and quickly judge them as I don’t know and I don’t want to say wha, I think again. Because by making such judgments you perpetuate the myth. The myth of accents being not normal or not educated.
What is your definition of normal? Accents are perfectly normal and they say nothing about people apart from the fact that those people have learned English as their second language. Native speakers of English also have accents. All of them, there are hundreds of accidents inside English.
Look at this from that different perspective and make sure you understand why you have and you speak your accent. Do you really really want to erase it? Getting rid of it? If you are, go ahead. It’ll take blood sweat and tears but you can do it. You can do whatever you want. But there is no good reason to do so, I mean, there is no objective reason. Your accent is not something you should be ashamed of. Never ever. Your accent is part of who you are and where you come from. There is no such thing as a good or bad accent, so love your accent!
Time to practice. Listen and repeat the sentences out loud. Saying things out loud helps you exercise your brain, but also your face, your face muscles, your mouth and tongue and lips. It helps you get used to how you sound when speaking English. So, focus now, be with me 100% and repeat out loud.
The point is that we are all able to draw meaning from things without meaning.
I haven’t noticed that.
If I was born and raised in another part of Poland I would sound differently.
We are all biased towards our own accent.
English doesn’t have accents.
In some ways, English doesn’t even exist.
It didn’t happen overnight, it took years, decades, centuries.
As a child I used to think that our Polish language was the normal, standard one.
Imagine that people in Ohio are absolutely certain that their English accent is the best.
What does it mean to have an accent?
Because by making such judgments you perpetuate the myth.
Do you really really want to erase it?
It’ll take blood sweat and tears but you can do it.
Your accent is not something you should be ashamed of.
Well done! Thank you! Now, go to your inbox and grab the worksheet in order to test yourself. To challenge yourself. Complete the worksheet with translations. Before you do it you might wanna have another task that is dictation. Listen to the sentences for repeating again but this time use your notebook and make handwritten notes, write the sentences as you hear them. If you aren’t a member of TOPeople download the worksheet from teacherola.com/97 and become one. It’s free.
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Thank you so much for listening and I’ll see you next Wednesday! We’re going to discuss the lyrics of one beautiful song. It’s going to be a perfect song for Father’s Day! Be here next week! Happy learning. Take care! Stay fearless and say it out loud! Bye!