I LOVE your accent!

Personally, I love hearing different accents. I always say that a person's accent is an integral part of their personality. Whether your accent is Israeli, French, Brazilian, Italian, Japanese or Greek...take pride in it, it's a huge part of who you are. Imagine how boring the world would be if everyone sounded the same!

People often confuse accent (מבטא) with pronunciation (הגיה). Accent is the tune of your speech. The word accent comes from the latin word accentus, which means song added to speech. Pronunication is the way a word is supposed to be said.

So what is more important? What should you focus on when learning English? The answer is simple. Focus on being understood. Your accent is only problematic if it prevents people from understanding you. From my experience, most people are misunderstood because they are saying the words wrong, not because they are singing them to a different tune.

Let me give you an example:

know - is pronounced 'no'. The K is silent. If you say kano...I might think you are talking about a canoe (a type of boat). Confusing.

leave - is pronunced 'leeve', with a long e. If you say live instead...it's confusing.

beach - is pronounced 'beech', with a long e. If you say bitch...well, it can just be kind of awkward.

And my personal favorite:

TH TH TH TH. One two THree! Not free. Not tree. THree!!!

Put your tongue beween your teeth. Like this. I always lean into the camera or across the table when I teach this. Sticking my tongue slightly through my teeth. I am always met with a burst of laughter. Every single time.

Come on! You can do it!

Fank You

Dank You

Tank You

then finally.....THank You!!!!!

Success. Relief. More laughter.

Work on your pronunciation. But keep your beautiful accent please. It makes you spicy.

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Here's a great 7 minute laugh all about accents. I find Trevor Noah hilarious.

(Put on English subtitles...it really helps!)

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