Thread: Could anyone help me improve...

I think when an American is talking to another American or someone they think might have a slight grasp on the geography of the American lower 48, when they say "I don't have an accent" it means they speak more or less, like they are from the west coast.

Georgia (or any southern / eastern) state is a good real life example.

I had a friend at my last base from Atlanta, and from his "accent" you couldn't tell he was from the south. Because in the city they speak with "west coast" accents. While you drive 20 miles out of the city and you can hear strong Georgian accents.

The same thing with 2 people I know here from North Carolina.

One guy is from Charlotte. You could never tell what part of the country he is from. While the other guy from the backwoods taks laik hes reel frum north kakalaka.

So when an American says they don't have an accent, they probably mean their accent is indistinguishable from the accents of those from most big cities and the west coast.

Originally Posted by Dogboy182

I think when an American is talking to another American or someone they think might have a slight grasp on the geography of the American lower 48, when they say "I don't have an accent" it means they speak more or less, like they are from the west coast.

Georgia (or any southern / eastern) state is a good real life example.

I had a friend at my last base from Atlanta, and from his "accent" you couldn't tell he was from the south. Because in the city they speak with "west coast" accents. While you drive 20 miles out of the city and you can hear strong Georgian accents.

The same thing with 2 people I know here from North Carolina.

One guy is from Charlotte. You could never tell what part of the country he is from. While the other guy from the backwoods taks laik hes reel frum north kakalaka.

So when an American says they don't have an accent, they probably mean their accent is indistinguishable from the accents of those from most big cities and the west coast.

Yes I know what she meant. People do the same in England; peopl with South-East English accents think they speak 'normal' and everyone else has an accent. My point was accents are all relative, if you think someone has an accent, that means that to them you have an accent yourself.

Originally Posted by giovanni

Originally Posted by YuliaVolkovaFan

Originally Posted by xRoosterx

What part of Tennessee you from, bro?

East Tennessee, but I have no accent, I used to have a Southern accent, but I moved to Hawaii, and lost my accent

to lose it, you have to get your mouth used to sounds you might have never used.... an accent is the accustomment of the mouth to a certain way of speaking. All you have to do is loosen it up so you can make the sounds of a native.. (i know i probably make it more simple than it is, but it works for me) so just practice, when you hear a word, repeat it over and over, it will help

It's not that simple. All babies have the potential to learn the sounds of any language. But at a very early age, I think it's like 4 years or something, the sound system the child makes becomes fixed. So a teenager or adult finds it much much harder to learn unfamiliar sounds.

Accents are not the "accustomment" of the mouth to a certain way of speaking. It's actually more to do with the brain. My mouth, tongue, throat can move into the position of all the sounds of any language. But my brain doesn't know how to tell all my vocal organs how to move in the right position, time, sequence, ect. to produce that sound.

Like when I started learning Russian I heard the sound Ы which doesn't exist in English. I heard the sound but my brain didn't know how to exactly recreate the tongue position and such in my mouth so that I could make the sound myself.

i will try, thank you soooooo much! This really helps me. and yeah dad threatens me by saying that if i give my age out on the internet, I will lose my internet, my games, my christmas gifts priveliges this year, and so much more! But thank you!

Yeah, i hear ya! My parents did the same thing.... but they are also in the italian mob, so its apparently "dangerous" to even talk to people on the internet! (oh, and i never said that! )

but the bee thing really really works man. I was speaking spanish before russian... and you need to roll the r's. I could always start them, but never carry on the sound, you know? I read something that there are 3 levels of rolling. People who cant do it, people who are like me and cannot hold it, and people who can do it. If you are level 1, you need to work to just get the initial sound of it rolling, not holding it. Once you are there, you do the bee thing, and it takes time!

Can you kind of make the sound? If you say "air", can you kind of hear the r?

but for encouragement, here is a quick story! (i know i talk too much, sorry!)

My family has been trying to adopt 2 girls for 3 years, and its a hard process for us! I was studying russian for about 6 months, but i came to a point where i realized that i couldnt speak russian without rolling the r's. So i tried and tried, and everyone told me its not possible to learn how to do it. Finally, i was so discouraged, i was lying on my bed, and i gave it one last try. I could start to feel it coming, and i kept going and going, and finally it came. Maybe it was divine intervention! I ran around the house rolling my r's for 30 minutes straight! My parents were screaming at me to "frena parlando!", because they couldnt take it anymore! But all is well now, and i actually went to russia last week to see the girls! I should be having 2 new sisters in 2 months! I cant wait!

and i love pretending to have an accent like you said (or to not speak english at all)... I ALWAYS walk into stores in amurika and pretend not to speak english... its hilarious! If i speak italian, people say to go make a pizza, if russian, they say "go back to the soviet union you commie!" I must say, i get a sick kick out of doing this! Amurikans are definatly the best people to do it on. Because if you were in italy and pretended to only speak english, they would start talking to you in english! (I have YET to find an italian speaker at a store here...)