Comment by shrikant | Hacker News Reader

Comment by shrikant | Hacker News Reader

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This is one of the things I've done a complete about-face on, as I've gotten older and wiser (and, selfishly, when it started affecting me).

I used to speak English with a pronounced "Indian" accent, and snark about Indians who'd grown up in India, moved to foreign lands and mutated their accent to sound American/British/Canadian/Australian/whatever.

When I moved to the UK though, I was initially pretty "stand my ground" about only communicating in my accent -- after all, I was speaking perfectly correct English. After many rounds of having to repeat myself, and often slow down so that the "locals" could understand the way that I put together syllables, I realised that "being understood with low friction" is a pretty big factor that people use to decide whether or not to engage in future interactions with you.

So I've worked on a slightly more "neutral" accent that's about as close to RP as I can get without accent coaching, and it's worked wonders, both for communication, and given the nature of British society, for my implicit acceptance in certain circles.

These days I can slip in and out of either accent depending on who I'm talking to, but I can now completely see how using just one accent for extended periods of [valuable] time changes that to be the default.

Do you have any advice on how to accomplish changing one's accent? Would you recommend seeking professional help or are there existing self-help routines? (Sorry for going off the main topic, but I am moving to the UK soon, so this sort of skills seems both fun and potentially valuable to practice.)

If you:

  - are content with a trial-and-error approach
  - have friends/colleagues who can give you useful feedback
  - don't mind making the odd [amusing] mistake

then I recommend going self-taught using a combination of "immersion therapy" (talk to friends/colleagues in as neutral an accent as you can without sounding contrived) and watching a LOT of British TV. This way is slower, but I found this quite fun, and it has the potential for better life stories.

If on the other hand, you:

  - want something more structured and results-oriented
  - don't have enough self-aware friends/colleagues across different British social classes
  - are not in a position to have mistakes brushed off without consequences

then I'd suggest looking up accent coaching. (Although I couldn't possibly recommend any particular ones.)

I briefly knew a Greek girl who'd moved to London for a project management role in a large company here, and she sounded reasonably British middle class (RP) having done daily professional accent coaching for I think 8-10 months.

Sorry I can't be more concrete, but I hope this helps!

A comment from non-English language sphere.

A lot of Slovak people move to Czechia, especially to one of the university cities. This has been the case since the 1920s at least. Movement in the other direction is, these days, negligible.

Many Czechs can understand standard spoken Slovak (not so much the eastern dialects), but it is a high-friction interaction nowadays. My experience is that Slovaks tend to stand their ground for a year or two, then silently join a Czech language course and, within a few months, switch completely to Czech, just with slightly softer vowels that will indicate their origin, well, forever.

The friction thing is important. Even Austrians who move to Germany say the same.

> When I moved to the UK though, I was initially pretty "stand my ground" about only communicating in my accent -- after all, I was speaking perfectly correct English.

That's an interesting cultural difference. Here in France (at least around me) teachers insist on trying to develop an accent similar to a native English accent. From what I've read in this thread, I think they're trying to teach people Received Pronunciation. Having perfect English with still a noticeable French accent is generally looked down upon.

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