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Comment by linkmotif | Hacker News Reader

So nice to see you post this here. While watching I was really enjoying your Italian accent and was thinking about how amazing it is that so many people have to learn English. Reminded me of your post "English has been my pain for 15 years" (http://antirez.com/news/61). Thank you for conquering the language and presenting this to us. Really glad to have another message queue to explore.

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Thanks linkmotif, when I finished talking, as usually, there were people literally ROTFLing for the accent, but in a positive way. Finally at least I can kinda talk in a more casual way, it used to be harder than this in the past because of totally lack of practice, usually I just write/read. Thanks for your message :-)

I am a native english speaker (born/raised in California) and also very self conscious about the way I sound for different reasons. I suspect many of us have this kind of internal battle, even if it seems relatively insignificant to other people.

FWIW, I think your accent is interesting and enjoyable to hear.

Thanks :-) I understand what you mean I think, since speaking Italian I've also a strong Sicilian accent... but I tried hard to preserve it, after all it's my origin.

+1 for not forgetting your roots. I am also in a battle with my accent. Hopefully, one day, very soon, I will win it.

Developing oral skills in language learning out of context (i.e. some place where it is spoken) is a schizophrenic thing. I have somehow put on a british accent two years ago (mother tongue turkish), and the process was like this: watch lots of programmers' talks, and read out loud, being conscious as to my articulation, all the blog posts that I happen to read, and sometimes make monologues alone in my room. And my daily input was vast, as I was having a short two-year break from the uni. Now I'm studying Italian language and literature at the university, and am proving to myself that the way I learned english was spot on, self immersion is incredibly fruitful. One should merely be able to tolerate not understanding everything, written or spoken. And while you definitely have the italian accent, you are speaking is excellent, congratulations.

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