Should people strive to rid themselves of accents?

foreigner   Sun Sep 06, 2009 5:04 am GMT
I understand people have different reasons for speaking English, but all in all, do you think they should they invest time into trying to speaking as much of a native as possible, or should they speak the way their brain automatically interprets a foreign language?
Johnny   Sun Sep 06, 2009 3:27 pm GMT
<<I understand people have different reasons for speaking English>>

Or maybe you don't understand that, otherwise you wouldn't be asking this question.
Matt   Mon Sep 07, 2009 10:12 am GMT
Native? Native what?

Scottish, Australian, English, Canadian, American?
fraz   Mon Sep 07, 2009 10:21 am GMT
English speakers are well used to hearing their language spoken in a multitude of accents. Communication is all that matters.
Sam   Tue Sep 08, 2009 2:38 pm GMT
What matters is that you can speak clearly and know how to pronounce words properly. I find it quite irritating when I come accross a non-native speaker who has clearly gone to great lengths to speak with RP.
Pedro   Tue Sep 08, 2009 6:03 pm GMT
>or should they speak the way their brain automatically interprets a foreign >language?

Brain was trained by L1 learning. This L1 (native language) functions as a filter when you try to mimic foreigners. One can get rid of this L1 interference by systematically studying phonetics and phonologies of both L1 and of english.
idiot   Sat Sep 19, 2009 2:29 am GMT
I think it depends on what your goals and needs are. If you want to be a public figure in an English-speaking country, it pays to sound more like a native. If you live in a non-English-speaking country and are studying English as the lingua franca, just focus on getting the message across. If you're a permanent resident or citizen of an English-speaking country, it depends on how much you're interested in cultural integration (as opposed to "sticking with your own kind"). If you hang out with the locals a lot, you should also consider picking up as many clichés and idiomatic expressions as you can - even ones that sound stupid or uneducated. You don't have to actually use the "stupid" ones, but no one talks like the textbook.
Guest   Sat Sep 19, 2009 2:33 am GMT
I'm a native speaker but I often avoid certain slang because it sounds really stupid to me. It's even more annoying when some foreigner uses them with a horrible accent.
Uriel   Sat Sep 19, 2009 2:54 am GMT
I think as long as you speak articulately, a little foreign accent is just fine. In fact, it's often endearing or exotic. Look at Cesar Millan, the Dog Whisperer. He's originally from Mexico, and speaks very good English with a trace of a Mexican accent. His television show is a huge hit in the US, and his background only makes him more interesting. Ricardo Montalban likewise used his Mexican accent to great effect during his long career as an actor. I think we can all think of other examples of well-received public figures who never lost their foreign tinge -- Zsa Zsa and Eva Gabor, Henry Kissinger, Juliette Binoche, Salma Hayek, Jean Reno... often their accents are largely unidentifiable, and neither a distraction nor a detraction. As someone else has pointed out, English itself comes in a wide variety of accents, all of which come across as being just as foreign as a French or Russian accent. North Americans, Antipodeans, and people from the British Isles feel every mile of those vast oceans separating us from each other every time we open our mouths!
idiot   Sat Sep 19, 2009 3:06 am GMT
I was thinking more about not being thrown off by idiomatic expressions rather than using them all the time.
Trimac20   Sat Sep 19, 2009 3:44 am GMT
English is unique in being a 'substratum accent' in which learners of English impute their own speech characteristics onto it. Like I said before I've never heard French spoken in a broad Southern accent. I think this speaks of English being a universal medium of communication.

I agree with the sentiments above: as long as your accent is understood and your grammar etc is correct (no 'flied wice' or that kind of thing, as stereotypical as it is). I think one should make some effort with pronunciation, as we would if we were to learn Spanish or French (well, most of us). One can't be lazy about languages, if you want to learn English you should at have some pronunciation conventions without having to sound like the Queen or the average American.