Is it possible to sound like a native speaker?

[kacper6768]

Is it possible to learn English to have the same accent and use the same words in a given situation as a native speaker and not let anyone notice that I am Polish? For example, a Russian has been living in Poland for over 20 years and I still hear a Russian accent in his voice. Which English is better the British or American from the point of view of a European? On the one hand, Great Britain is closer and most Poles emigrate there for work, but American English definitely reigns in the world.

[WhitetailAni]

Both "American English" and "British English" have a lot of accents, it can't be generalized to just one.

In America, people from New York sound very different to people from Illinois, to people from Texas, to people from Maine, to people from Florida, to people from Washington state, to people from California. Same goes for Britain - I've never been there myself but I've heard enough recordings and talked to people from Britain.

 

In my opinion, of the American accents, the Midwestern accent is the most clear with New York being a close second, but I also live in the Midwest. So take that with a big dosage of salt. Maine area is darn near unintelligible sometimes.

 

As for your question, it really depends on if you want to move to either America or Britain, and if you want to invest the time in it. I personally wouldn't, generally people don't really care if you have an accent as long as they can understand you - at least where I live.

[YellowJersey]

To answer your question, I'm actually not sure. If it is, I assume it means a lot of practice and being completely fluent in English. I'm Canadian and lived in Australia for a few years and actually started to pick up a little bit of the accent, so I think a large part of it is exposure.

 As for which English accent to go for, I suppose that's going to depend on who you're talking to. If you're primarily talking to Americans, than going for a "broadcaster's voice" would be your best bet.

[Anghammarad]

Gosh I think it is possible for some, that doesn't have a too big main language accent... 

 

I once (as german) worked a week in Toronto many years ago, in the base of the CN Tower, it was february and the temps were below -10°C, my british coworker and I were in the gift shop. All but one entrance/exit were closed. 

As we wanted to get back outside a bus stopped and a zerg of cliché asian tourists poured out with a guide. All with their loaded Nikons in front or hanging around their necks.

My coworker snaked his way carefully through that "zerg" that was totally blocking our way out, always saying "sorry ... sorry ... I'm so sorry ... excuse me please" .. As he made it to the other side he turned around and looked at me, my turn. 

I went through that mass like an icebreaker. As I reached the other side I turned around and shouted "PAH! TOURISTS!!!" ... The tour guide looked at me oogle eyed and the tourists all pulled in their heads between their shoulders... 

 

Well I was not going through as canadian, because that wasn't nice, but at least as a grumpy american ^^

[Spindel]

As a swede even our actors that make it internationally (currently I firstly come to think of Alicia Vikander and Alexander Skarsgård) and speak really good english I still hear their swedish accent, albeit faint. And they have access to the best language coaches in the world and pull off both different british and american accents. But the swedish still shines through. 

 

Then of course we have a whole slew of actors that make it internationally and still can't wash away the swede in the way they speak (Peter Stormare, Dolph Lundgren, the rest of the Skarsgårds, Ingrid Bergman etc). 

[gergy008]

Yes

 

Impressionists make a living from it.

Anyone able to speak is capable of putting in the practice and a LOT of effort - you have to be using it in all aspects of you life. You have to think in the accent, practice the words in spare time with videos or conversations with other native speakers, you can get it down within a few years.

 

Bonus points if you’re a little neuro diverse. ND people pick up and mirror accents without thinking about it.

[wasab]

yes, it takes some training but yeah. actors and voice actors do it all the time. 

[Eviljuche]

On 3/21/2023 at 8:20 PM, kacper6768 said:

Is it possible to learn English to have the same accent and use the same words in a given situation as a native speaker and not let anyone notice that I am Polish?

Yes, you just need to learn phonetics and phonology of a language, and practice that a lot. Both are important - even if you will be able to pronounce the sounds as clear as a native speaker, the way you pronounce words and syntagmata (sentences) will give you away. It is well-known that the pronunciation of a word - a tone - might affect the its semantic element in Chinese. Well, that is actually true for any language in one way or another, including English and Polish - it's just that the effect of a wrong tone hits differently. The problem is that such nuances often get ignored when learning the language, since they are notoriously hard to understand and to apply properly. But those are actually crucial for accent-less pronunciation of a foreign language.

 

 

[rice guru]

people on here have explained it in a more sophisticated manner than I have. I will just share my experience and say it's possible as I am someone who  has successfully lost their original accent (Filipino)  and has fully adopted the accent of where I live being Canada. As a bit of background I am the type of person who is a social Chameleon My attitude , Vocabulary, and even my accent will shift depending on who I'm talking to and what situation.I do also have the benefit of being a child when I immigrated to Canada.  So through being forced to lean english as a child in order to socialize with other kids as well as being a social chameleon by nature I had gained a somewhat good ear for accents. which through practice of socializing often everyday I eventually lost my filipino accent when I speak english. The interesting part is I'm very fluent in Both Tagalog and Ilocano where I still have my original accents when I speak both languages. I Had the benefit of learning English as a child to be able to lose it. While age can be a factor. I will say I have met older immigrants who came here in their 20's and 30's be able to completely lose their accents over time but also know people that have been here for over 50 years not. the biggest differences between both individuals I find is practice. the people that are able to lose their accents are people I know that are very social hang out in bars and clubs and are good firends with locals often or have jobs that require them to speak and conversate with others often thus are exposed to the local accent as well as vernacular and absorb the local language nuances easily. Those I find that don't fully lose their accents often have friends in the same immigrant group or hang out in their immigrant communities and work with the same group of immigrants thus are not forced to mingle or exposed to the local language and accent as often as those that do lose their accent. So yes it is possible to be like the locals but you need to be  socializing with the locals often and immersed with the culture.

[Montana One-Six]

It is possible but involves a lot of work. I grew up in Germany speaking both German and English. I am a native speaker of both but my English had a noticeable German accent since I spoke way more German as a kid. I moved to the US and being surrounded by the language improved my accent but I also looked for "markers" in my language, like the pronunciation of different words or even certain letter sequences. I tried to get rid of these "markers" and make them less noticeable which worked fairly good. I still have a slight accent but it has gotten less noticeable. But apparently all that made my accent kinda messed up because now people often think I'm Australian for some reason .

 

I could probably improve it further but I think it makes you as a person way more interesting and unique and as long as you can communicate without any issues and it is often beneficial to have an accent in my experience.

[kacper6768]

In English, there is "Connected Speech" that native speakers shorten normal sentences. Can any sentence be turned into a "Connected Speech" sentence? In what situations should or should not "Connected Speech" be used?

[rrats]

Really depends on similarities of your language to the language you are trying to mimic. Russian people (and probably some more slavs) will tend to pronounce Japanese better than english speaking ones etc. I am not good with phonetics so don't be sure than 100% of the stuff I say is correct. Also, the weirder the original accent is the easier it is to imitate. American and British English are harder than Aussie one. No offends to Australian people but that;s just the way it is

[kacper6768]

Is it the case in English that when you say the same thing in many sentences, you replace that word with other words that mean the same thing so you don't use the same word? This is how it is in Polish.

[Rusheliny]

Yes. I know 3 people that spoke only spanish for 16-23 years, most notably my aunt Vero, she went to the USA OF MERICA, when she was 20, she worked very hard to learn english and got really into getting a native-like accent, well she got it. I am jealous of her, It got to the point to where when she came back to Mexico 15 years later her spanish accent was more Merican than Hispanic, and it blows my mind, I asked her to teach me, she told me she shadowed monologues speaking a second behind the actual thing so she could always get reference on the phonetics of the words, through repetition and kind of obsession with the matter she got it.

[rrats]

On 4/7/2023 at 3:53 PM, kacper6768 said:

Is it the case in English that when you say the same thing in many sentences, you replace that word with other words that mean the same thing so you don't use the same word? This is how it is in Polish.

If I got you correctly, you asked if words get replaced by synonyms to make English sentences less repetitive? Yes, that is common in most languages, including English (coming from a non-Native speaker who read one Sherlock Holmes book in English, multiple Haruhi LN's and had watched most films in English with English subs)

[WhitetailAni]

I'm writing this based on that "connected speech" is turning "I don't know" into "ion know" and similar.

On 4/5/2023 at 10:20 AM, kacper6768 said:

Can any sentence be turned into a "Connected Speech" sentence?

Yes, but then you run into the issue of it turning out unintelligible.

On 4/5/2023 at 10:20 AM, kacper6768 said:

In what situations should or should not "Connected Speech" be used?

It's informal English, so I wouldn't use it in a professional environment. I usually use it when I'm talking to myself and need to get through a burst of thoughts quick so I can get to the point of what I'm explaining to me