English is a world language with around 1.5 billion speakers. People who speak English do so in different accents.
What exactly is an accent? An accent is a way of pronouncing language. Everybody speaks with an accent. It's impossible not to have one!
Usually, when people say that you don't have an accent, they really mean that your accent is General American (GA) or British Received Pronunciation (RP). Both GA and RP are not dominant accents, which means they are used by very few people.
RP, for instance, is spoken only by 2 percent of the British population, while some linguists argue that GA does not exist.
Your accent is a result of how, where, and when you learned the language you are speaking. Secondary English speakers usually carry over the sounds of their first language in English speech.
Check out this sampling of different English accents from around the world:
Being familiar with different accents makes you a better English speaker.
A common problem for English students is that they get used to their English teacher's accent. When they talk to another person in English, they have a problem understanding that person!
Obviously, we don't want this to happen. To address this, you need to expose yourself to different English accents.
English Listening Lesson Library Online is a great resource for this. It features videos and audio recordings of people speaking in English in different accents.
You can also take advantage of schools that teach English online. Choose a school like Learntalk, which has many online English teachers from all over the world. You can have more than one teacher, with different English accents, in one course.
Moreover, with Learntalk, you can also have group classes with other English learners from different parts of the world.
Give it a try! Schedule your free online lesson now.
Now
