“I Want to Sound Like a Native Speaker.”
Whether it’s with an American or British accent, everyone wants to sound like a native speaker. “Is it important to speak like a native?” they ask. “I want to sound like a native speaker.” Rarely do they stop to ask, “Should I sound like a native speaker?”
So, dear learner, should you sound like a native speaker?
1) Who Does English Belong To?
The first notion I want to tear up and toss out the window is this idea many have of language ownership. Here’s the shocker: language belongs to no one. That language you speak, whatever it is, sorry but that’s not yours. You have no license fee or proof of ownership. It’s not a pair of shoes you can slip over your socks or money you can feed the cash machine. Language is more like the wind. You can feel it but you can’t touch it. It’s everywhere.
Let me tell you a secret: there are more non-native speakers of English than there are natives. So, who does English really belong to? World Englishes is a fascinating topic showing how English has been used and adapted in over 100 countries. This has led to different variants of English, and who is to say which variant is correct?
Language changes across time and space. Is Canadian English more correct than Irish English? Should 19th-century or modern English be the standard? If you wrote to Charles Dickens and said, “I didn’t want to ride the helicopter, but I had FOMO, lol,” he would wring his hair in his hands and spit, “Helicopter, FOMO, lol—what the devil is this?”
My point is that things change. Standards are different. Your English is your English. It’s okay if it has a flavour unique to you.
2) Everyone Makes Mistakes—Even Me!
No one’s perfect. That’s why our catchphrase is “practise imperfect”, because we must accept our imperfections and work with them, not against them. It’s something Kat and I will continue to write about and continue to preach.
And here’s the thing:
I, as a native British English speaker, make mistakes!
Sometimes I want to say something and my tongue gets tied up and I slur like a drunk for no good reason. If I’m writing, sometimes I omit articles (a/an, the). Once, one of these errors found its way into one of our Instagram posts. It’s not that I don’t understand articles, it’s just that my brain takes for granted they’re missing sometimes. It makes an assumption: the sentence in my head is exactly as I’ve typed it.
Another problem I have when writing is with homophones or near-homophones. Things like there/their/they’re and are/our. Again, I know the difference. Frequently, I correct these mistakes for my students. But do you ever make mistakes when talking? It’s because you’re telling a story and communication with your teacher or another student is your focus. When I’m writing, I’m doing exactly the same thing. You can have a written and spoken ‘typo’.
Under no circumstances should we feel ashamed of this. Mistakes happen to everyone. And anyone too quick to criticise you isn’t a good friend and probably has confidence issues of their own.
Accept your mistakes. Learn from them.
3) Do You Really Want to Sound Like a Native Speaker?
So, we’ve established that English doesn’t belong to anyone (or is it that it belongs to everyone?). We’ve also established that even the best of us make mistakes, including me, a native British speaker of English with a BA in English Language & Linguistics, over five years of teaching experience, with yet more experience proofreading, content writing and publishing short fiction. With all that said, do you still want to make perfection your goal? Do you really want to sound like a native speaker?
If you do, in my opinion there are two ways to make it happen:
start learning English as early as humanly possible or
work insanely hard
Okay, I know that’s simplifying things a bit. But our choices here are to acquire language naturally or to ache over every detail. There’s plenty of advice out there on how to do that, and I might write about it here myself someday, but we should note that learning how to ‘speak English’ and learning how to ‘speak like an English speaker’ are two completely different goals.
There are forty different dialects in the UK alone—maybe a thousand more if you include world Englishes. Which accent would you choose? Everyone has an accent. There’s no default ‘English’. All of these are of equal value. You are of equal value.
If your goal is to communicate with millions of people across the globe, learning English is more than enough. Language’s function is to accomplish goals: order food, express emotions, help others, warn, give advice, pass knowledge and more. If you can do all that, what use is a flashy accent? You could boast to your friends, I suppose.
Why do you want to speak like a native? In my opinion, the gruelling work won’t be worth it if it’s about stroking your ego. However, if it’s rewarding and interesting for you, if you’re passionate about phonetics or a particular culture, then go for it. Learning should be fun.
So, to answer the question at the start of this article: Should you sound like a native speaker? Not if by ‘should’ you mean ‘must'. Accents are great fun, but to adhere to one is completely optional. You can be a fluent, communicative C2 speaker and have a non-native accent.
And in my book, that’s okay.
If you’re looking for someone to check your English pronunciation and grammar but don’t have time for lessons, check out our Kick-Start Your Speaking course. With this audio-only and feedback course, you will find your voice in English.
