00:00
Support comes from WISE, the smart way to sendmoney around the world.
Your life is global. Your money should be too.
Some providers promise no fees on overseastransfers,
but extra costs often hide in bloated exchangerates.
Choose WISE. You can send money overseas foreducation,
or spend in over 40 currencies while traveling.
Get the exchange rate that you'd usually see onGoogle.
Plus, count on 24-7 customer support.
Be smart. Get WISE. Visit WISE.com. T's and C'sapply.
Everything you believe about your accent iscompletely wrong.
Not just a little wrong. Completely,fundamentally, upside-down wrong.
That is a big question to start with. It is.
And it is the most important question we have everasked on this podcast.
Because today we are not talking about grammar.
We are not talking about vocabulary.
We are talking about something deeper.
We are talking about the story you tell yourselfevery time you open your mouth.
Welcome to your English Toolbox, your slow Englishpodcast,
where we train your ears and your mind step bystep.
I am Martin.
And I am Julia.
So, Martin, what are we going to explore today?
Today, we are not going to talk about grammarrules.
We are not going to talk about vocabulary lists.
We are going to talk about something that blocksmore learners than any grammar mistake ever could.
Your accent.
But not in the way you expect.
And here are three things you will walk away withif you stay until the end.
First, you will understand what science actuallysays about foreign accents.
Second, you will learn the difference betweenaccent and intelligibility.
And why that difference changes everything.
Third, you will do one short exercise that helpsyou own your voice instead of hiding it.
Stay with us, friends.
This episode could change the way you speakforever.
I want you to meet someone.
Her name is Amara.
She is a financial analyst from Lagos, Nigeria.
She has been working for a large company in Londonfor three years.
Her English is excellent.
She knows complex vocabulary.
She writes detailed reports that her colleaguesadmire.
But there is one moment that fills her with dreadevery single week.
What moment?
The Monday morning Zoom call.
Twelve people on screen.
Her manager asks for updates.
And Amara goes silent.
Not because she does not have anything to say,
but because the moment she hears her own voicecoming through the speakers,
03:00
she thinks the same thought.
They are judging me.
They are thinking I sound less professional.
They are wondering why someone with my accent isin this meeting.
That thought is not rare.
That thought lives in the minds of millions ofEnglish speakers around the world.
It lived in mine for years.
And here is what I want to tell Amara.
And every single person listening right now.
That thought is a lie.
Not a mistake.
Not an exaggeration.
A lie.
And we are going to prove it.
I want you to think about something before we gofurther.
Have you ever stayed quiet in a conversationbecause you were afraid of how you sounded?
Have you ever typed a message instead of making acall, e.g. just to avoid speaking?
Have you ever felt your confidence drop the momentsomeone said,
sorry, could you repeat that?
If the answer is yes, this episode is for you.
And you are not alone.
I want to take a moment here, Martine,
because I think some of our friends might belistening and thinking,
but Julia, my accent really is strong.
People really do struggle to understand mesometimes.
Maybe this is different for me.
I hear that.
And that feeling is real.
But I want to offer a different way of looking atit.
The problem is almost never the accent itself.
The problem is what the accent has come to mean inyour mind.
It has become a symbol of not belonging.
A symbol of being less than.
And that symbol is what we are going to dismantletoday.
Piece by piece.
There is a word that sits at the center of thisconversation.
A word that most language schools never teach you.
What word?
Intelligibility.
Explain that for us.
Intelligibility means, can the other personunderstand what you are saying?
That is the only real standard that matters incommunication.
Not perfection.
Not a particular accent.
Not sounding like you grew up somewhere else.
Clarity.
That is the goal.
And clarity is something you can build,
with your own voice, your own accent,
exactly as it is.
So let's talk about the myth first.
The myth that has caused so much unnecessary pain.
The myth of the neutral accent.
Yes.
For decades, language schools, movies andtextbooks sent one very clear message.
Support comes from WISE, the smart way to sendmoney around the world.
Your life is global. Your money should be too.
Some providers promise no fees on overseastransfers,
but extra costs often hide in bloated exchangerates.
06:03
Choose WISE.
You can send money overseas for education,
or spend in over 40 currencies while traveling.
Get the exchange rate that you'd usually see onGoogle.
Plus, count on 24-7 customer support.
Be smart. Get WISE.
Visit WISE.com. T's and C's apply.
The ideal English speaker has no accent.
The ideal English speaker sounds like they arefrom nowhere.
The ideal English speaker sounds like a newsreaderfrom 30 years ago.
That message is false.
And it is also, if we are being honest, completelyimpossible.
Because every single person on Earth has anaccent.
Every person.
Someone from Texas has an accent.
Someone from London has an accent.
Someone from Sydney has an accent.
The question is never, do you have an accent?
The question is, does your accent carry meaningclearly?
And that is a very different question.
It changes everything about how you think aboutyour voice.
Now I want to share something that changed the wayI think about this completely.
Me too.
When Martin first told me about this, I had toread it twice.
Researchers at the University of Chicago conducteda study.
They asked native English speakers to evaluateinformation.
Facts, data, arguments.
Some of the information was delivered by nativespeakers.
Some was delivered by speakers with foreignaccents.
And here is what they found.
Tell us.
The listeners rated the information from accentedspeakers as more credible, not less.
More.
More credible?
More credible.
Why?
Because the listeners subconsciously associatedthe accent with experience.
With a journey.
With the courage it takes to operate in a secondor third language.
Think about what that means for a moment.
When you speak English with your accent, you arenot signaling weakness.
You are signaling that you have lived in more thanone world.
You are signaling that you have crossed alinguistic border that most people never attempt.
That is not a deficit.
That is a credential.
Your accent is proof that you did the work.
And there is another dimension to this.
English today is a global language.
More than 1.5 billion people speak it.
And the majority of those people are non-nativespeakers.
Which means that in most English conversationshappening right now on this planet, both speakers
have an accent.
The game has changed.
The standard has changed.
And the fear that kept Amara silent on that Zoomcall is based on a world that no longer exists.
Let's make this very practical now.
Because I know some of our friends are thinking,
09:01
But Julia, people do sometimes ask me to repeatmyself.
People do sometimes look confused.
So something is going wrong.
That is a fair point.
And here is where we need to separate two thingsthat people often confuse.
The first is accent.
Accent is the music of your language.
It is the rhythm, the intonation, the melody thatcomes from your mother tongue.
It is part of who you are.
The second is intelligibility.
Intelligibility is whether your message landsclearly.
And intelligibility depends on very specific,trainable things.
Things like, are you stressing the right syllablein a word?
Are you pausing in the right places?
Are you opening your mouth enough when you speak?
Are you rushing through the ends of yoursentences?
These are not about accent.
These are about habits.
And habits can be changed.
So if someone asks you to repeat yourself,
the question is not, is my accent too strong?
The question is, which habit can I adjust rightnow to make this clearer?
That is a completely different mindset.
One mindset makes you feel broken.
The other makes you feel capable.
One mindset sends you to copy someone else'svoice.
The other sends you to practice your own voice,
more precisely, more confidently.
Amara does not need a different accent.
Amara needs to slow down by 10%.
Amara needs to pause before key words to give themweight.
Amara needs to finish her sentences with the sameenergy she starts them.
And when she does those things?
She does not sound like someone else.
She sounds like the most powerful version ofherself.
Now, we are going to do something together.
This is practical.
This is short.
And if you do this seriously, it will stay withyou.
We call this exercise your signature phrase.
Here is the idea.
Every confident speaker here in any language hasphrases they own completely.
Phrases that come out naturally, clearly, withouthesitation.
Phrases that sound like them.
We are going to build yours right now.
Think of one situation where you often need tospeak English.
Maybe it is a work meeting.
Maybe it is a customer service call.
Maybe it is just introducing yourself to someonenew.
Got it?
Good.
Now I want you to create one sentence, just one,that you will use in this situation.
It should be true.
It should be simple.
It should be yours.
12:00
For example,
I'd like to share a few thoughts on this if that'sokay.
Or, let me explain what I mean by that.
Or simply, that's a great point.
Here's my perspective.
Write it down right now if you can.
Say it out loud once at your natural speed.
Then say it again 10% slower.
Notice the difference.
Notice how the meaning lands more clearly thesecond time.
Notice how you feel more in control.
Not because you changed your accent.
But because you owned your pace.
This is what fluency actually feels like.
Not speed.
Not perfect pronunciation.
Control.
Presence.
The feeling that you are exactly where you need tobe.
In this conversation.
In this language.
In this moment.
That feeling is available to you right now.
With your voice.
With your accent.
Exactly as you are.
Let's go back to Amara for a moment.
She is still on that Zoom call.
Her manager has just asked for updates.
And this time, instead of going silent,
she does something different.
She takes a breath.
She uses her signature phrase.
She speaks at her own pace.
She finishes her sentence.
And the room listens.
Not because she changed her accent.
But because she changed her relationship with hervoice.
That is the shift we want for every single personlistening today.
You have spent years believing that your accent issomething to apologize for.
We want to offer you a different belief.
Your accent is your linguistic identity.
It is the sound of every book you read.
Every conversation you had.
Every moment you chose to keep going when Englishfelt impossible.
It is not a flaw.
It is a signature.
And a signature is something you own.
Not something you hide.
Here is what we worked on today.
We challenged the myth that a neutral accent isthe goal.
We looked at the science that shows
accented speakers are perceived as more credible,not less.
We separated accent from intelligibility
and gave you the real target to aim for.
And we built your first signature phrase.
A sentence that belongs to you.
Spoken at your pace, in your voice.
You are not someone who hides from English.
You are someone who speaks it,
with everything you have in the voice you weregiven.
That is not a limitation.
That is power.
I am Martin.
And I am Julia.
Thank you for being here today, friends.
15:00
Keep showing up.
Your voice matters.
