All courses › Forums › Regional Accents (UK) and pronunciation › How we perceive accents › How we perceive accents › Reply To: How we perceive accents
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Yes, I agree. The important thing is to make a distinction between pronunciation and accent (Have a look at numbers 11- 14 on this post – I think you’ll like it:
https://hub.englishdigitalacademy.com/improve-your-advanced-english-speaking-skills/)
Let’s have a look at this phrase: In general, being confident on ❌ pronunciation helps you avoiding❌ taking a beamer, (great!✅) (NEW SENTENCE) On the contrary, not being confident can make you shy away from express❌ yourself.
Can you try and fix these for me?
I absolutely agree with what you say: the risk is that people are more concentrated on the way you’re saying things rather than their content and sometimes they don’t even take you so seriously.
I am quite conflicted by the example you’ve given (and I think it’s something that’s worth discussing!) On the one hand, Renzi doesn’t help himself – he can come off as ridiculous and as you say, we are more concentrated on HOW he is saying things instead of WHAT he is actually saying.
However, I respect anyone who tries to express themselves in a foreign language. I think it is incredibly brave (I would die if I had to give an interview in Italian!). Furthermore, if you asked any politician in the UK to do an interview in a foreign language, I would bet good money that the majority would not be able to. Our knowledge of foreign languages is embarrassingly poor. So, when I get memes and videos of Renzi sent to me by friends (which happens quite a lot😂), I always feel a bit awkward. 😳😂
What do you think?