“From a learning perspective, you don’t need to sound like you have lived in Paris your whole life in order to speak French and be understood, and have a great time communicating,” says Blanco. “We learners hold ourselves to these really difficult goals that aren’t always very realistic,” says Cindy Blanco, managing editor of learning content at Duolingo. “People feel so self-conscious about how they sound when they’re speaking a different language that they don’t get the practice, learn new vocabulary, or try out new grammar.” It’s totally valid to want to eventually pronounce everything perfectly and have people ask you if you’ve spent a lot of time abroad. But the true goal of learning a second or third language should be communication, which is often unrelated to pronunciation. So the next time you’re having trouble with a particular sound, ask yourself if it changes the meaning of words at all. If the answer is no, your attention and focus will be better served elsewhere. Consider the words “this” and “these.” For Spanish speakers, these words are tricky because the “I” sound in “this” doesn’t exist in their native language. They tend to pronounce it as “these.” Here, the shape of your mouth is crucial to get meaning across, but that’s not always the case. If you order tacos in Mexico using the American “oʊ” vowel, you’ll definitely sound foreign, but no one’s going to bring you a plate of spaghetti or a bagel. The same happens with the French “R”—it sounds lovely, but if you have a hard time pronouncing it, you’ll still probably be able to communicate with locals during your trip to the Pyrenees mountains. Blanco explains that communication generally happens in two layers: first, you think of a concept or desire, then your brain translates that into words you can express to others through sounds. Most people think that to be successful at language learning you need to speak fast and be as competent in your new lingo as you are in your mother tongue. That’s what some people mean by “speaking natively.” But learning a new language is hard on your brain. “When you’re learning a new language, we don’t automatically map the new words to the concepts, we map them to our own language. So we create an extra layer,” Blanco explains. So, you think of a concept, then think of the words to express that concept in your mother tongue, and then you consciously look for the equivalent of those words in the language you’re learning. And that’s just at a conceptual level. Once you have the words, your brain has to tell your face muscles to overcome decades of use and move in strange and unfamiliar ways to emit the sounds of these new words. It’s a lot. Slowing down on the spot will give you more time to manage the internal process of thinking and speaking in a new language, while slowing down across the board will give your brain time to better adjust to something new. “The goal of learning is to have so much practice with the new language that you start mapping it directly to the concept. That’s what people mean when they talk about thinking in the language—you want to skip the translation in your head,” says Blanco. Thinking about your brain as a muscle and a new language as physical activity might help—picking up swimming when you’ve been running your entire life is hard. Muscles you didn’t even know you had will be sore, and maybe you won’t even know how to breathe correctly. Don’t worry—your skills will grow with time and practice. When it comes to vowels, Blanco recommends that English speakers think of these sounds as shorter and sharper. For example, the Spanish “O” sounds like only half of the aforementioned English “oʊ” phoneme, which in turn sounds like the pairing of two Spanish phonemes: “O” and “U.” Eventually, you’ll be able to pick out words, phrases, and then sentences. And if you think it’ll help you, you can listen while reading the words. The lyrics feature on Spotify, for example, can come in handy—find it by tapping the microphone icon in the bottom right corner of your screen on the desktop app, or swiping up on the player screen on the mobile app. If you’re listening to a podcast, you’ll find that publishers will often post the transcripts for it. You can usually find these links in the episode description, but a quick web search will also do the trick. For English speakers, there’s no doubt that the Mount Everest of Spanish pronunciation is the rolling or trilled “R”. If you’ve felt the frustration of not being able to replicate this sound, Blanco says you can just skip it. More often than not, an inability to trill your Rs will not affect communication. Yes, you’ll sound like an American speaking Spanish, but locals will still be able to get what you’re saying. If you’re going to stress over Rs, your energy is better spent mastering the single “R” sound in Spanish—the one you’ll encounter in words like “para” and “arena.” This one’s especially tricky because it actually exists in English, but under a different letter, Blanco explains. “We just don’t think of it being an ‘R’—we think it’s a double ‘T’ or a double ‘D,’ like in ‘ladder’ or ‘matter,’” says Blanco. In cases like this one, turning off the subtitles and skipping the transcripts when you’re listening to Spanish content can be a good idea, as it will let you concentrate on the sounds and not get tricked by the words. Moving your face and mouth muscles in a way that may feel exaggerated is necessary for good English pronunciation. And even if it feels like you’re doing a Jim Carrey impersonation, you’re not—you’re just moving your face in an unfamiliar way. The other problem is that mastering English vowels is necessary because unlike the rolling Rs in Spanish, these sounds can change the meaning of a word, like in “bit” and “beat.” Blanco explains that the main challenges are rounded vowels. These are the sounds that require you to round your lips, which can feel extremely unnatural for English and Spanish speakers since these sounds are nowhere to be found in those languages. When it comes to consonants, a tricky one for Spanish speakers is the “Th” sound (as in “thespian” and “thistle”), mainly because it’s a sound that doesn’t exist in Spanish. This is when looking at the mouths of English speakers can come in handy: paying attention to how people put their tongues between their teeth can help your brain visualize the movements of your own mouth much more easily. To get better at this, your best bet is to observe the mouths of francophones and try imitating them. Blanco recommends streaming a French show and paying close attention to how people move their lips when they speak. You can also have a mirror at hand and try to imitate the sounds and movements on the spot. Don’t do this without a reference—you want to be able to compare the correct form to what you’re doing and tweak it as necessary. Just like Spanish speakers learning English, English speakers learning French will feel like they’re contorting their muscles a lot more, which can lead to feeling self-conscious. But there’s no need to—you’re probably not moving excessively, just moving in a way you’re not used to. Keep at it until it becomes natural. But there’s a catch—or more. While Spanish is a category 1 language on the difficulty scale, Japanese is a category 8 (the highest). Among the reasons for this discrepancy are stress patterns, long vowels, double or geminated consonants, and rhythm. Japanese has a different stress pattern than English, explains Blanco, and while Americans usually stress one syllable, native Japanese speakers tend to stress syllables more consistently throughout, making words sound somewhat flatter. Geminated consonants, also present in Italian, add to longer vowel sounds that prolong the basic phonemes to create new ones. And if that’s not enough, the rhythm of Japanese is completely different from English, which forces learners to unlearn even how they breathe when speaking. Doing a lot of listening and thinking about intonation and rhythm can help, Blanco says, as it can make it easier for a Japanese listener to break apart what you’re saying. Blanco recommends focusing your attention on watching native speakers’ mouths, and listening exercises. This time, forgo any transcripts, as German has sounds that are present in English but are represented by different letters. This can result in written words being more confusing than helpful. Regardless of the language, you’re learning, it’s important to remember that there’s no single, unified way native speakers sound, and there’s nothing wrong with having an accent. Your brain and body have spent years, even decades perfecting communication in one language. Repeating the process (with the added difficulty of having a mother tongue) can be slow and challenging, so be gentle with yourself and, above all, be patient.
