English Corner: I tried to lose my accent

I did — and actually still do — try to change my accent, but not for the reasons you might think. No one has ever mocked me or made fun of the way I speak, and honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever been ashamed of my accent. As long as people understood what I was saying, that was enough — that’s what language is primarily about, right?

I am able to hold a conversation in a foreign language — awesome. But more often than not, having a rich enough vocabulary and choosing the right words were the things I really needed to focus on.

Still, for a little while, I was kind of obsessed with sounding American — with having an American accent. And that’s when I finally learned what those mysterious terms accent reduction and losing your accent actually meant.

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