The #1 Most Misunderstood Expression Of All Time
The target for most learners of a secondary language today, and this is through no fault of the learners, rather a misconception that to be fluent in another language you need to adopt the accent and proper grammatical structure of the second language as a native speaker would use.
It is a great shame that the learners today are told this with no explanation to the meaning behind this phrase. Teachers spit this out at students, leaving them with the understanding that their English is simply not good enough until they speak with a native accent, faultless grammar, without making mistakes in vocabulary or structure.
As a native speaker, and a learner of a second language myself, it breaks my heart to hear people saying this as their prime objective. Not that this is by any means unattainable, but accent is something that take years to adapt, and will only ever really change when you are constantly influenced by the target accent. It should not be used as an objective in learning because it sets you up for disappointment and frustration.
When I was learning Portuguese, I was lucky to be living in Brazil; surrounded by Portuguese every day and needing to communicate on a daily basis to simply survive, and if I hadn’t been in that specific situation I doubt I would speak Portuguese in the way I do today. Learning a language is a long process, requiring dedication, confidence, clearly defined objectives, constant motivation (wherever this comes from) and self-awareness. If any of these ingredients are missing the process will take longer, be more stressful, and generally cause you to be very disappointed with the results you see.
Let’s talk a little bit about these ingredients, and the role they play in your journey.
DEDICATION: One of the key aspects of learning a second language is to be dedicated to your objectives
You will hit countless obstacles while learning. As soon as you reach the point where you can hold a basic conversation, you will probably hit your first. It is so easy to give up after a few months because you don’t have the time to properly dedicate yourself to it, or maybe outside influences persuade you that your progress is taking longer than it should.
The fact is: it takes a long time to master a new language, and progress depends on each person’s dedication. It will be harder for people living with someone who is not interested in learning together, or for someone who works long hours with no contact with the target language during the day. Accept these facts, and don’t let outside influences dictate how you should be learning.
CONFIDENCE: Simply the most important characteristic you can have… in anything.
If you have the confidence to put yourself out there, you will learn. If you have the confidence to make mistakes and learn from them, you will learn. When someone laughs at you for making a mistake, and you have the confidence to brush it off and carry on despite the embarrassment, you will learn.
Without confidence, it is an uphill struggle from the very beginning that will only get more difficult as you progress. Learning a new language is not easy, but if you have the confidence to challenge yourself and keep moving forward in spite of the difficulties you will face, you will achieve your objectives.
CLEARLY DEFINED OBJECTIVES: One of the biggest mistakes people make.
When you want to go on holiday, you sit down and plan it with the relevant people. If you are responsible for a project at work, you create a carefully designed plan for every step to make sure that nothing goes wrong and that everyone knows what part of the project they are responsible for. Why do people not do this when deciding on which school they want to sign up for?
This can be one of the biggest decisions in some people’s lives. Investing in learning English can be costly, and will usually tie you into a contract of at least a year. Giving up is not an option.
How is it then, that when you sign up for classes at a school, or with a private tutor, they don't sit down with you and go through your needs before teaching you the verb “to be”? This all comes down to the commercial possibilities of teaching English. Schools often see students as a way to make money, and want to keep you spending money for as long as possible. There are many unqualified private tutors out there, who want to jump on the bandwagon and make money from your wish to learn a new language.
The crazy thing is, you can do most of this by yourself without the input of any teacher, and if you did you would probably feel more confident as time goes by and you see your own progress. The first time you watch a movie without subtitles and understand most of it, or reading a page in a book without depending on a dictionary.
English is made up of 4 principal skills: Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing, and these skills should be worked on objectively, and usually in that order. Think of how you learnt your native language (or if you are bilingual, how did you learn both languages)? You probably don’t remember much of it, because it all happened before you were 5 years old. When did you first study grammar in your mother tongue? To ensure your learning journey is appropriate for your needs, make sure you define clear objectives to progress in a way which is useful for what you need.
Are you planning on travelling abroad? Do you really need to read and write as much as you need to understand spoken language? Maybe you should focus on listening to material in different accents from the areas you are planning on visiting…
Do you have a job offer in another country? I would guess your English is already quite good. But maybe you can improve on your writing skills to make sure you don’t have any “bloopers” in emails.
Maybe you are a public speaker, contracted to make some appearances in English. Do you really need to focus on listening and grammar? I say your focus should be making sure your spoken English is clear and correct.
Maybe you are looking to study abroad. You will probably need to do an English test, and be able to understand the classes. So study grammar for the test, and practice your listening.
Define your objectives, and make sure they are in line with your requirements. There is no point in studying grammar if your focus is to be able to travel abroad and communicate with natives.
Natives don’t even understand their own grammar anyway…
MOTIVATION: Wherever this come from, it will be deciding factor in your journey.
Whether your motivation is professional, or personal. If you want to speak English for family or for travelling. The motivation behind you speaking a second language will play a big part in how you learn English.
As I stated above, the reason for you wanting to learn defines which path you take in your studies. When deciding to learn English because you want to travel, your motivation is very personal and this will usually set you up for success. However, when studying for professional reasons, studying English can seem like a burden, a need, something you don’t really want to do (but need it for professional progression).
Looking at English as a need is one of the worst things you can do. Primarily because it is not a necessity in the first place. I know people who have lived 10 years in Brazil and don’t speak a single word of Portuguese. I also know people who have lived in the UK (especially) London and don’t speak English. So how is English ever going to be a necessity if you don’t need to speak it even when you live in a country where this is the primary language? It’s not.
If you want that promotion at work, and one of the requirements is that you speak English, you still don’t need to speak English. You are not going to fall over dead tomorrow because you are not fluent, you simply will not get the job. English is necessary for the job, not for you, and looking at English as a necessity will only set you up for failure, because it will be something against your will. Where as if you want to speak English, and truly desire it, it will be easier because you are less resistant.
SELF-AWARENESS: Not criticism… they are different.
Being aware of what you need to improve, and beating yourself up about not being good at it are 2 totally different things. You can be aware of the fact something needs to improve without criticising yourself about it.
Be critical: analyse yourself and your progress, and deal with the issues objectively through defining your objectives to achieve reachable goals. Don’t get downhearted if your accent does not sound like Hugh Grant. This is not a reachable goal and should not be something you even think about anyway. What I mean by acheivable goals is making sure you set yourself a target that is attainable from your current position.
If you know you have a problem with speaking about the past, create an objective for it. Maybe you have great difficulty in finding the right word for a situation, set an objective to improve your vocabulary the area in which your find yourself getting stuck.
So what do people mean by “speak like a native”?
As I mentioned before, this is such a dangerous phrase to throw around due to the meaning this can portray. It is not fair to expect any speaker of a second language to “speak like a native”. There are numerous native accents in the world, and so which one is the correct one?
If you have classes with an English teacher from the UK, you will probably learn Received Pronunciation (RP) which is the commonly recognised “British” accent. The funny thing is that only around 3% of the UK population actually speak this way, so while you may have a beautifully posh RP accent, you will probably have huge difficulties in understanding people because we just do not talk like this in general. The same goes for American, Australian, South African, the list goes on and on…
The good thing is English is English, wherever you go, and people will understand you even with a non-native accent. In the UK we have contact with a range of accents that you wouldn’t believe until you visit London, so your own accent would just be another for people to get used to.
What I would say this means is: natives use a “toolkit” of techniques that many non-natives don’t possess because they have never been shown. A native is not born with the ability of understanding every single accent in the English language. We learn this through contact and practise. If someone doesn’t understand me I might: speak a little slower, use body language and gestures, or even try to mimic the other person’s accent to try and make myself understood; and the same goes for them. Natives can have difficulty in understand non-natives because they are not accustomed to hearing your accent. It doesn’t mean you have a bad accent, or that your English is no good. It simply means this person has never been in contact with your way of speaking before, but this usually disappears with more contact.
The speak like a native toolkit is this:
- dedication — we live the language every day
- confidence — we don’t get disheartened by people not understanding us
- motivation — we live in the country, it is a necessity for us
- self-awareness — we understand our own limitations, and we don’t care
- other techniques— speak slower, mimic accents, gesticulate
You will never stop learning a second language. Don’t think that once you are fluent you will never have trouble again, it is a constant battle.
Have fun, keep trying…
