WEBVTT FILE

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Aw yeah, ladies and gentlemen!
What's up?

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So, a common topic in the world of second
language learning

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is whether or not you should try to
acquire a native accent in the language

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that you're learning.
And there's several different questions

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that often come up when we talk
about this topic, such as:

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is it even possible to have a
native accent in

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another language that's not
your mother tongue?

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Does it even matter if you have
a native accent?

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And should you really care about having a
native accent? Is that the right goal?

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Is that can help push you forward?
So, kind of talking about this topic,

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in case you don't know her, Sofia Vergara
is a Colombian actress, who is probably

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most famous for her role in a TV series
I absolutely love,

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called Modern Family, where she plays
Gloria, who is a Colombian immigrant,

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who's married to an older American man.

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So it seems like Sofia Vergara
has become a prime example

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of someone who is a successful,
very proficient,

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non-native English speaker,
despite having a

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very strong foreign accent.
So in today's lesson

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we're going to answer all of these
questions that I talked about before

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and we're going to have a lot of fun
doing it with Sofía Vergara.

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But before we get into today's lesson I
want to quickly let you know that,

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if you're new here, every week we make
 fun lessons like this one,

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so that you can understand
fast speaking natives,

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without getting lost, without missing
the jokes and without subtitles.

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Like Razi, who says that our lessons are
the best way that she's found

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to understand fast native speech.
So we're going to help you a lot

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with your English learning goals too.
It's really simple, just hit that

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Subscribe button and the Bell down below,
so you don't miss any of our new lessons.

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So here Sofía explains why she decided

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to stop pursuing an American accent,
and really it makes perfect sense.

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Now, you as an English learner may
or may not relate to Sofía in this case.

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English as a second language
expert suggests that there are some

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students who expose themselves as much
as possible

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to native English and who want to sound
as close as they can to a native English speaker.

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But others, on the other hand, don't
really care about sounding anything like

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an "Inner Circle" speaker.
Now you're probably asking what is

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this Inner Circle.
Now, that is definitely part of a much

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broader discussion, so we're not going to
dive too deeply into it but it is worth mentioning.

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Now, in a world where there are three

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times more non-native English speakers
than native English speakers it's kind

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of worth reconsidering the authority
that we give to certain countries

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over the type of English that people
should want to learn and teach.

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So English is spoken all across the

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world, obviously, and there's
actually been an expression of

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this by three different circles.
So, on the innermost circle we have the

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native speakers, from countries
like the US, the UK, and Australia.

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Then we have an outer circle where

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English is spoken as a second language,
this is countries like India and the

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Philippines and then
finally we have the most outer circle

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which has countries where English is
taught as a foreign language

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so this is countries like Brazil and
Russia, France, etc.

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So more and more there are students
who actually

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want to keep their accent because they
kind of feel like it's a part of their

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identity, it shows where
they come from.

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And Sofía Vergara certainly could
be seen as a representative

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of this type of thinking on a global
scale and this is probably exactly why

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there's been a lot of attention
given recently

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to an interview that Sofía gave on
The Ellen Show and people raising the

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question of whether or not it's okay
to make fun of someone else's accent.

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Especially when you don't speak
any other languages yourself.

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So, Sofía is extremely
fluent and rarely

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makes any vocabulary or grammar mistakes.
Now on the clip with Ellen she brought

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up the word "discombobulated."
Now, this is a pretty rare word that you

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probably won't hear in everyday English,
so it doesn't really

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reflect sophia's abilities to
communicate in everyday language.

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We believe that most learners
still want to improve their accent,

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but in a context where
some prefer to

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kind of maintain their native accent,
for whatever reason,

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really intelligibility becomes the key
goal of pronunciation.

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So, in other words, really you have to
focus on correct pronunciation and clarity.

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Because otherwise people
might not understand you.

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And you don't want it to
keep you from communicating effectively

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so just to give you an example say you
go to a restaurant and you want to order soup.

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But instead of saying soup
you say soap.

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Not only is this going to create kind of
a confusing situation

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but it might also cause some
embarrassment for you

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so another really great way to improve
your pronunciation

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and be able to understand fast speaking
natives is with our Fluent with Friends course.

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Now, in this 48-week course, we will teach

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you the principles of native
American connected speech.

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So you can try it for FREE with our
3-Part Masterclass, which you'll find

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by clicking up here or down
description below.

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Now, a while back we taught a lesson with
a hilarious scene from Modern Family,

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which I highly recommend that you watch
because it is perfectly relevant to this issue.

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Now, I should mention that
you're seeing

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the character Gloria, who unlike Sofía
Vergara herself,

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does make mistakes which get
in the way of communication.

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Now this is of course for humor, but
before you watch the scene there's

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actually a couple expressions which will
be very useful to understand

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so that you will understand
the jokes here.

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Now the expression "It's a dog-eat-dog world"

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is used to describe a situation in which

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people will do anything to be successful
even if that thing harms other people.

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So, for example, we could say
that hollywood is a place

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where it's a dog-eat-dog world.

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Now when we say that something
"is a blessing in disguise"

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we're saying that
although that thing seems

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bad or unfortunate in reality it's
something that really leads to great things.

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So for example. let's say that
you just lost your job,

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but then, next week you
get offered the job of your dreams

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like the best job that you
could ever imagine

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and we would say losing your first job
would have been a "blessing in disguise."

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So if you want to learn more
with Sofía

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in a fun way like this, I want to
let you know that we have an

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exclusive lesson with her over
on our Instagram.

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I highly recommend that you check that
out after you finish this video and

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while you're there be sure to follow us
because you'll get new inspiration,

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tips, lessons, and more every single day.
Now at the beginning this lesson we

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posed some common questions
that I hear all the time,

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and no, you do not need to have a native
accent in order to be fluent in English.

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In fact, your accent can be
a calling card for you.

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A part of your identity
that makes you unique,

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as is the case of Sofia Vergara and
other actors I'm sure you know,

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like Deepika Padukone, who we actually
did a recent lesson on,

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Arnold Schwarzenegger and Penelope Cruz.
And of course it's not just actors who

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can be successful even while keeping
their native accent.

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American businesswoman, Ariana Huffington,
very similarly to Sofía,

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took accent reduction classes to try to
get rid of her Greek accent.

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But in the end she actually decided that
she would rather maintain it

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because it's part of her heritage.
For her, she says that the focus is on

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speaking and sharing her message.

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So, of course, in the end it's up to you
whether or not you want to do the hard

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work that goes into trying to achieve
a native accent when speaking English.

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But personally, what I recommend
to my students

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is that, instead, they put their focus on
having clear pronunciation.

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So even though they'll have an accent,
which I personally believe

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makes them sound more interesting and
exotic, they're easy to understand.

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And of course, I don't condone laughing
at other people's accents, specially if

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you only speak one language.
But one of the most

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admirable things that we can learn
from Sofía Vergara,

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is that she doesn't really care when
people laugh at hers,

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she is part of the humor,
she's part of the joke,

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and really what we can learn from her is
that she is proud of where she comes from.

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She's comfortable with
who she is and she's confident.

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I speak several different
languages myself,

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and I know for me when someone
laughs at the way that I say something

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I try not to take that too personally

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Instead I actually look at that as
something that's kind of guiding me

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towards where I need to still improve.
It's kind of showing me

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where my pronunciation still
needs some work.

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So, I want to hear from you.
Let me know down in the comments below,

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Do you want to have a native accent?
Why or why not?

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Now, thanks so much for joining me today

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and now it's time to go beyond the
classroom

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and live your English!
Aww yeah!!