Accent Jim

Fluent in 3 Months is a blog by Benny, the Irish polyglot, about his adventures in learning multiple languages in shorter periods of time.  Key to his success:  Just speak it! (Don’t wait until you’re comfortable to get started - it’s okay to suck.)  He shares another key to handling multiple language in this post:  Create a “character” that defines the language.  (Take on the attitude, posture and personality of the language, and you won’t mistake it for another.)

Benny is on to something beyond language acquisition:  The same is true of learning accents.  You have to just try them, and try them boldly, and you need to let them transform you!

I have to give the note Fail Boldly all the time.  If you are wimpily trying to do a Cockney accent, you will be so indefinite with the vowels and the other sound changes that I won’t be able to tell if you’ve got them or not.  If you boldly dive in, you will nail a lot of it, and you will suck at some of it, too, but if you don’t completely suck, you won’t know what to work on.  Fail Boldly!  Then fix it; then fail boldly again…

Another thing to realize is that you need to let yourself transform to fully get an accent.  I do occasionally have to say that someone has the sound changes down, but I don’t believe them…  They don’t “own” the accent.  That’s the part that can be difficult to describe.  But I do find it true in my own work with multiple accents - I usually have a key word or phrase (often the name of the place or the accent) that kicks me in to gear.  Part of what happens on my key phrase is that I adopt the attitude of the accent.  Let it transform you to expand your sense of who you are!  

Yeah, that was artsy fartsy, but it’s also true…  Cope with my artsy, but stay clear of my fartsy.  

Thanks, Benny!

(Source: wwwlfluentin3months.com)