As I’ve mentioned before, English is a slow and lazy language, except maybe as it is spoken in New York.  In general, we speak more slowly than speakers of many other languages.  Our ears aren’t tuned to very rapid speech, so most English speakers will find it difficult to understand a fast talker.  Add a foreign accent to rapid speech, and most English speakers will have real trouble with comprehension.

Comprehension is Key

The primary need of learners of English as a foreign language is to both understand what is being said to them, and to be understood by others.  Sounding intelligent, well-read, professional or charming is, believe me, of purely secondary importance to understanding and being understood.  That can come later.  First, you have to understand what others are saying to you, and you have to be understood by those you are speaking to.

Fast Does Not Equal Smart

Interestingly, most learners are more occupied with sounding smart (or at least not sounding too stupid!) than with being understood.  And, in their native languages, most learners of English as a foreign language are used to speaking quickly – much more quickly than they should be speaking in English.  So, in order to feel at least somewhat smart and accomplished, most English as a foreign language speakers try to speak very rapidly.  Wrong move!

Recently I was listening to an interview in English that featured three French CEOs.  All three had heavy accents, but a good command of English.  Two spoke very rapidly, and were nearly impossible to understand.  The third spoke English with just as heavy an accent, but he spoke very slowly and thoughtfully.  He was very easy to understand, in spite of his accent, and actually sounded like a much better speaker of English than the other two (which he really wasn’t).

Slow Down, Repeat Less

So slow down.  It may seem painfully slow to you, but you will be understood, which is what you want.  And, if you set a slow pace, people you are speaking to will unconsciously slow down, too, so you will be better able to understand them.

Slow it way down.  You’ll be surprised at how much less frequently you will be asked to repeat yourself.

Linguistically, why has English become the international language?  Why has French been eclipsed?  Why did Esperanto never really catch on?  Why not Chinese?

Of course there are many contributing reasons for this.  You could say it is because Britain and then America were the dominant superpowers for a long time, so it was natural.  You could say it is because for many years America was the leader in technology and business innovation, so it became the language of tech and business, but then why no German or Japanese?

I mean really, why English?

It’s a completely crazy language.

It is a completely crazy language with more irregular than regular grammar, more irregular than regular spelling (or so it seems to the learner), and so many ways to pronounce each letter of the alphabet that we can’t even write them all down. Plus, English has a much larger active vocabulary than probably any other language in modern usage.

How anyone can ever expect to master this seems ridiculous.  And why they would try seems even more ridiculous.  And yet, it is the most widely studied foreign language in the world, and millions and millions of people do in fact master it.

As a native English speaker who is a teacher of English at the Lake Tahoe Institute of English, I am constantly having to try to explain and find rules for what comes naturally to me.  We get all kinds of English learners here at the Lake Tahoe Institute of English, and we design very personalized programs for each one of them.  We create programs that address various needs, professions and learning styles.

Sometimes I have clients who love structure.  They want a syllabus and a plan for what they are going to accomplish each day.  Some of them really want to know and clearly understand the framework and rules for English grammar, pronunciation and spelling.

To be perfectly honest, when I have a client like this, I have to spend considerable time reviewing the so-called rules and the many, many exceptions to the rules.  And even then, I find it difficult to explain!

English grammar doesn’t make sense!

There is a pretty simple explanation for this:  English grammar doesn’t make sense.

English is an extremely versatile and flexible language.  It is an ancient language that has been contributed to and molded by many, many very diverse languages over the centuries.  It is not largely Latin-based, or Greek-based.  It is Anglo-Saxon based with huge influences from Celtic, from German, Swedish, French, Latin, etc.  It is a polyglot of languages.

But in the 17th century linguists greatly admired Latin, supposedly the purest of languages, and decided that the rules of Latin grammar should be imposed on English, a decidedly non-Latin based language.

According to my language hero, Bill Bryson, in The Mother Tongue, “this is like trying to play baseball in iceskates.  The two simply don’t match.”

Well, no wonder then…..

A lot of people think that as adults they can’t learn a new language, or that they can’t learn it as well as a child can.  And a lot of adults would like to learn a language for reasons as varied as needing it for business or travel, for personal enrichment, and because research shows that learning another language is one of the best ways to keep your brain working well.  The good news is that adults can learn new languages, and they can do it as well as children, given the right learning conditions.  Watch the this video, Adults Learn Language Better Than Children, to learn more about this topic.

In the last couple of months I’ve had the good fortune to speak with a huge variety of non-native English speakers, both clients of mine at the Lake Tahoe Institute of English and casual acquaintances.  I’ve spoken with native speakers of Spanish, French, Dutch, German, Portuguese, Korean, Vietnamese and Mandarin.  I have noticed two common threads in all of these conversations.

You Speak Better Than You Think

First, most of these people spoke English far better than they thought they did.  They nearly always apologized and seemed embarrassed by their perceived lack of ability.  Of course I know it is intimidating to speak confidently to someone you know teaches the language, but not all of them knew what my profession is.

You probably speak better than you think, too.  So relax a little bit.  Just talk and all will be well.

It is the most unusual English speaker who will be impatient with you.  Most are extremely patient and appreciative of your efforts.  After all, we know that as a rule, we don’t speak any other languages, and as a rule, we are embarrassed by that.  We just appreciate anyone who has succeeded at all in learning our language.

Finish Saying Each Word

Second, and as important, I’ve noticed that the one problem that these non-native English speakers from many different backgrounds have in common is that they don’t finish their English words.  They drop the final letter or two, which leaves the listener often unable to discern which word the speaker is using.  This is probably the single most important factor in making your speech understandable to others.

For example, someone might say “Why you ha so man bo to ree”, instead of “Why do you have so many books to read?” or “I lie to ee mee for dinner” instead of “I like to eat meat for dinner.”  As the listener, in the first sentence, we don’t know if you are saying “ha”, “have”, “has”, “hair”, “ham” or “man”, “many”, “men”, etc.. You get the idea.  It makes it so much more difficult for the listener.  Add in the fact that so many listeners are themselves non-native speakers of English who have an accent of their own, and then you have real trouble.

It seems to me that a very simple but elusive fix to this serious clarity problem is to remember how the word is spelled, and then make sure you say all of it (that is, unless the ending is silent, which it sometimes is in our crazy, irregular English language – you just have to memorize those).

I know, you think you are saying all of it, but I’m telling you, chances are, you are not.  Slow down and finish your words.  I promise, you won’t have to repeat yourself as often.

After driving to Phoenix to visit our daughter for a brief winter vacation, Kim and I then flew East, to the tiny Bahamian island of Abaco.  We’ve been there many times, as it is one of our favorite places in the world.  Where Phoenix is desert dry and brown, with the only thing we love about it being Eve, our daughter, the Bahamas is a group of islands that is totally delightful.  We began going there because of the water, but have gone back over and over again because of the pure pleasure of being amongst what has to be the kindest, happiest group of people we’ve ever met.

Lush and Lovely

The Bahamian Flag

Surf's Up at Treasure Cay Beach

Day After a Storm - Treasure Cay Beach and the Bahama Beach Club

This particular group of islands, the Abacos, was settled about 250 years ago by Loyalists from America.  They were on the British side of the Revolutionary War, and wanted to remain loyal to the crown. When it was no longer possible to remain in America and be a loyal British subject, this group relocated to the Abacos, bringing their African slaves, who were later emancipated, with them.  These descendants of these same people, white Abaconians and black Abaconians, have remained on these tiny islands ever since, forging a very distinctive society for themselves.

Abaconian Accents

One thing I find so interesting and charming about Abaconians is their accent.  They all speak English, however the English spoken by white Abaconians differs greatly from that spoken by black Abaconians.  As far as I can tell, the Island of Abaco is more integrated than most parts of the United States.  People live together, work together, and speak with each other every day.  And yet these two groups continue to speak English with completely different accents after 250 years of living in the same tiny place.

White Abaconians speak with a kind of flat, half Boston, half British accent.  It is very distinctive, yet easily understood by any English speaker.  No matter what the situation, or how rapid the speech, I can understand it as easily as I can understand any west coast American speech.  Although inflections differ, the music and rhythm of the speech is classic English.

Black Abaconians, however, sound completely different.  One of the most charming aspects of Bahamians is the lilting, musical sound of their speech.  There is laughter and kindness in the sound.  There is a song in every sentence.  It is a beautiful thing to hear.

The interesting thing, to me, is that it is a very easy speech to understand most of the time.  Clearly, though, it has a different beat from common American English or British English, and when Bahamians choose not to be understood, when they increase the pace of their conversations, when they clip their words a little more closely, when they don’t enunciate quite so clearly, it is impossible for me, a teacher of language, skilled in comprehension of heavily accented speech, to understand anything.

The Musicality of a Language

In previous posts I have discussed the musicality of a language, and how it impacts comprehension.  Here is an incredible example of it, within my own native language of English.  The very thing that makes Bahamian English so charming is what also can make it impossible for even an English speaker to understand.

Some of our clients at the Lake Tahoe Institute of English are too worried about improving their American accents so that no one will know they are not a native speaker of the language.  Not only is this nearly impossible for an adult, it is, in my opinion, not a good idea.  Accents in English are charming.  We Americans love a foreigner, especially one who speaks good English.  An accent is appealing, so long as it is understandable.

What speakers of English as a second language should strive for is pronouncing sounds in such a way that they can be understood by other speakers of English, whether it be their first or second language.  We just need you to be understandable to us, not to be American (or British, or whatever).  Master most of the sounds, and, most of all, master the rhythm of the language.  Then you will be understood.

In the last 2 posts, I’ve talked about pronunciation as a function of the position of the mouth when speaking English. There is, of course, more to it than that, although I believe mouth position makes the biggest difference in speaking English clearly and understandably.

But, it is not the only thing. Also very important is where the stress is placed in a word, and the music, or intonation of the language. Today I’m going to give you the bad news about word stress in English, and the best way to cope with it.

Bad Habits

English, Russian and Greek have the same bad habits when it comes to word stress. That is, just like most else in English, it is irregular. Which syllables are stressed varies from word to word. There are no rules. This is very difficult for speakers of other languages to understand, since most languages have very specific rules about stress, with few exceptions.

For example, in French, the last syllable is stressed. In Spanish, it is normally the next to last syllable. In German, it is the first syllable, with some exceptions, and in Japanese, the stress is even.

One of the things that makes speakers of English as a foreign language difficult to understand (but also what makes their accents so charming) is that they continually stress the wrong syllables in a pattern familiar to them. In English, the syllables in a single word can be stressed in a number of different ways, with each way having a different meaning. So, it is very important to stress the syllables correctly.

Here are some examples of words that look like they would be pronounced the same, but are not:

noble: honorable, distinguished, aristocratic
Nobel: a prestigious award of achievement

invalid: a sick or disabled person
invalid: not valid, void

personal: individual, private
personnel: a group of people employed in an organization or place of work

pronouns: parts of speech that subsititute for nouns, such as he and she
pronounce: to say words

advantages: benefits or gain
advantageous: beneficial, useful

content: subject matter of a book, speech, etc.
content: satisfied and happy

So, you can see how important it is to stress the correct syllables in order to convey the correct meaning.

As Ususal, Listen!

As usual, the best thing you can do is listen and listen and listen to spoken English. You can memorize some pronunciations, but with enough listening, the correct pronunciation will sound right intuitively. Soon, it will become habit.

Also, it is very helpful if you become aware of the stress rules in your own native language. Once you are aware, then you can guard against using your habitual stress rules to pronounce English words while you word to make the correct stresses habit.