February 17, 2025 • 11 mins
If you are focusing on your accent then this podcast episode is for you. American accents are all very different from place to place. I want you to think about that when you begin to think about accents. Come along as we explore the American accent.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
So are you struggling with your confidence? A lot of
people are. And I think that what we're doing is
we're getting our confidence mixed up with wanting to change
our accent. Okay, I'm Matt. This is the podcast. Thanks
for joining me and check it out. I do this
(00:29):
for those of you who want to learn English. This
is what I do this for. And I do this
because I know how bad the English learning landscape is.
And I do this because I know that you want
to learn English. Okay, Memorizing rules is done dead and
(00:55):
over with. This is where we talk about using English. Okay.
This is where we talk about how to use our words.
There's something that we always tell children when they start
crying and throwing a fit. We say, use your words,
(01:16):
use your words. Quit crying. Use your words. This is true,
and you need to start using your words, but not
trying to expand your vocabulary all at once. Do you
realize you are going to have one heck of a
fight on your hands if you intend to go out
(01:37):
there and memorize the whole English language. You can memorize
all these words you want, you are not going to
know how to use them. And if you don't know
how to use the words what good is knowing them?
(01:58):
I might could ly an airplane on a simulator, but
I've never flown an airplane. I'm pretty good at flight
simulator doesn't mean I can fly an airplane because I
don't know how to do it. You see, there's a
(02:18):
difference between just going through the motions and what you're doing.
If you are trying to change your accent, you're acting.
I tell my students all this all the time when
they come in worried. My clients, I tell them all
the time when they come in worried about their accent,
(02:40):
I say, what you're really doing is accent sing. You're acting.
You're worried too much about the wrong thing. One hundred percent.
You're worried too much about the wrong thing. I'm a
huge fan of Formula one, huge fan, and I am
(03:02):
privileged to be able to work with a lot of
athletes and high level people, you know, very high performance individuals,
And one thing I always tell them is focus on
what it is you want to say. Don't worry about
the accent. People aren't going to worry about the accent.
(03:24):
Nobody knocks Jogue Yu, the Chinese F one driver, for
not being able to speak great English. But he check
this out. Jogue Yu knows how to use English, and
(03:45):
he doesn't focus so much on trying to distance himself
from the Chinese language, from the Chinese tone of voice.
Samilar with a lot of people. Fernando Alonso, World Champion,
Sebastian Vettel, German driver. Some of these drivers are a
little hard to understand, but you know what, they know
(04:08):
how to use English. Another one I like to use
a good example is Yuki Sonoda from Japan. When Yuki
first came to four Noah one, his English was pathetic.
His English was a disaster. Now he uses the same words,
(04:29):
just speak to them with more confidence. And he's not
focusing on his accent. Why because he's got too many
other things to work on, too many other things to prioritize.
So for those of you who are out there worried
about your accent, I want you to know something. Your
(04:52):
accent is not the problem. Your attitude is the problem.
So when you're out there thinking about what it is
that is wrong with your English, and you automatically assume
that what's wrong with your English is your accent, you're
(05:12):
already thinking the wrong way. So here's what I want
you to do. I want you to stop, I want
you to quit acting, and I want you to just
put your best version of the English language out there.
Do what you can do with what you have. You know,
(05:36):
there's been studies that say that our accent doesn't really
change much after about the age of thirteen or fifteen
something like this. So what does that tell me? It
tells me that all of these apps, all of these
computer things, all of these things that promise you that
(05:58):
they can help you lose your accent and only thirty days,
well guess what, it's not gonna happen in thirty days,
and they're gonna tell you that you just need to
try a little bit more, and they get you to
subscribe for another thirty days. That's what these things are
geared to do. What you need to do is focus
(06:19):
more on just being able to speak. Speak with confidence,
speak with clarity, speak with intention. Stop worrying too much
about your accent, because your accent doesn't mean that much. Listen,
people are far less judgmental than we give them credit
(06:44):
for now. I'm not gonna sit here and blow sunshine
up your butt. Americans can be pretty prejudiced. People. But
if you're listening to people this size your accent or
say you don't speak English good enough because you don't
(07:06):
speak like an American speaks, you're only fooling yourself and
you're being deceived. And that's the interesting part about this.
When you're being deceived by these people who are trying
to convince you that your accent is the problem, they're
(07:31):
really distracting you. Your accent is less of a problem
than your confidence in your command and your ability to speak.
And that's what we need to focus on, the ability
to speak. So here's what I want you to do.
(07:55):
I want you to focus on the body language. I
want you to focus more on how to be a
creative speaker. Use simple, direct, clear words, don't focus on
(08:16):
the rules, and don't focus on the accent. Now, to
wrap this lesson up, what we're doing here is something simple.
I hear clients of mine come to me all the
time and they say that they want to speak like
(08:37):
a Native American. Well, good luck, because I'm not Navajo,
I'm not Cherokee, I'm not choke tall, I'm not Seminole.
I'm a Texan through and through, born and raised, lived
here most of my life, with the exception of my work,
(08:58):
traveling around. And here's the thing about this. If you
go to New York, they have their own accent. If
you go to Boston, they have their own accent. If
you go to Texas, we have our own accent. If
you go to the South Alabama, Mississippi, they have their
(09:20):
own accent. Florida's accent is currently changing to be more
of a cross between a hybrid, if you will, between
Southern accent and New York because there's so many New
Yorkers moving in down there. Californians have their own accent.
(09:40):
People who live in Washington and Oregon have their own accent. Colorado, Utah, Minnesota,
they have their own accent. You see, it's less about
talking trying to identify and talking with one unique American accent.
That's not what it's about, my friends. What it's really
(10:04):
about is talking with confidence, talking with clarity, talking with intention,
and using simple words properly, using them with command, confidence
and intention. Meaning this is going to help you more
(10:28):
than anything that you could ever be taught from an app.
And if you're insistent on changing your accent, you don't
need an English tutor or an English teacher. What you
need is a vocal coach, a voice coach, and acting
coach because at this point you're abandoning everything you are
(10:51):
to try to be something you're not. And that's the
hard truth of it. So here's what I want you
to do. I want you to go out there. I
want you to be the best version of you that
you can possibly be, and speak more with clarity and confidence,
(11:13):
not worry about your accent.
So are you struggling with your confidence? A lot of
people are. And I think that what we're doing is
we're getting our confidence mixed up with wanting to change
our accent. Okay, I'm Matt. This is the podcast. Thanks
for joining me and check it out. I do this
(00:29):
for those of you who want to learn English. This
is what I do this for. And I do this
because I know how bad the English learning landscape is.
And I do this because I know that you want
to learn English. Okay, Memorizing rules is done dead and
(00:55):
over with. This is where we talk about using English. Okay.
This is where we talk about how to use our words.
There's something that we always tell children when they start
crying and throwing a fit. We say, use your words,
(01:16):
use your words. Quit crying. Use your words. This is true,
and you need to start using your words, but not
trying to expand your vocabulary all at once. Do you
realize you are going to have one heck of a
fight on your hands if you intend to go out
(01:37):
there and memorize the whole English language. You can memorize
all these words you want, you are not going to
know how to use them. And if you don't know
how to use the words what good is knowing them?
(01:58):
I might could ly an airplane on a simulator, but
I've never flown an airplane. I'm pretty good at flight
simulator doesn't mean I can fly an airplane because I
don't know how to do it. You see, there's a
(02:18):
difference between just going through the motions and what you're doing.
If you are trying to change your accent, you're acting.
I tell my students all this all the time when
they come in worried. My clients, I tell them all
the time when they come in worried about their accent,
(02:40):
I say, what you're really doing is accent sing. You're acting.
You're worried too much about the wrong thing. One hundred percent.
You're worried too much about the wrong thing. I'm a
huge fan of Formula one, huge fan, and I am
(03:02):
privileged to be able to work with a lot of
athletes and high level people, you know, very high performance individuals,
And one thing I always tell them is focus on
what it is you want to say. Don't worry about
the accent. People aren't going to worry about the accent.
(03:24):
Nobody knocks Jogue Yu, the Chinese F one driver, for
not being able to speak great English. But he check
this out. Jogue Yu knows how to use English, and
(03:45):
he doesn't focus so much on trying to distance himself
from the Chinese language, from the Chinese tone of voice.
Samilar with a lot of people. Fernando Alonso, World Champion,
Sebastian Vettel, German driver. Some of these drivers are a
little hard to understand, but you know what, they know
(04:08):
how to use English. Another one I like to use
a good example is Yuki Sonoda from Japan. When Yuki
first came to four Noah one, his English was pathetic.
His English was a disaster. Now he uses the same words,
(04:29):
just speak to them with more confidence. And he's not
focusing on his accent. Why because he's got too many
other things to work on, too many other things to prioritize.
So for those of you who are out there worried
about your accent, I want you to know something. Your
(04:52):
accent is not the problem. Your attitude is the problem.
So when you're out there thinking about what it is
that is wrong with your English, and you automatically assume
that what's wrong with your English is your accent, you're
(05:12):
already thinking the wrong way. So here's what I want
you to do. I want you to stop, I want
you to quit acting, and I want you to just
put your best version of the English language out there.
Do what you can do with what you have. You know,
(05:36):
there's been studies that say that our accent doesn't really
change much after about the age of thirteen or fifteen
something like this. So what does that tell me? It
tells me that all of these apps, all of these
computer things, all of these things that promise you that
(05:58):
they can help you lose your accent and only thirty days,
well guess what, it's not gonna happen in thirty days,
and they're gonna tell you that you just need to
try a little bit more, and they get you to
subscribe for another thirty days. That's what these things are
geared to do. What you need to do is focus
(06:19):
more on just being able to speak. Speak with confidence,
speak with clarity, speak with intention. Stop worrying too much
about your accent, because your accent doesn't mean that much. Listen,
people are far less judgmental than we give them credit
(06:44):
for now. I'm not gonna sit here and blow sunshine
up your butt. Americans can be pretty prejudiced. People. But
if you're listening to people this size your accent or
say you don't speak English good enough because you don't
(07:06):
speak like an American speaks, you're only fooling yourself and
you're being deceived. And that's the interesting part about this.
When you're being deceived by these people who are trying
to convince you that your accent is the problem, they're
(07:31):
really distracting you. Your accent is less of a problem
than your confidence in your command and your ability to speak.
And that's what we need to focus on, the ability
to speak. So here's what I want you to do.
(07:55):
I want you to focus on the body language. I
want you to focus more on how to be a
creative speaker. Use simple, direct, clear words, don't focus on
(08:16):
the rules, and don't focus on the accent. Now, to
wrap this lesson up, what we're doing here is something simple.
I hear clients of mine come to me all the
time and they say that they want to speak like
(08:37):
a Native American. Well, good luck, because I'm not Navajo,
I'm not Cherokee, I'm not choke tall, I'm not Seminole.
I'm a Texan through and through, born and raised, lived
here most of my life, with the exception of my work,
(08:58):
traveling around. And here's the thing about this. If you
go to New York, they have their own accent. If
you go to Boston, they have their own accent. If
you go to Texas, we have our own accent. If
you go to the South Alabama, Mississippi, they have their
(09:20):
own accent. Florida's accent is currently changing to be more
of a cross between a hybrid, if you will, between
Southern accent and New York because there's so many New
Yorkers moving in down there. Californians have their own accent.
(09:40):
People who live in Washington and Oregon have their own accent. Colorado, Utah, Minnesota,
they have their own accent. You see, it's less about
talking trying to identify and talking with one unique American accent.
That's not what it's about, my friends. What it's really
(10:04):
about is talking with confidence, talking with clarity, talking with intention,
and using simple words properly, using them with command, confidence
and intention. Meaning this is going to help you more
(10:28):
than anything that you could ever be taught from an app.
And if you're insistent on changing your accent, you don't
need an English tutor or an English teacher. What you
need is a vocal coach, a voice coach, and acting
coach because at this point you're abandoning everything you are
(10:51):
to try to be something you're not. And that's the
hard truth of it. So here's what I want you
to do. I want you to go out there. I
want you to be the best version of you that
you can possibly be, and speak more with clarity and confidence,
(11:13):
not worry about your accent.
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