7 ms·

And yet, I'm sure there's some way to learn pronunciation well. I worked with a woman that was born in India, learned English with a British accent, and then l

And yet, I'm sure there's some way to learn pronunciation well. I worked with a woman that was born in India, learned English with a British accent, and then learned American English and lives in the US. The first time she switched to British accent I was gobsmacked. Then she switched to her native language (I don't remember which) and she clearly had a native accent fro that. And then she switched back to US accent and I couldn't tell it wasn't native, too. How did she learn? I wish I had asked her. It just seemed rude to ask at the time. She was very nice and obviously trusted us enough to show her accents, so it probably would have been fine to ask. Oh well.

SargeZT 6y ago
I recall a documentary from years ago about training in Indian call centers, and they'd have experts come in to train people in accents on a regular basis. Presumably due to the amount of call center outsourcing that's done in the western world there are more resources available in India than other places when it comes to accent coaching.
lordnacho 6y ago
If you have some incentive, you can get the practice. For instance, the Danish princesses have pretty good accents, having come from IIRC Hong Kong, France, and Australia. It's not that the information is secret, it's just not a focus. I had a Mandarin teacher who was very good at explaining exactly what shape to make with your mouth/tongue for each sound. There's gotta be a summary for most languages somewhere, I just haven't found them.