Hey Jow Forums, let's have a non-crypto and non-LINK thread for once.
I have some questions about foreign English accents and would like to know some opinions of native and non-native speakers (concerning english of course). I'm German and I'd say I speak correct English up to 95% but my biggest issue is pronunciation. I'm interested in creating English-spoken content (informative, educational and maybe even entertaining to a certain degree) but I'm insecure about my accent. It's not the worst German accent, I basically know how to pronounce everything correctly, but It's definitely obvious I'm not a native speaker.
Do accents bother you? Would you, for example, change a decision to purchase content based on the accent of the speaker? If everything is completely audible and understandable, would you care? Please give your opinion and your background (native or not).
A good example of a guy who capitalized on his accent is Ivan on Tech. My accent isn't nearly as strong as his but maybe that's even worse, when it's only subtle. Discuss.
Amerifag here. Personally, I wouldn't care. I guess it depends on how strong your accent is. As long as people can understand you, it shouldn't matter. Look at Arnold Schwarzenegger for example.
Joseph Ramirez
I agree, OP. American, too.
John Gonzalez
just speak in sand, ahmend
Alexander Richardson
The thing is, I watched a lot of tutorials and courses that teach how to adopt an American or British accent but my impression is that I can eliminate some errors but definitely not all and not consistently. My thought is that trying hard to mask an accent or imitate another one could be way more annoying than an authentic but stronger accent.
Entirely English-speaking American here. If you're speaking clearly and not butchering the words you say, you're fine.
Jason Reyes
You write better than many Amerifags. I am sure you are overanalyzing. Come to the States. We need you senpai
Luke Turner
Thanks for your insight guys. I think I can pull off a very easy to understand video or audio part when it is written correctly, maybe with some rehearsals.
Jordan Rogers
Don't be afraid to speak a bit slower if it helps. I had a coworker with an incredibly thick Indian accent, it was fine but sometimes he spoke a bit too fast
Carter Miller
Don't be insecure. I'd expect a German to have a German accent as much as I'd expect someone from the UK to have British accent. It would be weird if they didn't have one.
Parker Roberts
native here.
anyone who learns english out of the UK ends up getting the american twang on their accent.
I suggest you learn how to pronounce it the UK way out of principle.
Let's be honest do you really wanna sound like an Americanfag
Jason Thomas
Thanks, that seems to be the general sentiment here and I'm really happy so far. Thank you for that compliment, actually been thinking about moving to the states, a nice conservative town, when I'm more financially independent and my income isn't as bound to where I live.
Yeh better to have a slight accent but speak perfect pronunciation. If u try to sound English or American u end up in uncanny valley territory. It always unsettles me slightly when I meet foreigners who have near perfect English accents.
I’m britbong btw. What kind of content you making?
Jaxon James
Depends heavily on the accent itself. Some will bother me, especially if it's unclear what you're saying. Some will make you sound more intelligent, like a Britbong.
Joshua Fisher
That's exactly what my English teacher taught us all the time, I guess I'm trying that anyways. True, but what if you want to buy a course on something and don't expect the speaker to have an accent because it isn't stated anywhere? I guess then the statement is true that it doesn't matter as long as everything is clearly understandable?
James Barnes
From America. Your accent doesn't matter as long as people can understand you.
Also my girlfriend is from Germany and I think the German accent English accent is really nice.
Andrew Bennett
germans and indians have so bad english accents that i never watch any content from them, it's like they aren't even trying and do this on purpose
Jordan Campbell
The only accent that matters is the American Southern accent. Gets you laid, gets you paid. And serves as proof of superior genetics to Yankee muts.
Nicholas Nelson
Not sure so far, I want to start and try different projects like courses/videos on fitness, personal finance, getting ones priorities straight, basically all that trending self-improvement stuff. I know it's a saturated market but I believe I have some new ideas that could give me some market share. If it doesn't work out, it's still interesting to know about accents and how to talk to audiences when you have an accent (for other future projects, business ideas maybe).
Justin Gutierrez
I've only seen this when I moved North. In the south, you just one of the bunch, even in a metropolitan
Zachary Bailey
I actually kind of agree, indian accents are often really bad and sometimes I don't even realize they're speaking English until I'm 30 seconds into the video. I've been learning and speaking English for 16 years and I know that most Germans have horrible accents. I know exactly what you mean by "not even trying". I consider myself not in that group, at least I hope I'm not.
Eli Butler
No problem. Good luck.
Lucas Sullivan
This is true. But if you travel (either for pleasure or work) it comes in handy.
Tyler Ross
it's a huge turn on for girls from personal experience. i doubt it bothers business partners unless being clearly understood is crucial for your job.
Ryder Carter
my accent is hungarian btw, but chicks just love foreign accents that they don't hear often
Justin Bell
hello sir
Adrian Jackson
>Do accents bother you? Would you, for example, change a decision to purchase content based on the accent of the speaker? If everything is completely audible and understandable, would you care? Please give your opinion and your background (native or not). Native English speaker here, I'm actually more inclined to give credence to someone speaking very good English (regardless of accent) if it's not their first language as it denotes at least some degree of intelligence.
Camden Long
There's a new singaporean director in my firm, intelligent, confident and his accent is strong as fuck (we can understand what hes saying but it just sounds really different to how we speak)
Yet everyone still respect him because he gets shit done and isnt insecure
Jonathan Cook
Maybe it's the accent but I just think they're instantly interested in your origins/home country and that gets an easy and easily intimate conversation going. Didn't have much contact with native English speaker girls though. Very interesting point, actually.
Eli Rogers
Depends on the accent. If you had, for example, a chinese accent, it would really hurt your credibility in most cases. A german accent though will just identify you as german, so long as you are intelligible. As far as that goes, most english speakers are pretty good at understanding foreign accents too, due to the number of non-native speakers. It's dialects that trip us up, like how some people in the rural UK speak.