Blog - English with Sandro
Every Tuesday, you’ll receive a newsletter from me.
This is where I share tips to improve your English, cultural insights, student questions, common mistakes, and a little on my journey as a teacher.
Always on Tuesdays. Sometimes funny.
English is like a cake 🍰
If you walk into a cake shop and ask for a cake, the shopkeeper will probably ask you,
“What kind? Lemon, chocolate, carrot, banoffee, sponge, Black Forest cake?”
All great cakes, just different flavours.
And the same goes for the English language.
When my students ask me,
“How can I sound more English?”
My initial response is, “What cake do you prefer? Sorry! I mean,what do you mean by English?”
Usually, they give me daggers because no one wants a question inanswer to a question.
So I follow up with a more specific question,
“Which English are you referring to? There are many varieties and flavours.”
And usually the student's answer is:
“I’m not sure, I just want to sound more native...”
In general, this desire to sound more “native” when speaking English is a common one. I will say that no one should feel the need to sound like native speakers. But this “native speakers” is a huge topic which I’ll explore in another letter. For now, let’s go with the students who are confident they want to adopt native-like Engish pronunciation.
But to sound more native means everything and nothing at thesame time. There are thousands of variations of native English pronunciation.
As a learner, you have the freedom to choose which one you wish to adopt. If you live in Australia (or have plans to move there), I suggest you learn the Australian sounds.
Same for South Africa or Ireland or any other English speaking part of the world.
As a lover of sounds and accents, I really enjoy it when people tell me,
“I want to learn [X] accent because I just love it so much!”
The [X] could be Scottish, American, London or any other.
If, like many of my students, you live (or plan to live) in the UK, thenthe British pronunciation is the way to go. It doesn’t have to be but it makes more sense.
Often, learners of English don’t make the most of the freedom oflearning the language.
Many students don’t realise they have an active role to play in learning English. You have a responsibility to make choices when learning.
Ask yourself questions like,
What’s my favourite method for sustained learning English?
Do I prefer reading or writing in English?
If it’s reading, do I prefer books, news articles, cartoons strips, blog posts, or Twitter threads?
Should I read the same text every day for a week or a different one every day?”
You can use your imagination and freedom to test different approaches.
But all these questions, for me, should come after one foundational question,
Which pronunciation should I adopt going ahead?
If you're going to read a text out loud today, how are you going to read it? In an Australian accent, American, Scottish, Irish?
Choosing to focus on one pronunciation gives you more clarity and consistency going forward.
And I will stress again, that there is no need to adopt a specific pronunciation to be excellent speakers of English. No need at all, as long as you are understood, it’s all good. I like it when students kee ptheir accent and even personalise their English accent.
But for those who wish to sound smoother and hit consonant and vowel sounds like native speakers, then choose one and go from there!
As a teacher, I can only teach the pronunciation I naturally speak with. Mine is sometimes referred to as Modern RP, but I believe this is a little misleading and I’ll explain why in future articles.
My accent is more accurately described as Standard SouthernBritish (SSB) or Estuary English (Estuary of the River Thames), so essentially from the south-east of England, considered (for better or worse) one of the most understood accents in English.
Maybe this is your ideal English flavour, maybe not. And you don't just need one, but it's important that you start from this question in your journey to better your pronunciation!
