“I Want to Speak Like a Native Speaker. Can You Help?“ – My Answer

Hey, everyone, it's Hadar. Thank you so much for joining me. Recently, I've been getting a lot of questions from followers about how they can acquire the American accent so they can start feeling more confident in English. They want to sound like native speakers. Now I'm listening to these students, these people, and to me, they sound clear, they sound powerful, they sound engaging, and. And at the same time, their individual experience is that their English is not good enough, and that compromises their confidence when communicating in English. So I want to bring back this conversation about accent and sounding like a native versus owning your voice in English, because I believe that these two things are not exactly the same Meaning. Acquiring an American accent or speaking without a foreign accent does not guarantee full confidence. It does not guarantee ultimate limitless fluency. And I can tell you that because I have been there myself. I have trained as an actress, and the first thing I worked on was my accent, was my pronunciation. And even though I was able to acquire an American accent and speak like an American, I did not feel confident. In fact, I felt less confident in many of the cases because on the outside it sounded like I'm a native speaker, but from the inside, I wasn't. And I knew that I'm still making mistakes or I still get stuck. And that made me feel more like a fraud than someone who masters a language. And I also felt that dealing with the nuances and always making sure that it all sounds cheap, just right, really limited my experience when communicating in English. I was focusing on how it sounds rather than what I wanted to express. So owning that accent did not provide me with that ultimate fluency that a lot of my students are looking for. And this is why it's important for me to speak about this. Because limitless fluency, which means an experience where you speak in English without second guessing yourself, without thinking twice about what to say, with feeling like you're speaking in, you're not sure if it's English or your native language. Right? That is what I call limitless fluency, where you actually enjoy communicating in English and even you enjoy it more than communicating in your native language. Right? That is limitless fluency. Regardless of the result, limitless fluency is the experience of you speaking. So to reach that, it requires a series of elements that you need to take into consideration. And yes, pronunciation is definitely one of them. Actually, it's a big component of the work, but it's not the end result to sound like a native, because that will not guarantee you that experience that I'm talking about without the internal work, working on the external features will never get you to where you want to be. And this is why internal work and a very clear plan is what you need to reach that limitless fluency, to reach a transformation to own your voice in English, to not care about what people think, to not care about how you sound and more about. Did I get my point across right? Am I getting what I want when I'm speaking? To understand that you belong in English and you deserve to get stuck and to make mistakes and to have someone wait for you until you figure out what you want to say. You deserve all that and you belong in that language just like any other person who happened to be born into that language. This is so incredibly important for you to understand. And I'm going to keep. Keep talking about it and keep repeating it over and over again because I still get these questions. And I want to change that paradigm that no accent means freedom and confidence, because I can tell you firsthand this is not true. I have trained my students in the first few years of teaching when I also wanted to have my students sound like a native, to get them to sound like a native. And I realized how insecure they still were. Whereas when we started doing additional work, internal work, a very specific pronunciation work that is designed to free up the muscles and create more ease and of course, create clarity with awareness and giving the students the power to know if they're on the right track or not. Right. Taking ownership over their English, that has turned their experience around and that has given them a lot more freedom than the right pronunciation.

Before, I used to think my English was good but not good enough. And I used to feel so afraid and ashamed of using it. But I started noticing a lot of changes, starting with gaining confidence. And I have also noticed many other improvements, you know, in my pronunciation, in my fluency, in my rhythm, and in many other aspects.

I'm more confident now. I feel free. And now I don't think that my English is not enough. Now I just stand up in the middle of the circle and I just can speak. And people give me positive reviews and people understand me.

I feel more confident. And now I talk and I said what I thought. I spread my feelings by feeling confident enough to speak English to people. And my life has improved a lot.

So if I can offer you anything in this episode is that mindset shift around what it means to be fluent, what it means to have this free experience communicating in a second language. And while pronunciation work is a part of. Is not the ultimate goal sounding like a native is not the ultimate goal. Now I'm not a fool. I know that people experience discrimination once they open their mouth. I know that that's the case for many immigrants and many non native speakers around the world, working in global companies or trying to apply for a job that requires English. I know that. But you cannot change how people perceive you. You can only change how you interpret that situation and how it affects your perception of your self worth. Because if you let that situation be a confirmation to the negative thoughts that you have about yourself and about your English, it is not going to serve you. You are not going to reach your goals and you are not going to break free from those barriers. But if you choose to interpret it as not validation for your incompetence, but as validation for their incompetence and their lack of understanding of of how the world works and what it means to speak a second language, right, if you use that as validation that you are on the right track and you know what's right and you're not going to let it deter you from where you want to go, this is when you reach real freedom and real transformation. Okay? So I want you to remember that. And at the same time, I do believe that there are things that you can do to help you own that voice and in English. In fact, in just a few days, I'm hosting a brand new masterclass that is totally free where I will be teaching you those five steps that are needed for you to reach a real transformation in English and reach limitless fluency. And yes, pronunciation is a big part of it, but I will be teaching you how to use pronunciation work to find that freedom rather than just to change how you sound and sound like an adept. Okay? So I'm going to be sharing with you all of that there. I promise that you're going to learn new things and gain new insights as to what needs to happen for you to finally see that change and feel free. It's absolutely free. Seats are limited, so I invite you to click the link below. If you're watching this after we host the masterclass, then I still invite you to click the link and I'm going to be sharing with you some useful links to do this work on your own. Alright? So thank you so much for being here. I hope this was helpful. Please let me know in the comments how this lands and how this resonates and I can't wait to continue this conversation here or over on Instagram. Hadar Accentsway Have a beautiful, beautiful rest of the day and I'll see you next week in the next video. Bye.