So, a common topic in the world of second language learning

is whether or not you should try to acquire a native accent in the language

that you're learning. And there's several different questions

that often come up when we talk about this topic, such as:

is it even possible to have a native accent in

another language that's not your mother tongue?

Does it even matter if you have a native accent?

And should you really care about having a native accent? Is that the right goal?

Is that can help push you forward? So, kind of talking about this topic,

in case you don't know her, Sofia Vergara is a Colombian actress, who is probably

most famous for her role in a TV series I absolutely love,

called Modern Family, where she plays Gloria, who is a Colombian immigrant,

who's married to an older American man.

So it seems like Sofia Vergara has become a prime example

of someone who is a successful, very proficient,

non-native English speaker, despite having a

very strong foreign accent. So in today's lesson

we're going to answer all of these questions that I talked about before

and we're going to have a lot of fun doing it with Sofía Vergara.

But before we get into today's lesson I want to quickly let you know that,

if you're new here, every week we make fun lessons like this one,

so that you can understand fast speaking natives,

without getting lost, without missing the jokes and without subtitles.

Like Razi, who says that our lessons are the best way that she's found

to understand fast native speech. So we're going to help you a lot

with your English learning goals too. It's really simple, just hit that

Subscribe button and the Bell down below, so you don't miss any of our new lessons.

So here Sofía explains why she decided

to stop pursuing an American accent, and really it makes perfect sense.

Now, you as an English learner may or may not relate to Sofía in this case.

English as a second language expert suggests that there are some

students who expose themselves as much as possible

to native English and who want to sound as close as they can to a native English speaker.

But others, on the other hand, don't really care about sounding anything like

an "Inner Circle" speaker. Now you're probably asking what is

this Inner Circle. Now, that is definitely part of a much

broader discussion, so we're not going to dive too deeply into it but it is worth mentioning.

Now, in a world where there are three

times more non-native English speakers than native English speakers it's kind

of worth reconsidering the authority that we give to certain countries

over the type of English that people should want to learn and teach.

So English is spoken all across the

world, obviously, and there's actually been an expression of

this by three different circles. So, on the innermost circle we have the

native speakers, from countries like the US, the UK, and Australia.

Then we have an outer circle where

English is spoken as a second language, this is countries like India and the

Philippines and then finally we have the most outer circle

which has countries where English is taught as a foreign language

so this is countries like Brazil and Russia, France, etc.

So more and more there are students who actually

want to keep their accent because they kind of feel like it's a part of their

identity, it shows where they come from.

And Sofía Vergara certainly could be seen as a representative

of this type of thinking on a global scale and this is probably exactly why

there's been a lot of attention given recently

to an interview that Sofía gave on The Ellen Show and people raising the

question of whether or not it's okay to make fun of someone else's accent.

Especially when you don't speak any other languages yourself.

So, Sofía is extremely fluent and rarely

makes any vocabulary or grammar mistakes. Now on the clip with Ellen she brought

up the word "discombobulated." Now, this is a pretty rare word that you

probably won't hear in everyday English, so it doesn't really

reflect sophia's abilities to communicate in everyday language.

We believe that most learners still want to improve their accent,

but in a context where some prefer to

kind of maintain their native accent, for whatever reason,

really intelligibility becomes the key goal of pronunciation.

So, in other words, really you have to focus on correct pronunciation and clarity.

Because otherwise people might not understand you.

And you don't want it to keep you from communicating effectively

so just to give you an example say you go to a restaurant and you want to order soup.

But instead of saying soup you say soap.

Not only is this going to create kind of a confusing situation

but it might also cause some embarrassment for you

so another really great way to improve your pronunciation

and be able to understand fast speaking natives is with our Fluent with Friends course.

Now, in this 48-week course, we will teach

you the principles of native American connected speech.

So you can try it for FREE with our 3-Part Masterclass, which you'll find

by clicking up here or down description below.

Now, a while back we taught a lesson with a hilarious scene from Modern Family,

which I highly recommend that you watch because it is perfectly relevant to this issue.

Now, I should mention that you're seeing

the character Gloria, who unlike Sofía Vergara herself,

does make mistakes which get in the way of communication.

Now this is of course for humor, but before you watch the scene there's

actually a couple expressions which will be very useful to understand

so that you will understand the jokes here.

Now the expression "It's a dog-eat-dog world"

is used to describe a situation in which

people will do anything to be successful even if that thing harms other people.

So, for example, we could say that hollywood is a place

where it's a dog-eat-dog world.

Now when we say that something "is a blessing in disguise"

we're saying that although that thing seems

bad or unfortunate in reality it's something that really leads to great things.

So for example. let's say that you just lost your job,

but then, next week you get offered the job of your dreams

like the best job that you could ever imagine

and we would say losing your first job would have been a "blessing in disguise."

So if you want to learn more with Sofía

in a fun way like this, I want to let you know that we have an

exclusive lesson with her over on our Instagram.

I highly recommend that you check that out after you finish this video and

while you're there be sure to follow us because you'll get new inspiration,

tips, lessons, and more every single day. Now at the beginning this lesson we

posed some common questions that I hear all the time,

and no, you do not need to have a native accent in order to be fluent in English.

In fact, your accent can be a calling card for you.

A part of your identity that makes you unique,

as is the case of Sofia Vergara and other actors I'm sure you know,

like Deepika Padukone, who we actually did a recent lesson on,

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Penelope Cruz. And of course it's not just actors who

can be successful even while keeping their native accent.

American businesswoman, Ariana Huffington, very similarly to Sofía,

took accent reduction classes to try to get rid of her Greek accent.

But in the end she actually decided that she would rather maintain it

because it's part of her heritage. For her, she says that the focus is on

speaking and sharing her message.

So, of course, in the end it's up to you whether or not you want to do the hard

work that goes into trying to achieve a native accent when speaking English.

But personally, what I recommend to my students

is that, instead, they put their focus on having clear pronunciation.

So even though they'll have an accent, which I personally believe

makes them sound more interesting and exotic, they're easy to understand.

And of course, I don't condone laughing at other people's accents, specially if

you only speak one language. But one of the most

admirable things that we can learn from Sofía Vergara,

is that she doesn't really care when people laugh at hers,

she is part of the humor, she's part of the joke,

and really what we can learn from her is that she is proud of where she comes from.

She's comfortable with who she is and she's confident.

I speak several different languages myself,

and I know for me when someone laughs at the way that I say something

I try not to take that too personally

Instead I actually look at that as something that's kind of guiding me

towards where I need to still improve. It's kind of showing me

where my pronunciation still needs some work.

So, I want to hear from you. Let me know down in the comments below,

Do you want to have a native accent? Why or why not?

Now, thanks so much for joining me today

and now it's time to go beyond the classroom

and live your English! Aww yeah!!