During a visit to France a few years back, we attended a Medieval banquet and tournament, organised and hosted by the Vendeens. As we filed through to the banqueting hall, we were given blue cardboard crowns and shown to our seats at a large scrubbed table laid with tin plates and pewter mugs filled to brimming from a large pitcher of red wine.
Amidst a sea of red crowns – at this point we realised the English visitors were identified by blue (of which there were not many) and the French, red – the banquet got underway and the entertainment began. A swaggering French soldier sauntered up and began speaking to his friend about the English army in French. How unprepared they were, how unprofessional and had his friend heard their pathetic attempts at speaking French? This was all done in very good humour and had us all laughing.
What was so interesting was that as soon as he began to imitate the English soldiers speaking French with an English accent, it was much easier to understand than when he was speaking French with a true French accent!
We learn our own language from a very early age and have all the muscles in our articulators strengthened, in good shape and available to make the sounds of the English language. Our ears find it easy to understand, developing our listening skills at the same time. Shifting our muscles as well as the rhythm and tune of our speech to sound like a French person, is incredibly challenging. This is why when a French speaker adopts an English accent, it sounds familiar to us and we understand better.
For example, look at the French expression, ‘Pour quoi?’ meaning ‘why?’. English vowel sounds in these words would be naturally longer than the French vowel sounds. The English pronunciation would be ‘Pour’ (as in pour me a drink). The next word ‘quoi’ would be pronounced ‘kwah’ (to rhyme with ‘car’ in English). However, in French, the two words become almost one, with the ‘Pour’ being a very short vowel ‘or’ sound after the ‘p’ and the ‘quoi’ being a rapid movement of the lips ‘kw’ followed by ‘a’. The French pronunciation would be “P’o-kw-a”.
Meanwhile, back in the banqueting hall, the English were getting a very bad press. The gallant knights were being knocked off their horses, the food was being ridiculed and the accent was being derided. Nevertheless, it was a wonderfully funny and memorable occasion, which reminds me still how important it is to try to speak a foreign language with a good accent.
When I teach clients who speak English as a second language, they retain much of their original accent to begin with, which means the way they pronounce their words as well as the rhythm and tune of their speech. Accent reduction is a combination of a variety of different aspects of speech that takes time and requires practise until it becomes second nature. As the accent reduction coaching continues, new muscle memory can be stimulated and embodied so that speaking English well as a second language becomes a more natural, enjoyable and confident skill, whatever your first language happens to be.