The Blog

Thoughts about learning foreign languages and news about PhraseMix.com

Some unusual advice for improving your English accent

People often ask my opinion about how to improve their English accent. The best answer, of course, is to spend a lot of time listening carefully to natural, native English. But there's another secret which has to do with your attitude.

The secret is:

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Do you have a different personality when you speak English?

The other day, I got into a conversation with one of the students I tutor. She's from Japan, and has been studying English in New York for over a year. We were talking about how she acts around her English-speaking coworkers. I asked her:

"Is your personality a lot different when you speak...

Should you focus on your flaws or your strengths when it comes to learning English?

How do you feel about your English-speaking ability? Do you think to yourself:

"Wow, I've come so far! I can speak English a lot better than I used to."

or do you think:

"Man, my English isn't very good. There are so many things that I don't know how to say."

I bring this up because I read...

PhraseMix named one of the Top 25 Language Learning Blogs of 2011

Thanks to your help, PhraseMix has been honored in the Top 100 Language Lovers 2011 competition at Bab.la:

We were chosen as #19 in the Top 25 Language Learning Blogs. And when I say "we", I mean PhraseMix and you! Thanks for your support in the voting.

Please check out some of...

Infographic: How many words do you 'need'?

Word frequency

How many words do you need to learn in order to speak English fluently? Well, it depends on what you mean by "fluent".

We looked at a "word frequency" list of spoken English - a list of which words show up most often - and made some interesting discoveries. 

 

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