The 5 biggest pronunciation MYTHS you need to stop worrying about
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Contents
Myth #1 - You need to get it right from the start
Myth #2 - Musicians have better pronunciation
Myth #3 - Avoid speaking early
Myth #4 - Reading too early will harm your pronunciation
Myth #5 - “Just listen more!”
How do I improve my pronunciation then?
Why do some people have good pronunciation?
Are they just born with it? While others are forever doomed to struggle with a heavy foreign accent?
I have to admit, I’m a bit of a pronunciation fanatic.
I want to not just be able to say the words but say them the way they’re supposed to sound.
The way native speakers say them. Or at least, get as close as I can.
I have heard a lot of advice on how to get good pronunciation.
It might be well-meaning, but it just isn’t very helpful.
You will be told to avoid things. Things that won’t improve your pronunciation. Even if you follow the advice.
When you start looking into it a bit closer, you’ll find that much of it doesn’t hold water.
So let’s go over the 5 biggest myths I have seen about pronunciation.
The reason I bring these up is simply:
So you don’t waste any more energy focusing on things that don’t matter.
Things that will only become unnecessary concerns and superstitions.
Some of these might be familiar to you. Some of them might be surprising.
The best part is:
I think you will be quite relieved to hear them.
Myth #1 - You need to get it right from the start
Just like a lot of these, this one is not entirely false.
It has a grain of truth in it.
I actually do recommend working on your pronunciation from day 1.
It’s important to get a foundation for all the new sounds in your target language. That you work on it from the start.
This is so you won’t have to change bad habits later on, which requires more effort. Since you then have to “unlearn” the words and sounds you’ve been pronouncing incorrectly.
The thing is though:
It’s not that simple.
Pronunciation has a lot of depth and layers to it.
It’s not a one-stop shop.
It’s a process.
Besides, I think it’s pretty much impossible to get 100% accurate pronunciation right away.
So don’t be too nitpicky about it in the beginning.
You simply can’t hear everything as a beginner. There are nuances and depths of the sounds, intonation, and stress in the language that will only become clear through enough time.
Time spent with the language.
We only have so much capacity to process things. Our brains can’t do all of it at the same time.
In the beginning, you’re putting most of your attention on just trying to understand the meaning of the words.
Trying to hold on for dear life!
So there is less brain capacity left to notice details in how people speak.
The type of details you need to be able to pick up on to really improve your pronunciation and accent.
To get there, most people need to have reached quite a high level first (this was my own experience when learning English).
The more effortless your understanding becomes, the more you’re going to notice the finer details in speech.
The more words you know the more you’ll be able to transfer your attention to the melody, intonation, flow, and so on. All of these are a part of what will make your pronunciation stand out and get closer to a native speaker.
Having said that, it’s a good idea to work on the major fundamentals early on (like learning to roll your R’s in a language like Finnish or Spanish. Or the nasal vowels in French).
But in my experience:
Really refining your pronunciation comes quite late in the learning process.
So don’t worry about trying to get it perfect right away.
As long as you stay conscious of it throughout your learning journey, you will improve as you go.
Myth #2 - Musicians have better pronunciation
“You’re a musician, so you naturally have good pronunciation.”
As someone who has been a musician most of my life, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard this.
It makes sense that musicians have better pronunciation than non-musicians, right?
After all, a huge part of being a good musician is using and developing your ears.
By looking at the people I know (musicians and non-musicians) I have found it simply isn’t true
I know people who play music at a professional level
And yet…
…they speak with an accent.
I also know people who do not play music at all, but speak with near-flawless pronunciation.
So how come some musicians have good accents and some don’t?
There could be several reasons for this, such as:
Not having an interest or need to want to improve their accent.
Not having spent enough time to find the right muscles in the mouth to produce the sounds.
Even though listening skills are a very important aspect of pronunciation, it isn’t the only key.
(We will soon talk about that)
There’s the physicality of it (finding the right muscles) and then the desire part of it.
Some people simply just don’t mind speaking with an accent.
If it’s not a high value for you, you’re probably not going to be amazing at it.
It might be that musicians in general are more likely to have good pronunciation.
But it doesn’t guarantee that being one will automatically transfer to having a great accent.
If you’re reading this and you think that you have to be a musician to speak with good pronunciation, you can relax knowing that you don’t have to be.
There are many ways to improve in this area.
Download my guide “Intuitive Language Secrets”
to learn how to learn languages naturally with less brain strain:
Myth #3 - Avoid speaking early
“If you wait to speak until you’re advanced in the language you will avoid having a bad accent.“
I have heard this one a lot.
What this myth refers to is:
“If we start speaking before the sounds in the language are clear to us, we’re going to develop poor pronunciation.”
This could happen, but not necessarily.
The thing is, there’s nothing wrong with waiting to speak.
If you’re an introvert, waiting to speak until later might just be the right path for you. It might just be what you need to relieve you of the pressure and stress (from trying to produce the language). If you’re someone who prefers to develop in your own privacy when no one is watching or listening.
But it’s not for everyone.
Some people are highly extroverted.
If you’re one of those, not speaking the language is likely going to be a miserable experience.
Because you are motivated by interacting with other people in the language. It’s what fuels you to continue to improve. Even if you can’t speak the language well yet.
(I‘m one of these people, and I’m just slightly extroverted).
The other reality is that it can also be highly impractical.
Especially if you’re learning a language not just as a passion project, but as an actual life necessity.
Personal example:
When I moved to Finland almost 4 years ago I had been learning Finnish for almost a year. I definitely wasn’t conversational in the language (Finnish takes a lot of time).
However, it was still necessary for me to use the language.
As well as I could.
To just sit at the coffee table with my wife’s family and be like:
“Hey FYI, I’m just gonna shut up and listen to you guys until I have improved my ability to understand you. You’ll hear from me in a couple of years!”…
…obviously wasn’t practical.
My wife has family members who only speak Finnish, so even a little language was way better than no language. They really appreciated the effort I made to try to speak. Even when my ability was very limited.
(My wife had to do a lot of translation back and forth back then, luckily she doesn’t have to do that anymore).
And you know what, I can’t say it has hurt my pronunciation.
Getting really good pronunciation is not about avoiding mistakes, but about making little adjustments along the way.
What I tend to get the most compliments on in the languages I speak is actually my pronunciation.
And still:
I’ve never learned a language that I didn’t start speaking early. Pretty much right away.
So if you want to speak, go for it!
You can relax in knowing that it’s not going to harm your pronunciation.
Just keep refining it as you go and you’ll be fine.
“Getting really good pronunciation is not about avoiding mistakes, but about making little adjustments along the way.”
Myth #4 - Reading too early will hurt your pronunciation
This one is similar to myth nr #3.
It’s about that we tend to subvocalize when we read (reading out loud in your head).
So when you read before you know the correct pronunciation you will filter the sounds of your target language through the sounds of your native language.
I can see this happening if you read without having a foundation for the sounds in the language.
I even know people who have this issue. They pronounce words as if they were reading them in their own language.
It’s common in languages where the way it’s written is very consistent with how it’s pronounced (Finnish is a great example).
It’s something to be aware of.
To not become too reading-dominant.
(This is a trap I’ve had to be aware of to not fall into myself)
It’s when you listen that you’ll pick up the flow of the language. It’s what will influence the most how well you speak.
But it doesn’t mean you have to avoid reading. Even at an early stage.
I personally started reading Spanish the first week I was learning it.
If you want to read when you’re at the lower levels I would however recommend doing one of the following things:
Read and listen at the same time (to hear the correct pronunciation).
Read with an app like LingQ (← get an extended free trial + 37% off a 1-year subscription). That way you can click on the words you’re reading and instantly hear the correct pronunciation.
As long as you’re not exclusively reading, and you’re also listening, then you don’t have to worry.
Again, I understand that we want to avoid creating bad habits that are harder to break. But sometimes it’s unavoidable.
You probably have experienced this even in your native language.
Where you have to fix something you’ve pronounced wrong all your life (I know I have).
It’s very common.
But it’s fixable.
(Isn’t it interesting that we’re not bothered about mistakes we make in our native language, but we are in the language we are learning?)
So go ahead and read as much as you want to.
Just keep up your listening chops at the same time.
Myth #5 - "Just listen more!"
“You simply need to listen a lot to get a good accent!“
People who have listened more will have better accents than those who listened less, right?
Like most of these myths, there is truth to this one.
Because:
The more you listen the more you’ll give your ears an opportunity to pick up on the correct pronunciation.
That is true.
However, it’s not the only factor.
In fact, there’s no guarantee that listening a lot will magically improve your pronunciation.
Let me tell you about my friend Emily (not her real name):
Emily is an American girl. She speaks only English and no other language. She’s completely monolingual.
Years ago, she wanted me to teach her a couple of sentences in Swedish. Just for fun. So I taught some phrases. To my surprise, she picked up the pronunciation right away! Sure, it wasn’t perfect, but it was pretty dang close.
Pretty impressive for someone who is a complete beginner in Swedish.
I know other people who speak Swedish fluently.
And yet…
…they don’t pronounce things as well as Emily.
Even though they have spent hundreds, or thousands of hours listening to Swedish (this even goes for people who have taken a “listen only”-approach in their learning).
Another example:
Many people struggle with the Japanese pitch accent.
The reason is:
They can’t hear it.
For the people who have been successful learning it:
Listening more didn’t help.
They had to train themselves not just to listen, but training themselves how to listen. Because their brains were hearing things differently than a native speaker would hear them.
What this tells us is:
The sheer amount of listening alone doesn’t automatically make your pronunciation amazing.
Why is this myth harmful?
Because it gives people the false impression that all they need is quantity.
For some, it might be enough (if they already have a very well-developed listening ability).
But not for everyone.
So you’ll end up spending tons of time on something you think is going to bring you the results.
And when it doesn’t - you get frustrated.
For a good reason.
Because you were told to do something that in the end didn’t work.
Getting a lot of quantity of listening input is a good idea (you need it to develop your comprehension anyway).
Just know that you will have to develop other things as well to get a good accent.
How do I improve my pronunciation then
Now that we have gone through what is not helpful advice, you’re probably wondering:
“So what’s the answer to getting amazing pronunciation then?”
Great question.
I was originally gonna write about it in this post, but I felt like it deserves its own blog post.
To really give the topic the attention it deserves.
I just felt strongly it was important to first debunk the myths that you need to stop worrying about.
So you don’t have to limit your language learning in any way.
It’s not like a minefield where if you take the wrong step:
BOOM!
Your pronunciation is ruined.
You can safely enjoy activities like speaking and listening with peace of mind.
If you want clear steps for how to actually improve your pronunciation, check out my post:
Which one of these myths did you find the most helpful for you to be busted?
Comment below!
