Hey there, before we start, let me say a few words about myself. I'm Ivan and I've been working for Glossica for a little bit under a year now. As you can hear, I speak English, but also I know German, African, Dutch, as well as my native language, Russian. I've written over 50 articles and made over 20 videos on languages and related topics. I have a BA in linguistics from the Moscow State-Linguistic University Class 2020. Today I'd like to talk about an important aspect of language learning that sometimes gets left behind in favor of learning grammar and vocabulary. As you can see from the title of the video, I'm speaking about pronunciation. In this video, I'd like to discuss pros and cons of learning and mastering pronunciation and how it might affect your further language learning. Without further ado, let's get started. The first question I'd like to ask you is how do you learn Russian? Personally, I've spent over 9 years mastering my pronunciation in English. However, some traits of Russian still remain and I'm nowhere close to sounding like a native speaker. Well, I spend my entire life in Russia, so I guess it only makes sense. However, I'd agree. As I've already mentioned, I'm Russian. And Russians believe that learning pronunciation is important. Back in the US, I started with putting an enormous effort into teaching their students the right accent. Not that somebody cared or that they succeeded though. Even today, school teachers would grade their students lower if they pronounce words the wrong way. As a private tutor, I also get cons of requests from my students who want to improve their pronunciation. As a matter of fact, the several focus on pronunciation made Mr. working on my own accent all those years ago. However, traveling and communicating with people from all over the world has shown me that apparently it's only the post-Savic countries that care about pronunciation this much. An Italian would speak English or any other language for that matter, like an Italian. A German would not care about pronouncing the word water like Vata. And as a person who knows a thing or two about languages, let me tell you a few perks of mastering your pronunciation. My own experience in teaching, as well as in self-teaching, shows that a better pronunciation is a direct way to a better understanding. When you speak with a heavy accent, you basically have to learn the same language twice, the one that you hear and the one that you speak. Also, being somewhat close to being able to pronounce the words the way native speakers do allows you to become a bit closer to their lifestyle and mentality. Yeah, it sounds a bit crazy, but it is actually what it is. More than that, it's actually really fun trying to imitate accent patterns of another language. You get to know more about yourself, about your voice, and about what you're capable of. It's like acting, but in real life. A few tips for those willing to improve their accent. Fake it till you make it. Try to imitate as much as you can, and eventually it'll work. Trust me. Match vocals and visuals. Listen carefully to what native speakers say, however keep the words spelling in mind. Match what you hear and what you see in the closest way possible. Listen more. The more the better, different accents, language variants, all of this is here to help. It'll be a bit tricky at first though. Read and watch more. Yeah, it does not sound really fun or protective. However, knowing about the ways your target language's phonetics works actually matters. For example, there's no such thing as long and short vowel sounds in Russian. And no matter how hard it tried to hear them on early stages, such words as said and seed would sound identically to me. So the only way for me to find out there actually is a difference, as to read about it. However, not learning pronunciation just seems like a better solution. Like, you don't bother learning something that is totally avoidable. There's really nothing wrong in having an accent like everybody has one. Over time, your accent would still improve anyway, so it would not be as thick as it might be or might have been. Also, if you're an adult learner, there's absolutely no chance of you dropping your native language accent. This has a lot to do with anatomy and the way your jaw works. There are some small muscles in your jaw that harden with age. At the age of seven or eight, they become hard enough to never change again. The way their form heavily depends on the language's speak and its phonetic features. If you don't speak Spanish from a young age, you'll never sound like a native Spanish speaker no matter how hard you try. So why bother? If you enjoyed this video, hit the like button, subscribe and share this video with your friends. Have a nice day and see you later! .