What's up everyone? I'm Andrea, your
RealLife English Fluency coach.
Now, in a recent lesson we analyzed
Bollywood Star,
Deepika Padukone's accent, and
in that lesson we saw how she's become
an exceptional English speaker
while still keeping her accent.
In this lesson we'll take a look at
English actor Dev Patel,
who is most famous for his roles in
Slumdog Millionaire,
And Lion.
Now, Dev is different to Deepika given
that he is a native
British English speaker.
So there's probably not much
merit in talking about his English,
but what about his accent?
Given that Dev has acted in a
range of films and he's had a lot of
diverse
roles it means that characters that he
has played
have had American, British,
Indian and even Australian accents.
Actors who have had to learn a
different accent for a role
can definitely offer some great advice for
English learners.
In fact, in a way when you're speaking
another language sometimes it does feel
like you can be acting.
One thing that is for sure is
that you're definitely out of your
comfort zone when doing so.
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So, as you'll see in this lesson, Dev
Patel
offers four great insights that can
really help
you along in your english language
journey.
So let's take a look!
So, our first insight is that you can leave a
hint of your native accent.
So, what does Dev Patel actually
mean by this?
What he's saying is that when he was
putting on his American accent
he actually left a little bit of his
native British
accent there also.
So he did this on purpose and whilst he mostly
sounded American there was still a hint
of his British accent there too.
There's probably not a lot of English
language learners that can completely
fool someone into thinking that
they are native.
However if you do tend to keep a hint of
your native accent, it tends to sound
a bit more exotic which is really nice
as well.
So we've seen that some actors like
Deepika Padukone,
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sofia Vergara
proudly keep their native accent,
while still speaking exceptional English
it's important to note that you want to
be able to communicate clearly
and work on your pronunciation, but you
don't have to speak with a perfect
American or British accent.
Now, number two is don't be afraid
to exaggerate. So what Dev is saying here
is that when working on his accent he
tends to exaggerate them
now while this might sound silly to
begin with,
it can really help in perfecting your
accent
and then as you work on it you can then
start to tone it down,
so that it sounds more natural.
Let's hear what he had to say about this.
As an English teacher
i've found that this has actually really
helped me when learning Spanish.
What I tend to do is I sometimes imitate
my students accent when speaking
in English.
And that's really helped me when
perfecting
my pronunciation in Spanish. I also do
this sometimes with my favorite Spanish
actress Penelope Cruz and it really
helps when working on pronunciation.
Although i'm sure people can tell that
I'm a foreigner when I speak in Spanish
it has really helped to make my
pronunciation clearer.
And although people know that i'm a
foreigner, they usually can't guess
that I'm actually British.
So at first you might feel a little bit silly
when really putting on an exaggerated
American or British accent,
but it's really going to help you later
on when you're having those
conversations in English.
Sometimes just to have a bit of fun, I've
even done it myself when putting on an
American accent just from
growing up and watching so
many tv series and movies
in American English with the accent and
everything, and even singing
songs it can be really
really fun, and just a fun way
of learning and practicing this.
Number three is drill again and again
Wouldn't you feel flattered if someone
told you that your British
accent was "spot on"?
Or what if they told you that you
"nailed" your American accent?
These are both
words used to describe someone's
adopted accent.
Well if you aspire to that kind of
flattery, Dev makes it really clear here:
You have to drill.
So drilling is another way to describe
practicing, only it can be more
repetitive and monotonous.
Another way of describing it
is "deliberate practice", which is
something that athletes do that sets
them apart from everybody else.
If they want to improve on a
particular area
they will drill and they will get better
at it over and over and over again with
that deliberate practice,
which sets them apart from the rest and
is something that amateurs don't do.
If you have patience, drilling ten words
or ten sentences, for example
every day, is really going to get you
closer to your goal.
The fourth insight is shadowing.
Now, while Dev did not use this word in his
explanation he is talking about "shadowing".
So in this clip Dev is explaining about
a role that he played
in the film The Second Best Exotic
Marigold Hotel,
where he played a character with a
really strong Indian accent.
Let's take a look.
Shadowing is another way of saying
mimicking.
So, what you would do is
when you're watching TV,
or when listening to a song,
or watching a movie you would actually
copy or mimic what that person is saying
and the way that they are saying it.
When you mimic someone or you shadow a
speaker, you don't only copy
their words.
You would also copy their intonation,
their pauses and their tones.
You might even have a look at the way their mouth
moves when they articulate certain words
Shadowing is a form of speaking however
because you are copying what the other
person is saying, you don't even
have to think about the grammar at all.
So you're really focusing
on your pronunciation
and your articulation, which is a great
way to practice this.
It leaves all your mental power and
focus
on the phonetics of the language.
One technique that I would always recommend
to my students was to choose
an English-speaking mother or father
So this isn't literally choosing a new parent,
it's choosing someone that you want to
emulate or imitate,
all aspects of the way that they speak.
Just like a baby, learning how to speak
from their mother and father
What Dev explains here is that he chose
one particular uncle.
So the tip here is, for example
choosing one famous person that you
really really love
and you can watch some interviews that
they do,
and choose a specific part, watch it over
and over again,
repeating or shadowing what they are
saying and how they are saying it.
I also highly recommend that you record
yourself
doing this, so that you can listen back
to it, see if you make any errors and
also compare it to the original.
That way you can practice it again and again,
perfecting it.
I also recommend that you
really exaggerate it when you do it.
That way you're using
all of the tips that we have spoken
about in this lesson.
So I hope you enjoyed this lesson, and if
you do try out some of these tips make
sure you have fun with it because it can
be very entertaining.
Also, if you haven't already,
I highly recommend that you check out
our lesson with Deepika Padukone
next, because
you'll find some great tips
in there as well,
whether or not you want to keep or lose
your accent.
