Why do we have an accent in a foreign language?

And why is it not a mistake?

Imagine this scene: you are sitting in a business meeting, presenting a project in English. Your analysis is flawless, your strategy visionary. You have thoroughly prepared, and your knowledge of foreign-language grammar is at the C1 level. However, the moment you start speaking, you feel that familiar tension. You hear your ‘hard’ accent and suddenly feel that your professional aura is fading a little.

Or another situation: you are on holiday, sitting in a charming café in Lisbon or Paris. You order a coffee, trying to imitate the language’s melody, but the waiter immediately responds in English. Frustrating? Definitely. But is it your fault? Absolutely not.

An accent in a foreign language is not a sign of laziness or lack of talent. It is a fascinating side effect of how our brain learned to understand the world of sounds in childhood. And it may seem like an obstacle, but it is actually proof of something extraordinary: your ability to use more than one communication system.

Today, I will take you on a journey through neurology, linguistics, and psychology to answer the question: Why do adults have accents in foreign languages? And more importantly, is it even a problem?

The biology of hearing: Why is your brain ‘deaf’?

Before we discuss the speech apparatus, we need to look inside the skull. The truth about accents begins in the ears.

As infants, we are born as ‘citizens of the world‘ – our brains can distinguish every sound that occurs in any language on the globe. However, around 10-12 months of age, a drastic selection takes place.

To conserve energy, the brain begins to ignore sounds that do not occur in its immediate environment. If certain sound distinctions do not exist in your native language, your brain stops registering them.

The ‘Magnetism’ Mechanism

Research has proven that our native language creates a kind of ‘magnetic map’. New sounds that we hear as adults are ‘drawn in’ by the closest sounds known from childhood. For example:

• If you are Polish, your brain hears the English /æ/ (in the word cat) and /e/ (in the word get) and often classifies them both as the Polish ‘e’.
• If your language is Japanese, your brain may not distinguish between /l/ and /r/ because these sounds are too close together on your ‘magnetic map’.
• To a Polish speaker, the English words sheep and ship sound almost identical.
• To an English or German speaker, the Polish’ sz’, ‘cz’ and “ś”, ‘ć’ are often the same sound.

Adults have an accent not because they cannot repeat a sound, but because their brains do not physically register the difference. You cannot pronounce something that your brain cannot hear. So the first step to improving your pronunciation is to unblock your hearing, not to practise your tongue.

Anatomy of speech: The tongue as an instrument

Speaking is a sport that requires the coordination of dozens of muscles: the tongue, lips, teeth, palate, larynx and diaphragm. Throughout your life, you have trained these muscles to move in a specific way. When you learn a new language as an adult, you ask your muscles to perform acrobatics they have never done before. That is why your speech apparatus subconsciously takes shortcuts. It means: choosing movements it already knows. An accent is nothing more than these small, subconscious muscle movements that try to return to familiar positions. Your accent is simply a matter of muscle memory.

Prosody: Music that betrays you the fastest

Did you know that you can pronounce words perfectly and still have a strong accent? It’s all because of prosody. Prosody refers to all elements of communication related to sound that cannot be classified as phonological phenomena, i.e., sounds. We distinguish between: accent, speech tempo and rhythm, the use of pauses, duration and pitch, and the associated intonation.

Machine-gun languages versus Morse code languages

Linguists divide languages into two main rhythmic groups:

Every language has its own rhythm.

• Polish is steady, like a drum (each syllable lasts about the same amount of time).
• English is like jazz: some syllables are very long, while others almost disappear.
• French builds tension by usually emphasising the end of a phrase.

Transferring the melody from one language to another is the most common cause of foreign-sounding speech. It’s like trying to dance a waltz to hip-hop music. It’s possible, but everyone will notice that something is wrong.

International Perspective: How do languages ‘betray’ us?

Each nationality has its own specific accent profile, which results from interference from the native language. Let’s look at a few interesting cases:

The trap of ‘native-speakerism’

As a language and communication coach, I must make one thing very clear: striving to sound exactly like a ‘native speaker’ in today’s business world is often a waste of your most valuable resource – time.

In linguistics, there is a concept called native-speakerism. It is an ideology that claims that native speakers are the only legitimate models of pronunciation. This is a harmful myth, especially in the era of Global English. Today, many more people speak English as a second language than native speakers. The standard is no longer BBC English, but ‘International Business English‘.

Research indicates that learners are their own harshest critics. Native speakers usually admire our fluency and rarely notice our accent as long as we are understandable. Ridiculing our own ‘sound’ is a form of self-sabotage that lowers our confidence at key moments in negotiations. Your accent is not a barrier – it is a testament to your multilingualism.

Can you ‘grow out’ of your accent? The myth of the critical age

‘I’m too old to sound good’ is the most common phrase I hear. Is there a ‘critical age’? Yes, a child’s brain is like a sponge until the age of 7. Still, the neuroplasticity of the adult brain is greatly underestimated.

Recent studies of adults who learned a language at the age of 30, 40, or 50 show that many achieve a pronunciation level indistinguishable from that of native speakers. What do they have in common? Not genes, but three factors:

Your new strategy: Comprehensibility over perfection

Instead of asking, ‘What can I do to remove my accent?’, start asking, ‘How can I be more understandable?’ We distinguish between three concepts:

• Intelligibility: Are your words physically recognisable? When you say ‘desk‘, does someone hear ‘disk‘? This is the foundation.
• Comprehensibility: How much energy does the listener have to expend to understand you? If your accent is strong but your rhythm and intonation are correct, your comprehensibility is high.

• Accentedness: This is a purely subjective impression of how ‘foreign’ you sound.

Shocking fact: You can have a strong accent (high accentedness) and still be fully understandable and respected (high intelligibility). In business, it is the latter that builds your authority. Your job is not to sound like a Hollywood actor, but to eliminate those errors that actually block the transmission of information.

Is an accent a mistake?

As high-class specialists, we must ask ourselves: what is our goal? Is it to be a ‘spy’ whom no one will recognise, or to be an effective communicator?

In the modern world, the concept of ‘native speakerism’ is becoming obsolete. What matters is intelligibility. Research shows that a slight foreign accent can even be an asset. It is perceived as proof of:

An accent becomes a mistake only when it hinders the understanding of the message. If your interlocutor has to ask you to repeat a sentence three times, it is not an aesthetic problem – it is an operational problem that costs time and money.

Accent as part of your personal brand

Now something on the borderline between psychology and provocation: your accent is not a mistake. It is proof of your intelligence. It is proof of three extremely important things in business:

Courage: You had the courage to step outside your comfort zone and operate in a foreign environment.

Cognitive complexity: Your brain operates on multiple symbolic systems – you are naturally better at problem solving and creative thinking.

People do not trust perfect machines. They trust consistent leaders. If your knowledge is expert and your voice carries the story of your origins, you build deeper trust than someone who forces an artificial accent to sound like a native speaker.

In a business and international environment, an accent signals that ‘this person is fluent in more than one operating system.’ It is a testament to your journey, your education, and your courage to venture beyond your own backyard. Many opinion leaders have turned their accents into a unique personal brand.

Is it possible to completely get rid of an accent?

Many people ask, ‘When will I finally stop sounding like a foreigner?‘ Science suggests that while perfection is an ambitious goal, the path to it depends on a combination of many factors. Research indicates that a unique mix of influences pronunciation quality:

• Individual phonetic abilities (some of us simply have a ‘better ear’),
• Motivation (how much we want to identify with the new culture),
• Amount of exposure (immersion in the language),
• Formal instruction (consciously learning phonetics helps more than just listening).

How to ‘smooth out’ your speech without losing yourself?

If you want to work on your pronunciation, don’t do it out of embarrassment. Do it for your listener’s comfort. Here are the specific steps:

Shadowing: Choose a leader whose way of speaking suits you. Listen to them through headphones and repeat after them with a 1-2 second delay. Don’t focus on the words, but on the ‘music’ – where do they pause, where do they raise their voice?

Your unique sound

An accent is information. It is a record of your journey, your education and your courage. You don’t have to remove it to be heard and respected. You can consciously ‘smooth out’ the elements that actually hinder communication, while keeping your sound as proof of your uniqueness.

For the next week, every time you feel a hint of embarrassment when speaking a foreign language, think about your brain. It is doing a tremendous job for you, connecting cultures and markets. It deserves your admiration, not your criticism.

Learning a language is a journey, and accent is an integral part of it. The most important thing in communication is to be understood, not to be a copy of a native speaker.

Bibliography:

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• Kong-Insam, M. (2021). VOT as a phonetic cue of foreign accentedness – a case study approach. 
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• Kralova, Z., & Krajcovic, M. (2009). Variance in a second language pronunciation quality. Communications.
• Ghazi-Saidi, L., Dash, T., & Ansaldo, A. I. (2015). How native-like can you possibly get: fMRI evidence for processing accent. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.
• Cheng, B., & Zhang, Y. (2015). Syllable Structure Universals and Native Language Interference… Frontiers in Psychology.
• Archibald, J. A. (2021). Speaking and Hearing with an Accent. Frontiers for Young Minds.
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Author: Lingua Impact