LOSE YOUR ACCENT when speaking SPANISH with these TRICKS
Want to speak perfect Spanish, just like a native? Then you must work on your accent!
Losing it completely is very hard, but these tricks will help you to considerably to reduce it, and hide your foreigner status for much longer!
I’m Spring Spanish teacher, Paulisima, and here is trick number one:
1. Escuchar (Listen)
No vas a poder hablar español usando sólo los sonidos del inglés, eso que quede clarísimo. (You will not be able to speak Spanish using only the sounds of English, that has to be very clear.)
Así que, paso número uno: escuchar, escuchar, escuchar. (So, step number 1: listen, listen, listen.)
Listen to a lot, a lot, a lot of Spanish, and listen very carefully. If you can't hear the sounds, you won't be able to produce them, that's why it's so important to listen.
Las buenas noticias es que hay un montón de contenido en español disponible. Probablemente más que nunca. (The good news is that there are tons of content in Spanish available. Probably more than ever.) So, you have to be obsessed with Spanish. Everything, absolutely everything you hear, must be in Spanish.
As you have probably already noticed, when I speak English, I have an accent, of course. Sin embargo, mientras más tiempo paso con personas angloparlantes, mejor se vuelve mi acento. (However, the more time I spend with English speakers, the better my accent becomes.) When I spend enough time somewhere where English is spoken, my accent also improves.
¿Por qué? Pues por la exposición a los sonidos naturales del inglés, y así te va a pasar a ti también, mientras más español escuches. (Why? Because of the exposure to the natural sounds of English, and so it will happen to you too, the more Spanish you listen.)
Stay until the end if you want to find out which app to use to make huge strides in your Spanish accent.
2. Shadowing: Repetir después de los hispanoparlantes. (Repeating after Spanish speakers.)
Puedes repetir lo que digan los hispanoparlantes, ya sea en una serie, o en una película, o en un video de YouTube. Algo así. (You can repeat what Spanish speakers say, whether in a series, or a movie, or a YouTube video. Something like that.)
Tú sin pena, ponle pausa y repite. (With no shame, pause, and repeat.)
Don't pay much attention to understand what each word you are repeating means here, we are just trying to say the sounds well.
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3. Finge que eres mexicano. (Pretend you are Mexican.)
Toma algunas frases comunes, y dilas imaginando que eres mexicano. (Take some common phrases, and say them imagining that you are Mexican.)
Aquí les comparto cinco frases con mexicanismos muy útiles: (Here I share 5 phrases with very useful Mexicanisms:)
Greet your Mexicans friends saying: ¿Qué pedo wey?
¿¡Qué pedo wey!? ¿Cómo has estado?
(What’s up bro!? How have you been?)
Súper bien, wey, ¿y tú?
(Super well, bro, and you?)
When you want to comment on how lazy or uninterested you’re feeling: ¡Qué hueva! (How boring!)
El evento de la empresa es mañana a las 8 am.
(The event of the company is tomorrow at 8 am.)
Qué hueva.
(How boring.)
When you have no freaking idea about something: Sepa la bola.
¿A qué hora es el evento de la empresa?
(What time is the company’s event?)
Sepa la bola.
(I have no idea.)
When you’re toasting: Arriba, abajo, al centro y pa’dentro (Up, down, to the center, and to the inside.)
¡Es agua! (It’s water!)
When you want to make sure your friends don’t chicken out: ¡No te rajes!
Paulísima, eres la maestra de ceremonias del evento de la empresa.
(Paulísima, you’re the MC of the company’s event.)
¡Ay no, qué hueva!
(Oh no, how boring!)
Tú te ofreciste y ya estás en el programa. No te rajes.
(You offered, and you’re already in the program. Do not take it back.)
La idea de imaginarte que eres mexicano, puede además también servirte para que no te sientas acomplejado o nervioso con tu acento. (The idea of imagining that you are Mexican, can help you not to feel self-conscious or nervous with your accent.) For a second you’re not you, you’re someone else. So, it doesn’t matter if you make mistakes.
4. Grábate mientras hablas. (Record yourself while you speak.)
Record yourself while you speak, and then listen to the recording. Compare it with the way a native speaker would say it.
¿Escuchas la diferencia? (Can you hear the difference?) This is a great exercise.
I highly recommend Speechling for speaking practice, it's a good resource where you can record yourself, and even get feedback from pronunciation coaches who will listen to your audio recordings. Link is in the description.
¡Con estos tips vas a ser capaz de mejorar tu acento en español por mucho! (With these tips, you will be able to improve your accent in Spanish so much!)
