This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 454, How to Understand Every Accent in English.
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Lindsay Ann Aubrey, coming to you from Arizona and Colorado, USA.
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Terms and conditions apply. Hello, Aubrey.
How's it going today? I'm great, Lindsay.
How are you? Oh my gosh, I'm excited to talk about accents today.
What are we getting into on business today?
Yes, we got a great question that we'll share.
But first, Lindsay, I'd like to ask you, How many accents do you think there are in English?
Oh, my gosh. Well, if you think about all the countries that speak English and then within those countries.
There are so many accents, hundreds. There's probably 300 different English accents.
I don't know. Good guess. So the answer, I had to Google this.
There are over 160 recognized English accents worldwide.
But just like you mentioned, within... those accents, there are many variations.
So 300 is probably a good guess, but it's 160 recognized accents. but then many variations within those accents.
So for example, American English is probably one accent, Maybe in that they've included Southern or maybe a couple, but there are so many accents just within American English.
It's true. Or even just let's say, yes, there's American English.
There's Boston, the Boston accent. But even within Boston, there's healthy.
But then we go more granular. I know people who have a Southie accent, which is a specific neighborhood, working class, what they call working class neighborhood in Boston.
Then there's... The western suburbs of Boston has a slightly different accent.
It's really, really interesting. Even within one city.
Yeah. Fascinating. Yes. So there's so many accents in English.
So this makes English very tricky. We got a great question about accents in English, which especially applies to working in English.
You want to read it for us? All right. Here we go.
So. Hi team, regards from Mexico. My name is Carlos and I want to know if I should listen to English with different accents or does it not matter?
Thank you so much. Great question, Carlos.
Yes, it is such a great question and I can imagine anyone out there who's trying to build English listening fluency.
I can understand you wondering this, right?
Should I just watch whatever show I want or should I be trying to find resources that have multiple accents?
And it's interesting because it does depend on your goal.
But when we think about working in English, We're going to share all of the reasons that you absolutely should be listening to English in as many accents as you can.
Absolutely. Because even if your goal, let's say, is to immigrate to the UK and work, But then once you're there, you're probably going to be doing business, not just with a standard London accent, whatever that even is.
You're going to be doing business on Zoom calls with people in the US and Australia and In India, who knows, right?
And how many accents are there just in England? right?
The Londoner accent and then all of the areas in England.
So yes, exactly. You will be. English is a global language, right?
That's our number one reason here that you should definitely be listening to English and lots of accents.
Wherever you are, you'll never hear just one accent in English.
Exactly. I mean, this is what we've started to think about more in our courses.
We'll be coming out with our next brand new course, Professional English Level 2 in September.
And this one, we are really focusing on different voices, not just the American English accent.
We have lots of interesting accents coming out of that.
Because we've talked to our students lately, and that's what's happening, right?
We're not just even doing business with native speakers, of course.
We're doing... with people from all over the world using English as their second language.
So we need these skills. Yes, exactly. And people are encouraged to keep their accent.
Accents are beautiful. Many accents, it would be difficult to lose the entire accent even if you wanted to.
So we instead need to get used to listening to these accents and being able to connect. with someone that has lots and lots of different accents.
So yeah, the other interesting thing along with working right in English is that many language learners, when you're traveling, you're using English as the language to communicate, right?
So we are lucky, those of you out there learning English and us often, English will get you so far when you're traveling.
A lot of people you will meet are learning English.
You have that language in common. but they aren't likely not going to speak with an American accent.
They'll have their own accent, which might be different from one you've ever heard.
Oh, it's so true. Fascinating. Anything else we need to know about this concept that English is a global language?
Yeah, I think one thing to keep in mind, sometimes there are these tendencies to think that some accents are better. may be easier for you to understand.
If you listen to a lot of British TV or British podcasts, the UK accent might be easier for you to understand, right?
That doesn't mean it's better, right? There's this false belief sometimes that there are some accents that are better than others if they're easier for you to understand.
In a global business world, that's just not the case, right?
It's all about understanding everyone you're trying to connect with.
Yes, I love that idea. Don't just gravitate to, you know, maybe the movies you watched as a kid, for example.
Let's explore. Other ways to express, because the goal for our listeners at All Ears English is connection.
So if we're only listening for, let's say, an American accent or a UK accent, we're going to miss connection.
Right? Love it. Yes. Exactly. So our second reason here, of course, English is a global language.
You are more likely to reach success, to experience success at work.
If you understand more accents because it's such a global language, right?
So as we know, English is... the language used in a lot of the business world, and understanding any accent will help you network better, build those business relationships, so that you can be successful in your job.
Exactly. And this is totally different from asking our listeners to speak in all these different accents.
That's a different question for another time.
Like what accent should I actually use? Right, Aubrey?
That could be another episode. But this is really about listening and understanding in my mind.
Yes, exactly. Right. That's what our listener is asking here is about listening comprehension.
Is it okay if I just listen to... TV shows and podcasts from American English hosts or British English hosts, or should I be trying to listen to English in all of these different accents?
The more accents you understand well, the more likely you will be successful in a global business world.
Oh, 100%. I love that. And that brings to mind a couple of some suggestions we can make.
And we'll get to those suggestions. to understand all accents in a minute, but what would be number three, Aubrey?
So number three, the other reason to make sure that you are exposing yourself to listening to all, you know, English and many different accents is it will help you. build empathy and be more open-minded right if you are attempting to only learn one accent communicate with people that from one area of the world, you are limiting not only your opportunities, but also your mindset.
Oh, yeah. And I think along with the accent comes stories, comes people's information about their home cultures, food traditions.
It is an empathy builder just hearing another way of English being spoken.
I think. Just being exposed to that. Yes, exactly.
You learn so much about someone's culture.
They're aware of the way of viewing the world when you are not only listening to them speak an accent, but really trying to connect.
So this isn't just about listening to podcasts and watching TV.
It's also about meeting people from all over the world.
Uh, the open conversation club that we provide as part of our courses is, The best way to do this, you meet people from all over the world and you get deep.
You're learning about them. their culture, and this builds that empathy and open-mindedness about people from all over the world.
It's so true. We don't have to get on a plane to be in these scenarios anymore.
Right. So good. All right. So we'll be back in a minute and go into tips on how to do this.
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Okay, Aubrey. So now let's talk a little bit about some of the actionable things our listeners could do to actually make this happen, to get this listening experience of all different English accents.
Answer that question, yes, you absolutely need to be listening to English in as many accents as possible.
And that's number one, right? You'll need to be proactive about this.
It's pretty easy to just watch TV shows or listen to podcasts with American accents, let's say.
You will need to put in a little bit of work to find these resources that have many different accents.
Mm-hmm, exactly. And I would just take, you know, so the idea here is listen to as many accents as possible through different YouTube channels, right Aubrey?
Uh, making sure that you're exposing yourself to those accents.
Yeah, exactly. Right. Finding that's, it's putting in the work to find shows, uh, podcasts that have lots of different accents from all over the world.
So one good example is the show Below Deck.
Have you seen Below Deck, Lindsay? I've heard of it, but I've never seen it.
Yeah, it's like about crews that work on ships.
And then so the first, the original Below Deck. has accents from the UK, Australia, the Bahamas, the US, and then you can watch Below Deck Down Under.
This happens a lot that TV shows will have a different version for all of these different areas.
And in that one, you have Australian accents, British, Irish, South African, French accents.
So some of these shows that have a crew, have staff from all over the world, are a great resource for hearing those accents.
Yes, I love that. And when we are listening, we can listen and we can focus on the rhythm, the word stress, syllable stress, the intensity. nation.
We want to really pay attention to that, how things are delivered.
Exactly. Yes. And another thing you can do is listen first without transcripts or subtitles and Then listen again with them and then without again, because it will be interesting.
You're training your brain to be able to understand this different accent.
There are, like you said, Lindsay, different speech rhythms, different sounds that will be made in those accents.
And if you can listen without transcripts.
And then with, it'll be really interesting for you to be picking up on those speech patterns.
Yes. And then the second thing we can do is be patient.
What do we mean by this Aubrey? What does this mean? it's very easy to get frustrated when you don't understand a lot.
I hear this from students a lot. So often when you are trying to understand a new accent or an accent that's difficult for you, you need to give yourself some grace.
Be patient. It will, it might be difficult, more difficult than accents you're more used to, right?
So be patient, recognize it's not going to happen immediately.
It's going to take some time. Yeah, and maybe you can bring it back to a fun connection moment, just laughing, smiling. when you are connecting with someone, let's say, or you're listening to someone, but one-on-one conversation with someone, maybe you can just focus on more simple topics.
I don't know. It doesn't always have to be such intensive conversation.
You can share a moment with someone, even though you don't understand everything they're saying.
Absolutely. Right. And if you're speaking with someone who does have an accent, that's more difficult to understand. you can definitely build the connection so that you can ask them to repeat something or say something a little more slowly, clarify what they were saying, right?
You can build that connection to where if you're not understanding a lot, You can have that rapport to ask them to repeat something to get to be able to familiarize yourself with their accent.
Exactly. And that's where our third tip comes to speak with people with speakers of English from all over the world.
So this is going from the listening tip number one. to the speaking tip.
We mentioned earlier speaking partners. I have a Spanish tutor that I work with online every week, right?
I sit down with him. He's from Colombia.
So hearing different Spanish accents. Also, there's a ton of those.
Open Conversation Club and our courses, our fluency parties.
Also, one really practical thing you could do because this is a business English podcast, you could request to go to international conferences.
So an example of that is I always was going to the US-based podcast conference.
It was, but it got really big and impersonal.
And then I heard about the one in London and I said, I'm going to start going to the one in London.
And you know what happened at the London happy hour at that podcast conference?
I connected with someone from Wales. I didn't understand everything she said in our conversation, but we connected around business building, entrepreneurship, and there was really nice energy in that conversation.
I'll break. That's such a good example, Lindsay.
Exactly. But you had to be pretty proactive about putting yourself in that situation, right?
And whether you're able to go somewhere where you will have those. opportunities or do it online.
There's so many resources at your fingertips to be able to talk to people from all over the world.
Because listening and speaking really go hand in hand.
You can only go so far when you're listening to podcasts, watching TV.
You're also building listening comprehension when you have a back and forth conversation with someone.
So this should be a priority as well. Yeah.
So it's kind of like you have to push yourself first and say, yeah, I'm willing to do that, to go to that international conference or to show up for this speaking event, even though.
It doesn't feel like it's in my template of what I normally do.
And then you're going to go maybe to your boss and pitch the idea and help your boss understand why this helps or why I don't know, whatever the process is, think a little bit bigger, right?
We're widening our perspective a little bit here.
Love it. Absolutely. Yeah. So I loved this question.
I think it's really interesting to think about, but it will take work.
Right. A lot of these resources, people with accents from all over the world are are not necessarily going to drop right on your doorstep, right?
You will need to find shows that have very multicultural, diverse casts. so that you are hearing all of these accents, podcasts that have hosts from all over the world, but they are out there and that will give you that opportunity to practice listening to all of these different accents.
Love it. And thank you to our listener for this fantastic question.
It is a great question and really important to know.
Global English, that's the key. It doesn't belong to any one country or accent.
It is the language of business, Aubrey. Exactly.
Yes. If you are working in English, you need to be able to understand English in all of the accents out there to really be successful.
All right. Sounds good. We'll see you next time, Aubrey.
Thanks for being on the show today. All right.
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