On YouTube with an accent - How to survive and keep going

Most of us native English speakers talk in a monotone. Hearing a non-native English speaker such as yourself is a delight, there is often a musical lilt in your pronunciation, that is lovely to the ear.

It boggles my mind to think you are concerned by your accent! Your beautiful accent calms my adhd(self diagnosed) head and allows me to focus on what you have to teach. It’ll probably be the thing to make you blossom as a YouTube star!

I'm a native English speaker but this is encouraging to me in my pursuits to learn new languages, since it can indeed feel embarrassing to practice. It's great to see others who have gone through the process of learning another language and are not afraid to use language for what it's for - communication! Good for you! I also love hearing from people from different cultures, and hearing them speak with an accent reminds me that even people in different countries as me can have so much in common with me because we are all human no matter where we were born. Just by being you and sharing what you do, you are showing people that there is more to a country than its politics. Countries are filled with people, and most people are just people, not political representatives! (It's silly that this needs to be said these days, but alas). I also think it's really great that you're able to recognize that bullies are fueled by their own internal problems and it reflects entirely on them and not at all on you. That's such an important life skill and one that I'm personally always hoping to share with people since it can help with confidence so much. I'm still trying to train myself daily not to internalize others' opinions, but to think more about what their words say about them.

You literally speak what I've been thinking recently, and then Youtube read my mind and recommended me your video: accent is something to be proud of, a badge of honour, a battle scar marking you as a conqueror of languages! It should be embraced and cherished! It tells your history - who you are, where you came from and what you did to get to where you are now. Moreover, it's actually a boon to the language: it's another new sound in its existing tapestry of sounds. And since language is made of sounds you can think of it like a musician would - as your instrument - and of your accent - as your own experimental technique. Due to the way we learn, foreign accents vary a lot, more than local native accents, so that's even more richness! Yes, learning the native accent is very difficult, but so is learning a foreign accent for the natives, as evidenced by all the terrible/funny "fake Hollywood accents". That shows how unique of a sound it is! Unless your accent makes you hard to understand, you can think of pronounciation mistakes not as "mistakes" but as a "feature". In fact, some pronounciation mistakes actually make you more legible than not! Being Polish, I actually envy English speakers for how common it is for them to encounter foreign people speaking their mother tongue. Whenever I encounter a foreigner speaking Polish (which, in fact, happened only on Youtube lol except for single words), I'm like "omg so awesome you're the best!" and I'm so curious as to how they pronounce things. Again, it's like music! I think it's wrong to encourage people to lose their accents and totally blend in with the natives. It's taking away what's unique about them! It's like telling people to not be themselves. It feels almost like envy, like bringing others in line. In fact, because of that, I was even wondering if I should be speaking with an even thicker accent and correct myself less!

As always you are right on point. I greatly appreciate your vulnerability ability to share and shine light upon goodness and beauty of life. A little song verse for you speaking how it is such a kind supportive thing to be in high vibration AKA copacetic. "Light is strong and man can be weak. And the world walks in between. So rise above on the wings of Love. See and let yourself be seen See and let yourself be seen"

Even in the U.S., there are many different accents of English. Boston. Deep South. Midwest. California. Even in New York City, you have different accents from the different boroughs. There are the Bronx accent, Brooklyn accent, Queens accent, Long Island accent, North Jersey accent, etc. There are even spoken English language schools to help you get rid of your local NYC accent to help you sound "better" in business and entertainment. And I'm an American living in France. No matter how good my French gets, I will never be mistaken for a French person. The only part that bothers me is when someone notices and switches to English. That doesn't help me learn French! But I smile and take it as a compliment. It's not really about the accent. Haters will always be haters. What is really important is that the listener understands you. I understand you perfectly. Two thumbs up!

I found this topic interesting as I watch you because I find your content very useful and interesting as a new bass player, your accent and background would not change that for me!! Keep up the great work.

In my view bullying or online trolling is a sign of lack of intelligence, intolerance and inadequacy especially for just making comments about your accent. You don't need to change it ever as far as I am concerned. You have done a great job learning English and it is something you should be proud of. If you wanted to change it a bit you could I am sure but there is no need to. I like the way it sounds. I probably only know six Russian words, but you must know tens of thousands of English words. I don't judge all Russians by Putin and you demonstrate why others shouldn't either. I have found that accents are heavily determined by the position of your tongue and how much you open your mouth and how wide you open it. So it does take time to work on.Anyway to finish keep up the great work with your tuition videos and feel free to share your thoughts about other things, as it is always good to hear about different views and experiences.

You are doing a great job on YouTube! Don’t care about critics…you are a fantastic musician and educationalist. Just stick to that. Don’t get distracted by politics. Keep up the good work

Beautiful! Thank you, would love to hear about your previous professions, but maybe in the context of being a musician, composer and music teacher. I’m so glad you bring your accent (and culture) to the rest of us. Subbed! 🤩🙌

Good luck to you! Don't worry, keep being who you are.

A couple of years ago I briefly joined a local roots reggae band with folk from Argentia, Indonesia, Lithuania, Venezuela and a couple of kiwis (one of them was me!) It was a treasure trove of language and accents 💜

rrosyjski to piękny język...jak wszystkie słowiańskie zresztą.....pozdrawiam i wsłuchuję się z podziwem w Twój piękny melodyjny angielski mimo że nie umiem angielskiego ....pozdrawiam i tak trzymaj...

You seem like a lovely lady Tatiana. I hope you’re enjoying living in New Zealand (it looks like a wonderful place).

Love from Scotland

Loved this video!!! Even though I am a native English speaker, I have a speach impediment that has bought me a lot of negative attention in the past. I relate a lot to your description of how you hid your voice on YouTube as I struggle with this too both online and on stage. I enjoy how playing bass allows me to express myself non verbally through music and speaking on stage feels very uncomfortable because for one it feels like flipping between English and another language and also because I know my voice sounds different and unusual to nearly everyone. It was great to hear you talk about acceptance and to hear your confidence in your English. You have reminded me that many great singers and speakers have approached English with an accent and how they have used their personal vocal qualities to assert themselves be it in song or other contexts like videos or speaches. Hopefully one day I will feel more confident about my voice online and on stage. Thank you for sharing your experience and being yourself with your voice.

Are you familiar with the YouTube channel of Dr Geoff Linsey? He talks at length about English pronunciation and it helped me a lot become comfortable talking with my accent on YouTube. I still have my accent of course, but I now know how to speak clearly and which consonants/vowels to stress and which ones are weakened. It’s very enlightening and helpful.

Hi Tataniania, you are worrying too much. I am English with a Yorkshire accent. There are plenty of people in the UK who i would find more difficult to understand than you. In any case your Russian accent has its own charm. Your spoken English is clear, so dont fret ! Except when you're playing open strings, obviously!

Hi Tatiana i'm new in your channel. Wonderful class:hand-pink-waving:

Thanks for all the great lessons!