When you work hard on your English pronunciation and somebody starts criticizing you for getting this or that sound wrong, or overdoing your accent, or still sounding foreign, you just have to IGNORE them.
Sure enough, its’ not an excuse for not working hard on your pronunciation improvement, and you have to keep working on your accent reduction and native-like speech acquisition just as hard, but the main thing is not to get emotionally affected by other people’s comments.
But what if…
What if that SOMEBODY who’s criticizing your American or British pronunciation is actually YOU?
What if you listen to a recording of your own voice during your spoken English practice session where you mimic a native American English speaker, for example, in a bid to replicate their speech, and you think to yourself – “I sound completely stupid… What’s the point in trying…”
How will you IGNORE your own criticism, and most importantly – what if you’re right? Maybe you’re no good at accent reduction and you’d better forget about all those stupid aspirations to speak with a native-like English pronunciation?
NEVER EVER ALLOW YOURSELF TO THINK LIKE THAT!
It’s only human to be too critical of yourself sometimes. Taking the fact into consideration that you’re trying to work on your speech which is a pretty delicate matter, it’s no wonder you can’t expect constant improvement and progress.
So, whenever you notice any small setbacks, it’s brought to your attention immediately – simply because it’s YOU who’s speaking and quite naturally you hear your own speech and you’re the best judge of your own speech ❗
Basically what others might not notice, will be quite noticeable for yourself, so the whole issue gets magnified, blown out of proportion. Remember that, and say it to yourself every time when you think you’re getting nowhere with your American or British pronunciation:
“The problem just isn’t as bad as I think it is!”
By the way – you think I don’t have such doubts and lack of confidence when going about my American pronunciation improvement routine? Sure I do! I’m a human, too! So if it’s of any help to you – whenever you have such low moments, say to yourself: “It’s fine, Robby feels that way, too…”
Thanks for reading,
Robby
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