Have you ever said something in English that you were sure you were pronouncing right, but the other person just looked at you like they had no idea what you were saying?

You probably have.

So have I…

Not with English, of course, but it has happened a number of times in different languages. I remember talking to a woman a long time ago in a Portuguese market. I wanted to buy some corn. But she didn’t understand the pronunciation of the word when I said it in Portuguese. After some frustration she finally realized what I was talking about and she repeated the word for me so I could say it again.

This time I became frustrated because I felt I had said it exactly how she was saying it in the first place!

Now I think it’s funny when I look back on it, but at that time I had no idea that adults often can’t even recognize a sound in another language if it isn’t the same sound in their native language. Their brains will usually hear it as something they are already familiar with. I call this pronunciation deafness.

Each Language Has Its Own Sound System

I have read that there are around 1000 different consonant and vowel sounds in all of the languages of the world. When we are born we have the ability to learn any sound we hear. But since most languages have between 25 and 60 sounds in them, these are the only ones we pick up. When we get older, we lose the ability to pick new sounds up automatically.

So when we learn a new language as a teenager or adult, we often use the sounds we are already familiar with and substitute them for similar sounds in the new language.

Here is an Example of This…

The /ae/ in the word happy is not really common in a lot of languages, so people may substitute an /e/ sound like in bed, or an /a/ sound like in father or perhaps even some other sound. While these sounds are close to the original sound, they are not the same.

Most of the time people have no idea that they are making these substitutions. To them, the substituted sound is the same thing. Of course, to native speakers, they sound very different.

You know what I mean. You can tell when someone has learned your language as a foreign language because they don’t sound native.

But Don’t Worry…

If you learned English after childhood, it doesn’t mean you are doomed to use the wrong sounds when you speak it. All you need is this…

1. An awareness of the sounds you are currently using vs. the sounds of English. (Many of the sounds in your language may be exactly the same or very, very close to English. Some may be very different.)

2. The knowledge and feeling of how to make the sounds that are new to you.

3. Practice and habit building to make the new sounds part of your entire sound system.

Since it is difficult to know what you are missing, chances are that you won’t be able to do this all on your own. This is where I can help.

My job is to teach you what the sounds of English are and how to pronounce them. Because you can’t always hear the differences in the beginning, I want you to feel them as well, both physically and emotionally. I want to point out what you are already doing and show you how English speakers are doing it and how you can, too.

Your first job is to recognize and become aware of these new sounds in everyday life. Then, after you start entering this new world of sound, you need to train your mouth and your brain to consistently use them. You need to develop some new habits, so at some point, you won’t have to think about what you are doing. You will just do it automatically.

If you do these things, you can change the way you sound in English and you can lose your pronunciation deafness forever.