200. How to Understand Any Accent, with Speech-language Pathologist and Accent Modification Coach, Natalie Cohen
In this episode, Alejandra invites Natalie Cohen, a licensed speech-language pathologist and accent modification coach to discuss how we perceive various accents, and how this perception can create disconnection and inaccurate ideas about each other.
Together they challenge the harmful myth that “thick” accents signal lower intelligence, emphasizing mutual understanding and mutual adaptation. Natalie explains that accent work focuses on intelligibility, confidence, and features like pronunciation, stress, rhythm, and intonation while preserving identity rather than “eliminating” an accent.
Natalie also unpack the bias hiding inside that instinct. Why does an unfamiliar accent make a listener's brain work harder, and why does that extra effort end up impacting the speaker so negatively. Natalie shares stories from her practice, including a physician who stopped speaking English outside of work after a comment from her supervisor about her accent, and explains how that kind of self-consciousness takes root.
Both Alejandra and Natalie offer real strategies for both sides of the exchange, from how native speakers can train their ears to how non-native speakers can hold onto their voice while still being understood.
Quotes
"There's nothing wrong with having an accent, being able to accept themselves as having an accent and how beautiful it is and how it's part of a person's identity, is to have an accent. You know, if we take away everyone's accent, we're all gonna sound the same." (11:51 | Natalie Cohen)
"When we communicate with each other, only seven percent of what we say is based on our words. Thirty-eight percent is based on our pronunciation, our intonation, our rhythm, our pacing, etc." (14:26 | Natalie Cohen)
"They have found that people who have born accents are less likely to get jobs, get promotions, get leadership roles, are less likely to get housing. It all comes down to the fact that subconsciously, the way our brain processes language." (20:06 | Natalie Cohen)
"Because the people speak differently than ourselves, we subconsciously think of the person as not in our group. They're in the out group, because they're different than ourselves." (21:49 | Natalie Cohen)
"It is from a desire to try to place you, and see how to connect with you, and can we be friends and all that. But sometimes it's so painful to receive it five times a day because we're so much more than where we grew up, or were raised or, the particular accent that we have." (41:50 | Alejandra Siroka)
Connect with Natalie Cohen:
Website: nataliecohenslp.com
Email: nc@nataliecohenslp.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalie-cohen-american-accent-pronunciation-coach-819795b/
Links Udemy class: Master the Most Confusing American Vowels https://www.udemy.com/course/master-the-most-confusing-american-vowels/?referralCode=977C2EB3E309EAEF0711
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Podcast Music composed by Gary Lapow: open.spotify.com/artist/1HlMhcNfKIELxYil5mVqD
Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm
