In the article, “A Great Step Toward a Better Accent” we talked about the importance of listening to pick up accents. We covered how listening can make your brain assign a region to those specific sounds that you’d like to master.

However, there’s a special kind of listening that impacts your brain.

Most likely, you have come across a lot of people who have lived in the US for years or decades and yet they pronounce some common words wrong. Obviously, having lived in the US, they must have heard those words numerous times. Why is it that all those years of hearing haven’t helped their pronunciation?

The reason is that the way they listened to the words and phrases did not impact their brain.

As we become adults, we develop a logical brain. What that logical mind does is that it immediately filters what you hear and categorizes it.

Adults, unlike children, have this logical mind or shield, if you will, up all the time. They are more resistant to new sounds. They tend to categorize all sounds based on what they already familiar with.

Take a song you have listened to in the past. Listen to the same song one more time but more attentively. Set aside all other thoughts, relax, and listen to the same song again. Can you see the difference? You may hear sounds that you have never heard before, like that little drum or another instrument in the background, you had never noticed.

The same is true about language. When you relax your mind and shut down your logical mind, and then listen, your brain hears subtle nuances that you have never heard before. And that’s what impacts your brain and changes your accent for better.

That’s one of the features in our programs.