Who’s Winning? Vocabulary and Grammar vs. Accent

If you had to choose between having a great vocabulary and grammar or having a great accent, which one would you pick?

We all have a lot of great friends from different nationalities. They are very educated and skilled. They are IT professionals, doctors, engineers and some are students.

One thing you’d notice is that a lot of them have a great vocabulary and even better grammar than an average American.

But there’s a reality that we must accept, if we want to be extremely successful.

Today, we live in a world that image and presentation is everything.

We live in a world that style is far more important than substance. We live in a world that presentation is more important than contents.

Most educated people are not used to this, because they are engineers, doctors, and other professionals who solve problems and value real substance, not appearances and presentations.

The hard reality is that if you are giving a presentation at work or you are on a date, nobody is going to say:

“Oh, I am so impressed with your vocabulary and how you follow grammar rules”…

But they will be very impressed when you speak fluently and with proper accent.

Most non-natives focus too much on vocabulary and grammar, because it’s more methodical to learn. You follow certain rules and you get it right.

But that’s not where the real benefit is.

Try to improve your accent and the reward will be 10 times more.

If you have learned English as a second language, chances are you are educated and smart. So you have nailed the substance already… now focus on accent.

The good news is that average Americans have a small vocabulary and they keep using the same expressions over and over on daily basis.

All you have to do is to say these limited expressions with proper accent like Americans do.

And you can do that when you do it naturally and subconsciously.