Is your first language interfering with how you speak English?

Our mother tongue often shows up in funny ways in the second  or third language we are learning.

In fact, speakers of certain languages develop common habits or make the same mistakes because they’re all trying to apply rules from their own language to English.

Now, this is perfectly natural and understandable, but  to significantly improve your English, you need to become aware of these habits and work on changing them.

One example is how Spanish speakers tend to add a vowel sound or the “e” in front of words that start with “s” because in Spanish, words beginning with “es” are the norm.

Another example is about students whose native language is a tonal language, meaning changing the tone changes the meaning of an individual word.

For example in Mandarin, ma can mean “horse,” “hemp,” “scold” or “mother” (Babbel Languages).

These students have trouble mastering intonation in English because it’s used for different reasons, not changing the meaning of a word but the whole sentence and expressing feelings and attitudes.

Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Thai, Punjabi, and Igbo are all examples of tonal languages.

And I think the video below is an awesome and hilarious display of how your mother tongue can affect your second language.

It’s about an English speaker trying to learn Chinese and struggling the use the right tones for individual words and then showing Chinese speakers what English would be like if it was a tonal language.

If you want help with learning and dealing with the bad habits in English caused by your mother tongue, I can help you!

I’ve done lots of research into pronunciation and language groups, and I can give you tips, strategies and techniques to overcome those mistakes.

Check my 8-Week English Bootcamp for Fluency & Clarity to learn more!

Where can you learn more about issues language groups have?

If you’re not ready for the bootcamp yet, I have specific interactive lessons for different language groups, focused on their common mistakes and activities to correct them.

If you want to learn English with quality materials at a low price…

If you’re looking for tools to improve your listening abilities…

And if you want to learn the pronunciation tips that can make you sound more fluent in English conversation…

Choose my online English lessons, which you can do at your own pace!

Through my podcast lessons, you will learn the vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation necessary for spoken English.