Does an accent hinder to speak another language?

One of my friends hesitated to speak another language (French) some years ago. He knew French very well, but he had been said one day by somebody that his accent was really awful – it really became a sore subject to him.

To be honest, language accent problem is like a monster that some “advanced” learning language courses scare students by. But we have to know the difference between pronunciation and accent.

Pronunciation for any language is the correct articulation of sounds we say. Pronunciation mistakes can result in misunderstanding: for example, like in words “sin” and “sing”. Incorrect using of consonants can fully change the meaning of a word. In some languages words are differed by long and short vowels (“ship” and “sheep”), and mistakes in such cases can hinder communication and mutual understanding.

But what is an accent and why does it occur? For many years of native language speaking the muscles of lips and tongue “get used” for certain sounds and tone features. When we start learning another foreign language our muscles have to “re-learn” to pronounce other sounds. It is not easy to some people, and our accent is sometimes heard when we speak another language.  

Pronunciation mistakes can result in mutual misunderstanding among people, but the accent usually …doesn’t hinder anything! Maybe, your speech wouldn’t be fully like the speech of native speakers, but there are speech differences in even different regions of the same country.

Language accent can be even useful in a manner. For example, British accent is considered very sexy by American women. So, don’t hesitate to speak another language with your native accent!