Is it possible for a foreigner to speak English as well as American after years of practice?

Question

Or just close to.
The precondition is that the foreigner's English proficiency is far from desirable and he is about 20 years old

Answer 1

Yes. In fact, many foreigners speak English BETTER than Americans! Have you heard the way most Americans talk? We ain't learned too good in some parts.

The book Lolita was written by a Russian author named Vladimir Nabokov. He was a native Russian speaker who fell in love with the beauty of the English language, and his goal in writing the book was to take the most undesirable subject (a romance between an older man and a prepubescent girl) and make it sound lovely. I suggest you peruse the book--it's hard to read because there are at least two words per paragraph that I have to look up, and every time my reaction is, "wow, what a great word! I need to learn this one." I have a notebook full of Nabakov's language that I wish I could learn to use in everyday life.

Answer 2

The younger a person is, then the easier it will be to speak like a native. However, any language someone learns after puberty will probably not be perfect even with a lot of work. My mom (from Mexico) has lived in the United States for about 27 years (she is 50 now) and while she does not have an accent anymore she occasionally still makes grammatical mistakes. She uses English to communicate all the time at work and home.

It also depends on the language learner's ideas about the importance of correct pronunciation. My dad, a native English speaker, learned Spanish as a late teen/early adult and while he knows the language pretty well, he has a horrible accent because he doesn't really care.

Answer 3

Yes, I think so. My husband is German, and he learned English in school and in the Air Force. When I met him, he spoke more of the British English, but now he speaks English like a real American. I don't know what people mean when they say that Americans speak only "slang". England and the U.S. are two different countries, so it's no wonder that they speak the language differently. Americans aren't into snobbery or snootiness like the Brits. If you hang out with or are married to an American, your will learn to speak like a native. I must say though that after living 13 years in Germany, you can still tell I'm American when I speak German. Oh, well.

Answer 4

Close to, yes. At a native-level, probably not very long after early childhood. After that time your brain isn't geared to pick up a new language perfectly. Can you become quite proficient and speak very well, or to an extent someone might not even notice that you're a foreigner, of course. Especially from the young age of 20.

Answer 5

Some don't try to lose their accent and keep it through out their life. Others use tape recorders and listen to themselves and practice to get rid of the accent. Leave the tape recorded on when you have friends over. Hide it under the couch and then when they are gone listen to them and yourself. How much of an accent do you still have? Practice that foreign accent until you sound like a native. This spanish guy was born and raised in the states. He had no spanish or spanish accent.
He learned spanish by recordings from staples or some store.
He said, Mexicans would come up and talk spanish to him and he didn't understand them. So he learned spanish and listened to spanish programs on TV. Kept it on all the time. Even taped and rented movies in spanish. He sounded more spanish in two years than English. You can do it but you have to work at it.

Answer 6

At that age, you have a good shot. I've known foreigners that speak better English than we do! For example, I had a neighbor that was from Sweden, and had learned some English there, but came to the States at about 22 yrs of age. She was 30 when I knew her, and you wouldn't have guessed she was a naturalized citizen! She sounded like she'd been here her whole life. I guess you just have to work really hard at it- take classes,
get an accent coach, and not speak your native tongue for a few months to a few years.

Answer 7

Yes, of course.

The best way to learn it at a proficient (ie. fluent) level is to surround yourself with native speakers and try to practice speaking as much as you can. Try to ask them to explain any expressions you might not be familiar with that are used often (eg. idioms, slang, etc..). Reading news articles and magazines is better than simply memorizing words from a vocabulary book in my opinion because you'll learn how and when to use words in certain contexts. Bottom line is practicing every day should do the trick. Good luck.

Answer 8

It is possible for them to speak better English because Americans are hooked on slang. Foreigners are learning proper English from the start.

Answer 9

Yes it is it happens all the time. Many people who speak English as a second language speak it more grammatically correct than those who speak it as their native language

Answer 10

If you consider that Americans speak a good English yes. But if I were you, I would prefer British English.