Accent issue?

[cyberlorian]

Is it extremely difficult to completely learn a foreign accent if that language is not one of your mother tongues? For instance, one of my friend’s mother is Uzbek born and father is Iranian born. Since my friend is Turkish born, she can speak in Turkish without any defect. In other words, her Turkish accent is extremely proper. However, although her parents have been living in Turkey for a longer time than my friend has been living, they cannot speak in Turkish in a very proper accent. But they are quite fluent when speaking in Turkish.

Discuss.

[Marinus]

The standard/local accent is the last thing a person masters when they learn another language. In a couple of months a person will be able to communicate using basic language, in two years they'll be fluent, which is when the majority of people stall their learning. When I learned Castilian for example, I had mastered the language and Castilian speakers could understand me with no problem, yet I sounded like an Englishman or a Brazilian speaking Castilian, I kept the native accent whislt speaking foreign language.

I had to focus on certain cues from native speakers and emulate them, such as the silent D at the end of Madrid, ciudad, seguridad, how much of my throat to use when pronouncing the J, where my tongue hits the back of my teeth when I pronounce the T etc....

I didn't have this problem with English because when I learned to speak as a baby, Portuguese and English were already there from the start, I had my childhood to master them naturally. Since your friend's parents are foreign born and they're adults, it's harder for them because that age where their brain is "malleable for language" is gone, and since they already settled and speak the language fluently then there's not much incentive to "re-learn" another way of pronouncing what they can already use. This does not mean that they can't improve the language any further, but it's harder for them.

[cyberlorian]

The standard/local accent is the last thing a person masters when they learn another language. In a couple of months a person will be able to communicate using basic language, in two years they'll be fluent, which is when the majority of people stall their learning. When I learned Castilian for example, I had mastered the language and Castilian speakers could understand me with no problem, yet I sounded like an Englishman or a Brazilian speaking Castilian, I kept the native accent whislt speaking foreign language.

I had to focus on certain cues from native speakers and emulate them, such as the silent D at the end of Madrid, ciudad, seguridad, how much of my throat to use when pronouncing the J, where my tongue hits the back of my teeth when I pronounce the T etc....

I didn't have this problem with English because when I learned to speak, Portuguese and English were already there from the start, I had my childhood to master them naturally. Since your friend's parents are foreign born and they're adults, it's harder for them because that age where their brain is "malleable for language" is gone, and since they already settled and peak the language fluently then there's not much incentive to "re-learn" another way of pronouncing what they can already use. This does not mean that they can't imrpove the language any more, but it's harder for them.

Thank you for the information. Both of her parents live in Turkey since they are 18-20.