Are languages more similar than they are different? In this episode, we sit down with linguist Dr. David Wilson to explore how language families and your first language interference can shape the way you learn and speak your second languages. A Chinese speaker may carry over tones. A Slavic speaker may bring over familiar consonant clusters. An Arabic speaker may approach English vowels differently. These patterns are a big part of what makes our English pronunciation and accents different.

This is part 2 of my chat with Professor David Wilson, where we get into the Great Vowel Shift and why English spelling is such a mess for second language learners. We also cover mergers like cot-caught and merry-marry, univerbation, why words like bury and won't are spelled the way they are, and how English vowels (and German ones too) have been shifting for hundreds of years.

Did you know that there isn't just a single "American English" but several? In today's episode, I talk with Dr. David Wilson, a former Linguistics classmate of mine during undergrad who has since gotten his PhD. We talk about various dialects of the American Mid-Atlantic region and how they differ from dialects around the country and the world.

When someone has an accent, why can we often tell his/her origin? And why is it that we can hear that person’s origin no matter what language they speak? Why can we tell a French accent in English or in Spanish or in Chinese? More fundamentally, why can we even hear accents?

In this episode, I analyze a content creator who created a humorous take on the same Chinese phrase but said in various accents which we can tell apart, even if we don’t speak that language. I’ll analyze features that make you immediately recognize the linguistic origin, and by doing this you’ll recognize how accents work

When you check a word in the dictionary, the transcription it gives is not the full picture. It's just the general reading. If you were to read it exactly as it was transcribed in the dictionary, people would understand you, but you would in no way have a native accent. But why? In this episode, let's find out some reasons why dictionaries can't and won't give you the full phonetic pronunciation of the word you're looking for!

I found a Polish AI influencer that speaks with a pretty convincing Polish-accented English. Let’s analyze her accentǃ Learn about how Polish vowels differ from English vowels, and how Slavic consonants behave in different waysǃ

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"Not" — just three little letters, but one of the most common words in English. And yet, many non-native speakers pronounce it in a way that sounds unnatural. In this episode, we break down why that happens, how native speakers actually use and pronounce "not" (hint: they almost always contract it), and how mastering this tiny word can make a huge difference in how natural your English sounds. We'll cover common mistakes, explain why contractions matter, and give you real practice so you can start sounding more fluent today. Let's check it out!

Do people keep mishearing you say "can't" when you say "can"? Are you unsure if you're even pronouncing it correctly? That's probably because there are TWO pronunciations of "can"- the most common version and the less common version, and you're probably using the less common version when you should be using the other version. In this episode, I'll teach you how and when to use the right form!