Should I improve my English accent to do business in the UK?

English is one of the most important languages in the world. According to Statista and W3Techs, more than a quarter of all Internet users communicated in English in 2020 and 61.7% of all website contents were in English in July 2021. The second and third place had only 7.8% and 3.8% share of all website content. It emphasises domination of English in the Internet covering all aspects of our lives from education and technology to business. Arguably, English became the lingua franca of business world allowing people from different countries, cultures and social backgrounds to communicate effectively. Undoubtedly, other major languages are still predominant. If one wants to do business in Middle East, Eastern Europe or South America, the local languages might be more useful to secure a deal rather than using English. Nonetheless, if you plan to expand in the UK, improving your English should definitely be a goal on your list. However, the question remains unanswered, how should you improve it and should you focus on changing your accent?

The biggest problem with English is that it is easy to learn but difficult to master. Children all around the world start to learn the language from a very young age and throughout their educational journey they carry on developing this skill. However, even in late stages of their career many nuances of English might be still cumbersome for business professionals. English has many unique sounds which do not appear in other languages or even if equivalents exist, they might be pronounced in a slightly different way. This leads many professionals to furry when after years of learning English, they still struggle to pronounce even some basic words. However, it is important not to panic in such a situation. We have to remember that language is a tool. It allows us to communicate a message and whenever we think about improving our language skills, we should focus on this objective. Sometimes we might associate our failure to communicate efficiently with our accents. However, the reason behind it may be in our narrow range of vocabulary which does not allow us to fully express our views. Another issue could be the use of wrong tenses or other grammatical structures making it difficult to guess the true meaning behind our words. Lastly, the way we speak might be an issue as well. It is crucial to improve our articulation as sometimes speaking too quiet or without opening our mouth wide enough can be the main reason of misunderstandings.

Although improving your accent can be a worthwhile goal, it would be important to focus firstly on conveying your message efficiently. It can be done by improving your vocabulary range, grammatical structures and through developing a clear articulation. After mastering those aspects of English, you could improve your accent treating it as a cherry on the cake