By Olga Smith
The reason why some English sounds are more difficult to produce is two-fold:
1. Certain English sounds do not exist in your native language and you do not know how to produce them correctly
2. Your speech organs are trained for your native language from your childhood. When you start speaking in English, you don’t place your tongue, lips, and jaw as native English speakers do.
When people speak in their native language, their speech organs (lips, mouth, tongue, etc.) are not strained. From their very first words, they develop and train a certain set of speech organ muscles. They use their lips, tongue and even their breath in a certain way.
When people begin to speak in a foreign language such as English, they don't automatically position their speech organs in the same way as native English speakers do. This explains why one might very well speak with an accent.
As mentioned, some English sounds are not present in other languages. For instance, the "w" sound does not exist in Russian; Russian speakers often use the "v" sound instead. Russian speakers learning English must learn how to articulate the "w" sound; in other words, how to position their lips for pronouncing "w" properly.
I recommend that you practice the sounds that are particularly difficult for your nationality. You can find this information in our best-selling app Get rid of your Accent UK1.