Can a Foreigner Develop a Perfect Thai Accent?

Can a native English speaker develop a perfect Thai accent? Speaking clear Thai is one aspect of the language many foreigners struggle with.  Most foreign language courses give phonetics and pronunciation is only given cursory attention, if at all.  

A few years ago, I booked a trip to Japan.  I decided it would be good to brush up on Japanese a bit before the trip. During college, I had taken a beginner Japanese sequence to fulfill a portion of the liberal arts requirement.  We didn't cover that much in the three course sequence and I was very rusty! 

I had three months before my flight, and my goal was to be able to have simple conversations with people in Japan.  I went through some of the beginner content on Duolingo, but I soon plateaued.  I hired a tutor, began watching Japanese YouTube content, and making Anki flash-card decks with sentences so I could practice reading and learn more vocabulary. 

I started recording myself and realized my pronunciation and pitch accent were not quite right.  By trial, error and repetition, I was able to make incremental improvements.  As my pronunciation improved, something magical happened: I was able to hear spoken Japanese more clearly as well!

To make a long story short, improving your pronunciation in a language will not only allow others to hear you more clearly, you will be able to hear others more clearly as well! To answer the question, can you develop a Perfect Thai Accent? Yes, it's possible for anyone who wants to put in the practice.  Whether your goal is perfect pronunciation or to simply become a better communicator pronunciation practice is a valuable study activity.

To that end, we'll be rolling out some pronunciation practice lessons soon. Here's what the practice card looks like after you've recorded your voice: