How annoying is it to see your native language rendered with no accents?

1. Is it possible to speak with no accent?
2. Is it possible to get rid of your native accent?
3. Why can I understand my native language but not speak it?
4. Why do some people not pick up accents?

Is it possible to speak with no accent?

The answer is no. After your early teens, the chance of learning to speak a new language without an accent is vanishingly small. Not only the speech sounds but also the rhythm and intonation will give you away.

Is it possible to get rid of your native accent?

Though it's challenging to lose your accent entirely, it is possible to change it. To improve your pronunciation skills, you'll need to exercise both your mouth and ears. There's actually a whole field of language coaching dedicated to this called accent reduction or modification.

Why can I understand my native language but not speak it?

This is because understanding a language involves the brain's ability to infer things from phonemes — distinct units of sound that help us differentiate between words — which the brain then segments into phrases or sentences. The rest is worked out by our ability to infer what the other person means.

Why do some people not pick up accents?

People who do not imitate accents/speech patterns easily may have a strong sense of identity with the region where they initially learned to speak.