You're listening to Rough Translation from NPR.

Hey everyone, I'm American and today I'm here to help you sound like one, two.

I'm going to talk about seven easy things.

As any YouTube language video or language learner or teacher will attest, the process of

remaking yourself in another language is about a lot more than grammar or pronunciation.

It's a million little things.

A guy from Arizona, he teased me for not knowing what granola was.

This is a listener from Sweden.

And I looked it up later and it's not granola here, it's misli.

A while back we asked you to send us your stories of teaching and learning English.

Some of you shared your joy at discovering a side of your personality that English had

unlocked.

Now that I mastered it to a certain degree, I really feel like I am more open.

I think I may have had a different journey to finding my voice if I did not learn English.

Others of you shared your concern at learning this language over others.

I'm in the generation of children in Nigeria who speak English as a first language and

have difficulties speaking the native language.

But there's a lot of shame for us.

And you talked about your frustration.

When even after you'd learned English and spoke it with fluency.

I don't know if it's because of my accent or my pronunciation.

Your English was seen as not good enough.

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