Prejudice in the ELT industry | Why we need change 

As far as I remember she told about mispronunciation, not about accent, it's different things. Mispronunciation can be a reason of misunderstanding, so, I personally didn't find something offending in that video. Moreover, she mentioned that she also makes mistakes in pronunciation.

I think some are making this a big issue & trying to defame Lucy. In that video, Lucy told she herself was mispronouncing some words. If she meant to insult others, she wouldnt have told that. It's all misunderstanding. I have been watching her videos for long. She is a great teacher. Please don't create a bad name for her. She didn't intend any of these.

Honestly, I don't quite see how big the problem is. You mentioned a little girl as an example. I'd like to say if I were the little girl and heard that my pronunciation of 'February' was wrong or had some little mistakes, I would be very happy to know I was wrong so that I could correct my pronunciation. What Lucy did was just to tell you what pronunciation of a word is according to dictionary and how to pronounce it. The words like 'professional', 'intelligent' etc. are just gimmicks, something that draw your attention on her videos. I really don't see any problems with her.

I have been following English with Lucy for 3 years and I am sure her purpose was teaching us the best. I've never felt offended.

I am not a native English speaker and I did not feel offended. It seemed to me that all Lucy was trying to teach us how we should pronounce those words...

Accent can’t cause misunderstanding !? Ohhhh It can when all kinds of accents mixed with different pronunciations. It’d be less efficient environment to work in. Again, it causes misunderstanding all the time especially for non-native language learners!!!! We need a standard and widely universally understood pronunciation to start with And become familiar with and then understand the language before we can continue to understand different accent or pronunciation from some regions.

As a native spanish speaker and english learner for several years, I never felt Lucy was calling anyone stupid for mispronuncing some words, I am glad that there´s people like her, helping us learn, and be better at our second language. You as a teacher should know that accents do matter at some point, because sir, if I go to your country on vacation and I didnt care about my accent and pronunciation you know whats gonna happen, nobody is going to understand me. And instead of causing drama and create this video so that your followers could start attacking her just because she used apparently forbidden words, just continue doing your stuff. This is the first video I see from you and all i can see is just hate, so this is going to be the last one.

Unnecessary criticism of Lucy who is an excellent teacher. If you see the video she says that she used to pronounce the words wrongly herself. She is just correcting commonly mispronounced words.

I'm really glad you've made this video. Let me share a story of a 27-year-old Yorkshire "lass" who just so happens to be a pronunciation/English teacher. I'm from Yorkshire. When I'm not teaching, I, of course, speak with my "normal" accent. This is a very thick cross between a North and East Yorkshire accent (more East, as I grew up there from the age of 8). When I was 8 and moved to this new town just a few miles away from my previous one, I was judged because of my accent. I felt ashamed and changed it to fit in. Please bear in mind that I was only EIGHT. When I was in secondary school, I was told "you won't achieve anything because you sound stupid with that accent" and "people with a Yorkshire accent sound so dopey*" (for learners, "dopey" means "idiotic" or "very foolish"). While I was studying at university in Spain and working as a language assistant in a secondary school, I remember meeting a girl from the South of England who told me "you shouldn't teach English with THAT accent". She took it further one day by saying "you can't teach English with a non-standard accent, it's not right!". For my dissertation for my English Language and Linguistics degree, I wrote my entire paper on the teaching of non-standard accents and dialects and students' perceptions of non-standard varieties of English. So you can see just how much this topic had affected me by this point. During my CELTA teacher training (which I did in York, Yorkshire), I transcribed the word "bath" on the board with the transcriptions /bɑːθ/ (RP) and /bæθ/ (the northern pronunciation). After the class in my feedback session, I was told not to teach forms that were "non-standard". I argued the fact that we were in Yorkshire and therefore it's important to teach students varieties of the language that they will more than likely hear while out in the streets of York. I was told by my CELTA instructor "it's better if you just stick to RP, okay?". Apparently, if I didn't, it would be marked against me. When teaching in a summer school after finishing my degree and CELTA course, a fellow colleague told me "do you ACTUALLY teach students with that accent? Your poor students!!". When I told some friends (who are teachers) that I wanted to choose pronunciation as my niche for my business, I was told by one teacher "are you sure? You don't have an RP accent though. If you're going to teach pronunciation, then you really need to speak properly". I've spent the last 28 years of my life being laughed at, criticised, judged, and put down because of my accent. It has softened over the years, but it's still definitely not RP and I'm very proud of it. Thank you for shining some light on this topic, Christian. Nobody should be made to feel ashamed because of their accent. Pronunciation is important for understanding, but labelling someone as "unintelligent", "unprofessional" and "uneducated" because of the way you pronounce words is not acceptable.

Wow, you really made a mountain out of a mole. They were suggestions for how to speak, if you can think, you can also choose what to absorb and what not to absorb, you don't need to take every little thing so personally. Grow a thicker skin! When I'm learning a new language I want to know the correct way to pronounce things, how am I going to learn otherwise?

@EnglishwithLucy often says "to sound like a Native(British) Speaker"... I understand your point of view but I think Lucy never meant any harm.. She never said "to sound with the better accent", she just corrected mispronunciations. P.S. You can only give what you have.. She is British, hence teaches British as a native Language for those interested. You dont expect her to teach American or Aus English.

This time I disagree with you strongly. I've watched Lucy's upload you're speaking about, and it seems the video in question was not about accents at all. I think Lucy is quite right. When someone pronounces 'asterisk' as 'asteriks', or 'et cetera' as 'ekcetera', or 'pronunciation' as 'pronounciation', that's not an accent. It's just sloppiness and/or ignorance. Every good teacher should make it clear to his/her students that those are mistakes.

Lucy's reply here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-au_0R4bYe1w.html If you're not sure that this is a real problem, just read the comments 👇

I don't usually comment on things, but this I have to.. I think people like yourself need to stop feeling so offended over every little thing and move on. You might have felt offended personally, doesn't give you any right what so ever to defame someone else or make them feel bad simply because you or someone else might have been offended. I have been watching Lucy's channel for a while now and I have never taken anything of hers personally or felt offended by any of her videos. Get over yourself, grow up, stop being offended by others and try to make content to help people rather than to inflame a situation or defame someone to the point they feel they need to make an apology video.

Canguro English I understand and appreciate your reason for this video. Now if you are learning maybe French or Japanese (or any other language), shouldnt you try to pronounce words the way they do. I mean thats why we learn the language right?. One simply cannot pronounce eg: Champ Elysees the way it is written Is that not so? What Lucy is doing is NOT WRONG or even politically incorrect. I have watched a lot of her videos and found nothing offensive or objectionable about them. By the way, I am Indian.

Well, as a non native English speaker and someone who lives and works in the UK, I did not feel that Lucy's video was offensive at all. This is the reality that I personally had to experience many times! Yes, sometimes my mediterrenean accent was not liked by some employers who did not give me the job or some people around me who gave me strange looks or skip and ignore me when I was speaking! And yes, I feel that we are kidding ourselves here! I'm not saying this is nice or political correct but it happens!!!!!!!!!! Some people still connect pronunciation and accents with intelligence, credibility and professionalism but this is the ugly reality in some countries, unfortunately! So, instead of accusing Lucy and others for offensive videos, let's be honest with ourselves about the society that we live in. Let's try to change ourselves and the society will come next! Thank you for your time!

I feel like a lot of people commenting have not really watched this video in full, or really taken the time to reflect on what is being said. I am a native English speaker who has an accent from the north of England (Manchester). I am highly educated, intelligent and professional, but have often not been viewed as such by other native speakers because of my accent. I was told by a friend (who speaks with a "proper" English accent) that before he moved out of his home town and met people like me from the north, he did not think it was possible to have an accent like mine and "be intelligent". Seriously. That's a result of classism and the disrespect of regional accents. Now, when it comes to the accents of non-native speakers, it's also wrapped up in anglocentrism, colonialism, racism and xenophobia. THIS is what the speaker is challenging in this video. No one is saying teachers should not help their students to learn the corect pronunciation in order to be understood.

I like watching lucy's channel. And I like the way how she presents her video. She is the best English teacher ever.

with all due respect sir, i think you are just being pained, and you are taking this personal, because if you had wanted to protect the image of the teaching industry as u intended, then this is absolutely not the proper way, calling Lucy out this way means that u want to destroy her image and you are telling the public that there are bad teachers in the industry. The best thing you should have done is to have gone to her privately on her platforms, point her mistakes, which i believe she was only being enthusiastic i didn't mean to disrespect anyone,Lucy would have corrected the mistake herself, taking it to your youtube channel is a no no for me, you would also have to apologise for this

She wasn't discussing accents! In whose regional accent do they all say "mute point" or "pronounciation"? It's about individual speakers making mistakes. So we shouldn't correct students' grammatical mistakes because that would be discriminating against people with idiosyncratic grammar?

OK, so no need to improve my terrible accent any more. just improve your listening skill please.

Your video might convey great message but in the same time it is a very discouraging material and approbation of laziness. You say that my accent was formed when I was little and no matter how much I try I will never be able to change it because of where I was born (what a discrimination!). And I can give up right now on improving pronunciation because it will never be improved! Well, I might as well give up on learning English at all because I will never be as fluent as a native speaker! But that's not the point of learning, you CAN learn anything. I am a linguist and I do believe that with enough time spent among native speakers, awareness and training of the articulation apparatus and enough practice I am able to improve my accent A LOT, even nearly native. That's one thing. A completely other thing is pronunciation. And pronunciation is a matter of positioning the tongue! You can practice positioning your tongue as much as you can practice your body to dance salsa or modern jazz or to weigh-lift! I disagree with the research you mentioned because it's discouraging and only partly true. I know real life cases where you can't tell the difference, be it my native language or my second and third languages. How about people who move to another country at the age of 10-15 and they do acquire fully native accent? They do exist. I don't have to sound native, it is totally OK. But I want to be understood and credible. And I have the right to strive to get an accent I'd love to have. And no research will make me give up. If we all believed in researches already done, we would never go forward. And if I now chose to listen to you, I might as well stop learning English because I will never gain fluency, so what is the point? Lucy's point was not the accent makes us sound UNeducated, UNprofessional etc. but the wrong PRONUNCIATION. There is a big difference if I say "I hate that /bitʃ/" vs. "I hate that /bɪtʃ/", isn't it? You're the teacher. Or the popular "what are you /s/inking about?"... Another research shows that correct PRONUNCIATION makes our speech more credible and intelligible and each group of languages has some features of pronunciation they require more practice to sound closer to native speakers. As long as our pronunciation doesn't cause misunderstandings, that should be fine. But what when it does? Going to Lucy's channel is a conscious choice of trying to learn the "standard" British accent and to learn pronunciation. I want to know what pronunciations I should improve in order to do so. I might never get there but at least I could say I tried. If I want to learn English just to communicate, I can go to another channel. It'd be boring if all the teachers were the same. And, really, no one forces anyone to watch Lucy. If someone doesn't like her, they can simply switch her video off. Naming her here was a low blow. And her videos are not offensive, they are funny and have more catchy titles, which also gains her more views (because why not?). I agree with you that using words "unintelligent" or "uneducated" is not great. She could have simply said "more credible". But what is worse than that is taking hope and determination away which you did. Plus, confusing accents and pronunciations and misconception of what learning English as a second language are present in your video. You should know better as a teacher. Coming among native speakers with faulty pronunciation that makes us not understood, who do you think should adjust? Learners or native speakers? It is only a benefit for the learners to learn correct pronunciations, they gain new knowledge and more people to talk to. More opportunities be it work, relationships, education... And, probably today you are going to have a peak of views because of your video, though I don't accuse you of trying to gain a bigger audience - it's like with pronunciation - it is never going to be good enough anyway (according to you). To me, this video just shows another side of discrimination and is a cry for subscribers.

Lucy is a great teacher. I like the way she prepares her lessons. Keep going lucy.

I've watched Lucy's videos and I didn't feel any sort of prejudice at all... people are just too precious these days - offended by everything.

Christian, thank you very much for the video and for the clue where to find that unfortunate episode of Lucy. (She already deleted it from her channel.) Although I doubt that you will read my message, I will sound my opinion anyway ;) Having watched Lucy's video I think that it's not the situation of accent blaming. Most cases she mentioned are easy fixable for the speaker (except, perhaps, "moot" and "February"). By the way, she admitted that in most cases she was making the same mistakes until she got proved wrong. Let me refresh the list: 1. Et cetera - /et-set-er-a/ (not /eK-set-er-a/) 2. Asterisk - /as-ter-risk/ (not /as-ter-riKS/) 3. Library - /lie-bri/ (not /lie-bri-a-ree/) 4. February - /Feb-brew-ary/ (not /Feb-ju-ree/) 5. Moot - /muut/ (not /mjut/ as in "mute", it's a different word: "moot point", not a "mute point") 6. Mischievous - /mis-chev-ous/ (not /mis-chi-vee-ous/) 7. Pronunciation - /pro-nun-see-a-shun/ (not /pro-noun-see-a-shun/) 8. 've - /uv/ ("have", not "of") 9. Facade - /fas-ard/ (not /fee-cade/, not /fas-aid/) 10. Espresso - /es-press-o/ (not /ex-press-o/) The main idea was that people who mispronounce these words are likely never have given any attention to their spelling. Therefore, such people display the lack of professionalism, to say the least. Again, she was talking about establishment, academic sphere etc. As you see, I'm not a native English speaker, but I have met a lot of professionals who were speaking Russian with variety of heavy accents, but who also was pronouncing business and professional terms correctly. And yes, including that Ex/Espresso thing -- we have the same problem in Russian ;) You said that people should choose only good teachers. Let's take the one who is writing "you should of kept on learning". I value and respect his/her accent and writing habits, I perfectly understand him/her, but I will never let him/her be my academic English teacher. A prejudice? Maybe.

Also, her channel focuses on British English, it's literally called "Beautiful British English" so she can do whatever there. Lucy, you rock, whatever anyone says! Love and support from the US!

Be kind! Sounds great. Then be kind to other teachers. Especially when they make mistakes. The teachers should be responsible, of course. Support them, talk to them privately, correct politely if it is really necessary. Be kind!

None of Lucy’s 10 examples were about accents. She was even working on collab videos comparing US-UK-AUS vocabulary and pronounciations. However, asterisk should not sound like asteriks in any part of the world! This video is an intentional twist of facts. Being a hater what you do here is distorting the message of a competitor and manipulate your viewers. This is not only unjust. It is pathetic.

Oh, boy... There are hundreds of other ways of getting followers! Also, I've never seen anyone who intended to extinguish a fire throwing alcohol on it... A piece of advice, take it if you wish: "Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant." Pay close attention to your seeds. You can hurt more than you possibly imagine... There were other ways... Just think about it... A bit late, but it's worth doing it... Peace.

Sorry but you are mixing up pronunciation and accent. I do appreciate if a teacher corrects me if I mispronounce words. This is a storm in a tea cup. Besides to make your point you shouldnt have criticized just one specific person ( Lucy). Dont say this isnt a personal attack. It is!

Congratulation on clarifying the way that the English industry wants to teache us, but I believe that we should criticize our colleagues in private, not exposing their mistakes. Teachers need to help each other and not blame the wrong things. You are both good teachers and that's what matters to the students.

Oh, thank you for hurting another teacher's professional career because you didn't agree with her, you really have opened my eyes. BTW, there is something called prudence, oh and there is another one called inbox, which you could've used to contact Lucy to have a discussion instead of publicly threatening her face. And you believe yourself a better professional...

I watch Lucy, I have been for a while. I'm french Canadian and my partner is Belarusian. We speak to each other in english, and none of us has a native accent. This, however, does not mean that we cannot use the proper pronunciation. We correct eachother all the time. Does our accent change ? No. But our conversations flow better and are more easily understood by people around us. Pronunciation does not equal accent. I couldn't pronounce "variety" for a while and people would not understand when I invited them to variety show, for example. I'm glad my boyfriend showed me the proper pronunciation. There is no shame in that. Lucy never shamed different accents. She even, in many videos, takes the time to say that everyone's unique accent is good. This video and those comments saying she is discriminating definitely shows a lack of knowledge about her content. She herself says she has been mocked as a kid for her "posh" accent. You think she would go around mocking other after that ?

Thank you. I am one of those people who has been made to feel ashamed because of the way they speak. I'll never forget the HUMILIATION of being told by a Frenchman that I didn't speak my mother tongue 'correctly'. I was born in Scotland, studied English at university and became an English teacher. I moved to France over 30 years ago and started teaching English. During one of my first job interviews, when the interviewer realised I was Scottish, he gave me a pronunciation test. He then pointed out some 'mistakes' I had made, but he employed me anyway!

I get your point and I've heard stories of people being discriminated because of their accent. But I think that doesn't have to do anything with lucy. She's teaching non native speakers of English how to correctly pronounce the words. It's not a Chanel for Irish or American people to change their accent but a Chanel for non English speakers to learn pronunciation of the language they are willing to learn. Moreover, if you truly believe that she wants to help, why did you upload this on RU-vid? You could have texted her personally and reminded her about the mistake you thought she was making. You didn't have to criticize her in front of the whole world. I find that this is somehow mean

It doesn't make you 'angry' it makes you jealous.

This isn't just the best channel for learning English, but the best for learning about life. Great job as usual, mate.

I don't see the problem, it seems that they want to attract attention to win watched videos, English with Lucy never had any intention of offending someone, but she teaches English with a London accent, and in every country there are difficult accents to understand, I ask you for What are the actors looking to speak with a US accent? Is it because it is the standard of the film industry? If there is a relationship to succeed, you must speak a fluent accent from the United States, the same must happen in London, just as it happens in Latin America, radio and television communicators must change their way of speaking so that they can understand why it does not lower the ratings, so there is intrinsically an accent for a specific activity, a common accent is needed, but it is not social discrimination to an accent, if you want to learn a London accent that young people talk about you will have to follow youtubers from a low-income neighborhood, even that low-class youtuber will have to change his speech to an educated way in order to get a job

Also if we are talking about professionalism, I think a buttoned-up, ironed shirt would be advisable.

Political correctness dictatorship!! As peruvian my accent is awful, despite that, if some one teaches how I would improve my accent I will appreciate it. Some silly over sensitive people will fell offended. Not me. As the same way I will teach or advise how to not sound funny or "ridiculous" at the monent to speak spanish

My perception of the criticised video was slightly different. From my perspective it is only an advice to refine our language, getting rid of the wrongly pronounced words and not to humiliate anyone who makes such mistakes. Even Lucy herself admits her former language deficiencies.

He is correct to point out that it isn‘t okay to connect a wrong pronunciation etc. with intelligence, professionalism and so on. But than he blew it out of proportion. It’s a fact that in any language a person who speaks its native language with a clear pronunciation and without grammatical errors is viewed as more refined. But it’s a whole other ballpark when a language is just the second language. So in my opinion he should have just pointed it out to her, that her wording was unfortunately and probably a little thoughtlessly chosen and be done with it. But than he wouldn’t get the attention and clicks he now generates ...

For heaven's sake! Lucy speaks modern RP and she teaches modern RP. That's all. Don't get offended

I would like to give you my point of view as a Student of English and as an admirer of the English language. I have watched Lucy's videos and I don't see any problem with her lessons at all. She has never critised any "Accent" as such, but good pronuntiation according to a Standard Contemporary British way which is the English she speaks. Any language is a "Social Convention" that means that the only way to really communicate to be understood is by pronouncing the words as they should be, that gives the learner intelligibility when they speak in English. The main problem I struggled with when learning English was precisely pronuntiation. One thing is "Accent" and another one "Bad English", Let's face it and say it: All languages have different "Accents" in different regions and we all can recognise in our mother tongue languages who speaks pronouncing the words clearly and who doesn't because they don't know their own mother tongue language, there IS a diference between "Accent" and a "Lack of Knowledge of it". It happens in all languages. It is obvious that her intention is to give the English Learners the most Standard Sounds within a "Frame or Guidance" which is a Standard Pronuntiation, which in my view as a Student of it is the RIGHT thing to do. As an English Learner, I would never ever pay an English Teacher to learn to talk saying "innit" or expresions such as " E - O - INNI" meaning " IT IS HOT ISN'T IT", or Glottal English, Estuary English, those are too regional. I will be delighted putting my money with those teachers who are able to teach me precisely that Modern Contemporary Standard English whether it is American English or Australian English or South African English, or maybe a Lovely Scottish Accent I don't mind! But never ever in a million years I would pay to learn "inni" or Be''er meaning "Better" or any other strange way of talking that obviously when abroad is NOT going to help me to communicate, because that way of talking has NOTHING to do with "Accent", but with a rupture of that "Social Convention in other places of the world" and is NOT going to help me at all. Now, IF that were the way most people talk in the world let's say a 70, 80 or 90%, then that way of talking would become the Standard English, making it worth it to learn, because it will Become The New Social Convention for International English, but it is NOT! English Students who want to Learn the Language to improve their lives, have better jobs abroad and other opportunities will struggle by learning "inni" or "Jafakecan" English, mainly when their muscles and tongues are not fully trained to produce English Sounds and they will mix them with the sound of their mother tongue language making it more unintelligible. A Frame or Guidance is Essential when learning any Language and in English those Frames, Reference or Guidance are: General American or "GA" or Received Pronuntiation or "RP" or any other Variant that shows what the Social Convention states as the way to pronounce any word. I can see that many Native Speakers are feeling "Affected" by this situation because they may have broad "accents" well they shouldn't be affected, because they belong to a region and they have their Identity and the ability to change their accent if they are abroad, these lessons are designed for Students of English NOT for Native Speakers! English is a beautiful language and a tool that when it is used properly it can help millions of people who want to speak it properly inni? :-)

Lucy teaches RP English - the one most of foreigners learn and speak. And there is one correct way to speak RP. Foreigners are aware of the accents and obviously if they want to learn an accent different from RP, they should find a different teacher - the one who speaks the accent. It's mixing accents in your speech what seems unintelligent.

It makes me remember a situation that a lived in USA. To take a long story short, a man has questioned about my inteligence, just because i had accent(that was 3 years ago). Then i told him:listen, i may speak with accent, but i don't think with accent. He didn't know i am a lawyer in Brazil. He judged me because i was working as a waiter.

I guess this video could be used as an example for a discussion way more serious - unethical behavior in the ELT industry.

The problem is, where do you draw the line between accent and mispronunciation. I don't see a problem in what Lucy did. If a teacher sees that a student is mispronouncing something they correct them instead of saying oh it's just an accent. Also she is just stating the facts, what's the point of giving us info on how difficult it is to get a job if you have a 'hard to understand' accent. If you really want that job there's no point doing the same thing. Lucy is actually helping people like this as she is preparing them for what they may hear in the future. There is no problem in that.

Could this be done privately? I think it wasn't THAT nice to publicly mention someone who was not satisfied by you even what he/she has done could be considered as a sort of what you said. You yourself said it was not a personal attack and you don't even know her personally but obviously it was! Is it Really a good way that for the sake of TEACHER to make some students or someone ashamed publicly and by this one was GLOBALLY! I really appreciate what you concerned about and the point you emphasized on but seriously? Could there be another peaceful way to deal with it? You were playing with people's emotion and you were building it up as RAGE and it ends up as Social sanction at last.

You're making this sound so much more overly dramatic than it really is. You're making it out to be such a bigger problem than it really is and taking what she said out of context to the absolute extreme and challenging her competence because she's younger and impressionable. Not to mention calling someone a "symptom of a sick industry", like you hold some higher moral ground over her and other young people attempting to teach the English standard. How do you think she'll feel about hearing that? Or do you not care about her feelings? Gee, I mean, if you were learning German, for example, one would think that you'd probably want to learn how to pronounce the language correctly; or would you not, sir? You're a hypocrite and a bully and you don't even realize it.

You've completely missed the point.

Now I will continue my life thinking that I'm mentally discriminating the people that order "knotchi" and "expresso" in the Italian restaurant. And I'm rightfully discriminating them.

Totally agree with what you said! I am from Malaysia. Once in Taiwan, my English language teacher job application was rejected just because I don’t look like western people. And that was told baldly into my face by the school representative. Even though I have my BA degree in TESOL. My friend from Poland who was doing his degree in Computer Science got an English teaching job at that school, just because he looks like a native-speakers.

Well said. Language learning is about communication, and should not be about acceptance into a social club. I'm an English teacher in Beijing, and I'm appalled by the comments I hear from other English teachers about accent. I agree with your very astute statement--accent is a form of identity. Many of my high-end students (famous actors, btw) want to keep a Chinese identity in their accent, which I encourage. Great video. I'll be sharing it.

“My fair lady” (or Pygmalion) is about complaining on pronunciation and judging for the way people speak but I’ve never seen protests in front of theatres...I’m not from Uk but I’ve never felt offended by this kind of video. I just think sometimes people need to face the facts that they do mistakes and they should accept that and try to be better in what they prefer.

I’m totally with you on the accent and native obsession. I’m a teacher and non-native English speaker and I know that I would not be the first option for a lot of companies and your videos have inspired me to continue teaching in spite of that. Now, back to Lucy’s video, I don’t think she made a mistake. She did not criticize any accent at all, she just advised to correct common errors in pronunciation which is the point of teaching English. The same thing happens in Spanish , there are common mistakes and they are even categorized and are usually corrected at school as part of standard education, correcting them is not seen as offensive , your teachers should correct you and help you to express in the best way possible, that’s their job. Thinking that correcting errors is discriminating seems out of context to me. I watched Lucy’s video and I learned a lot from it and I realized my mistakes , did I feel offended by it? Not at all! She pointed on a mistake and that I can fix! I can’t change the place where I was born but Lucy’s lessons can definitely help to change and improve the way I speak .

Accent is not pronunciation man! Please! I teach English and I totally agree with her.

I stopped watching Lucy long long time ago when I realised that for me she became more a celebrity than a teacher.

I agree that some stuff about intellect were said. but that was minor and here it ends her content is quite genuine, helpful and overall honest. the fact she used those bold words shows she's not trying to hide from anything and from what I remember she clearly MADE SURE to repeat the fact that British English Isn't the only English around. then how's that for arrogance?

You have to apologize to Lucy, Sir. You've made her remove that recent video and then apologize to those whom she might've offended. Some people may have the same opinion as you, BUT others especially learners who've been learning from her are on her side: they do want to know how to correctly pronounce words like 'mischievous', 'facade', etc. After all, the video teaches how to pronounce words according to well-established dictionaries, NOT how to do English accents correctly!

Best channel to learn English, no doubt! I used to watch videos like "How to speak like natives" and I can say that was one of my biggest mistakes in my language learning process. Like you mentioned before the accent is part of our identity, and I do not know why people are so obsessed to speak like natives. Your videos are really helpful and since I have been watching your videos I am more confident to speak English!

Thank you sooooo much for your content, your knowledge, your empathy and everything else!! I am an English teacher in Brazil...and I fight constantly against people and teachers who want to put English, accents and people into one specific and "perfect" (in some people's or communities/industries eyes) box. Again: THANK YOU.

Thank you so much. No word to express how much I appreciate it.

I speak several languages. In every language, speaking with the 'pan' or standard accent of the country gives you always more credibility in the business world. It is the reality and it is useful that people tell you that. I am a girl from the countryside and very modest origin. I am happy that I learned (it is possible) to speak with a more neutral accent (I speak Dutch and French).

Hello from Russia) Don`t you think that such a democratic view risks making things too democratic? What if every Tom, Dick and Harry some day start pronouncing all words just as they like? Of course, your view is not so superficial, but many learners might get your point this way and that will be not only their fault. Peace!

I'm glad this got posted on my feed so I can write to you and tell you you're scumming up the internet with politically correct policing. So tiring, aggressive, and offensive. Please stop.

Thanks for being an amazing teacher and an incredible person. Thanks for understanding who a real language teacher is and how is possible for people from around the world speak English enjoying it. Imagine how I feel when you mentioned that people is not accepted because of their accents and hometowns living in an English language contexts... I'm from Colombia South America and I've been an English and Spanish teacher for about 6 years and I love being a teacher at any age. Learning a language is more that just learning phonetics and grammar, is about knowing cultures and understanding that is a whole different form of perceive the world through language.

I viewed another one of her videos where she responded to the trolls. The event took a toll on her nerves. Dreadful what happened. She is sweet. Would never try to harm anyone.

I don't see a problem if she popularises good English accent. I like Lucy's English. And maybe I am uneducated in terms of British English. I can't be educated in everything. She is ok.

Christian. I understand that your concern with the matter has been poorly handled. It was not correct to expose Lucy in this way. It was not necessary to do this. You should handle the matter without using her name and image. I recognize as important your concern with the teaching of the English language and the imposition of normative and exclusive forms promoted by the language teaching industry. In any case, there are students of the English language who wish to learn commercial ways to use the English language and Lucy tried to meet this demand and did so with the best of intentions. The correct thing now is to retract and seek to repair the damage done to Lucy and her followers in the best possible way possible. I wish your channel success.

Oh! Thanks a lot! I'm so impressed by your video and inspired to keep on learning and teaching English.

Let’s change the spelling of “pronunciation” to “pronounciation” so you can pronounce the wrong vowels without being told you’re wrong. What’s wrong with telling people it’s “nun” not “noun” in “pronunciation”. Wow. So how do I teach English to my students tomorrow? Let’s just give up learning English since you can’t correct students. What a ridiculous video.

I'm sorry, when in Lucy's videos there was any hint of accent discrimination? Could someone please point it out for me? All I ever remember is she talking about pronunciation mistakes...

I think everything depends on interpretation. In my opinion she didn’t say anything about accent in her video but about mispronunciation of these 10 words underlying she herself mispronounced them. Also why are you talking about a little girl not a little boy? Maybe because everyone knows that boys and girls are brought up in a different way?; that a girl must work harder from the beginning? You also mentioned that speaking in a foreign language we must be understood and she does that, she helps to improve spoken British English. And you can’t blame Lucy what employers do, I agree a lousy native speaker shouldn’t get a teaching job, but on the other hand a non-native speaker should be understandable. But what is really hard for me to accept is your statement that most non-native adults won’t speak like a native. I know you quoted somebody’s research, but still I refuse to accept this. It doesn’t spark joy!

Well said! Thank you so much for standing for so many not native wonderful English teachers! We need more people like you in the world, even though some people think this is a light matter, it is not because as you said, it promotes prejudice and misinformation. Excellent and well-founded opinion!

I do not know about her, but in general I agree with what you said 100%. im not a native speaker but I see so many people who think like that! So many great experienced teachers dont get a chance to teach just because they prefer natives who are not necessarily qualified. Liked this video!

Genuinely she just made a mistake, it was not intended. I will love to watch her videos.

Christian you are a Teacher on another level, I admire you deeply. Thank you for all your lessons.

Nossa Muito Obrigado Pelo Este video! This video has a massive impact on me, I have been dealing with this since I'm here in the UK, I have been always thinking just because I'm not speaking like a native or don't have the vocabulary the native has, it doesn't mean I'm not capable for a job or I'm dumb like I felt few times just because of my accents, pronunciation, some people constrained me at the point I'm starting to spell the word so that way they can figure out the word I was saying, I think your video should be watched for all HR employee or recruitment agency. Thank you.

Thanks Christian. I completely agree. Thanks for your videos, for your words, for your passion to teach, for your positivity.

I absolutely agree with you!! Thank you very much!! I am an English teacher, but English is not my first language. It seems that when you are a non-native English teacher, you must prove yourself to others. What is more, I keep seeing job advertisements in which being a native is a requirement. Even though I am CELTA certified (Pass B) and have reached a C2 level in English, employers often make you feel lesser. From my point of view, no matter how hard you try, you will never speak like a native; you will never have the same cultural background nor references a native speaker does.

There is simple rule: don't like? don't watch. unsubscribe and press "don't recommend". Nothing more. Everyone does mistakes and make a public flogging is the worst thing to do. Do not dig a hole for another, you will get into it yourself.

Thank you for the video!!! I think it will be help for many people to feel more comfortable with their accents. I absolutely agree with you, that an accent is a part of our identity and we shouldn't be ashamed of having it🤗

I am an English teacher and my native language is Portuguese. In many occasions my colleagues and I have suffered prejudice from our accents, where we come from, and I have also experienced prejudice from students because I haven't been abroad (despite being considered proficient by Cambridge English). To hear a native speaker sharing thoughts like you did in this video serves as comfort and a sign that there is hope for the future in our industry. Thank you so much

As a person who does not miss any of Lucy's video, I did see your video and it was really impressed that you were very angry with Lucy, even though you mentioned that you did not personally attack her, but I had a feeling that it was very personal. You know very well that Lucy didn't really mean to hurt or discriminate against anyone because of his accent, but as a teacher who teaches language in this case English, the way you pronounce the words has a very important meaning. Therefore Lucy's whole intention was to teach only how to express the words and not to personally criticize anyone. In my opinion you are taking the opportunity to hurt a person who has not done any crime and it is a great shame that you do it this way.

You are amazing! I'm Italian, one year ago I was trying to improve my english, thinking to give up my dream to work abroad due to my italian pronunciation, my grammar mistakes and my lacking vocabulary, when I found your videos... I could feel your passion, I saw your incredible teaching skills and I trusted on you, I started to be kind with myself, to not be afraid, to enjoy the learning journey like the union of cultures and I achieved my dream working in Glasgow! You and all your videos inspire me each time!

Lucy is a great teacher, she's absolutely gorgeous. I'm not a native speaker and honestly I was not offended by Lucy's words. I don't see any problem with such words like "professional" or "educated" in educational videos. Lucy has never made offensive content, all she's doing is trying to teach people all over the world and she is absolutely good at it. I don't think she was intended to offend people, she wanted to show how to pronounce those words correctly according to dictionary because it's very important for English learners to know it. I am absolutely sure that Lucy respects all the accents.

Thank you so much for making this video.

But I loved to learn from Lucy. She is a great teacher in the world. #iamwithlucy #iamwithenglishwithlucy

O my God! How strongly i love your way of speaking and expressing your thoughts! By the way and pronunciation too.

Thank you Christian. Your point of view about English pronunciation really encourages me. It's challenging to learn new language. And people who decide to do this deserve respect and support.

Idk why im able to easily understand what r u talking about... You have the best way to speak clearly.. I love u sir

I spent four years of learning English at secondary school in communist Czechoslovakia with only Czech teachers and with virtually no possible contact with the English-speaking world. When the Berlin Wall came down and we were free to travel abroad I realized one thing: I didn’t understand English and nobody could understand me. I basically had to start again from scratch and it was primarily thanks to native English speakers that I learnt intelligible English. I fear this attack on the “sick ELT industry” (singling out Lucy) is just jumping on the bandwagon of the current protests. If it is all about “identity” now then I am afraid that intelligibility is in danger of being thrown out of the window.

This world needs more teachers like you, what an awesome person you are!

I am proud of my American accent. My ancestors worked hard to establish their own culture and spin on English. No one can cause me to be embarrassed by it.

At school my English teacher was Italian (like most of the language teachers in Italy) speaking English with an Italian accent. She taught me the basics, which means grammar, how to write properly, how to read, etc. Thanks to her people can understand me when I speak. I think at the end this is the most important thing to achieve. In primary school for some time there was also group of women from India, I think this is the reason why I have some kind of "accent", but they weren't even teachers. I am glad I've been taught how to comunicate.

The best teacher have ever watched and known. Thannks soo much Mr. Christian keep going you great job inspiration, motivation videos for us who is growing better and better every day!

'Language is a democracy' take it if you don't want to see the video. But in my view, this is the best video I have ever seen.

Man! Thank you for your words!!

Hello, Christian. Thank you for the great video. It really really encourages me. This is a very common pitfall for us, Japanese people. English pronunciation is difficult because English vowels and consonants are quite different from Japanese ones. It's almost like acting against our instinct! Sadly, this difficulty takes away some learners' confidence and they eventually stop learning. As you said, it takes a long time to learn languages. I don't deny practicing pronunciation. But it should never prevent continuous learning.