to think that if you grow up in UK but have a German parent, when you learn German at school, you will speak it in a better accent because of your heritage?

[vdbfamily]

My DH is half German but grew up in UK speaking English mostly. He did not speak German to our 3 children but they all do well in German and speak it without obvious English accent. I say it is because they are a quarter German but they all laugh at me and say the genetics make no difference. In contrast to this, I know a fair bit of German but they all fall about laughing if I try and speak it. Anyone agree they have an advantage?

My dad is german , I got an E in my german a level. My accent is laughable.

So as not to drip feed, yes he will help them with homework and will talk to them in German if they ask him to. He is fluent to my ears but when his parents used to write to him, he used a dictionary to translate some of it!

If they haven't been brought up bilingual they'll have no more advantage than anyone else.
I have 2 kids in my classes with British parents, neither of them have been brought up bilingual though so are learning English using the "learn" bit of the brain (putting it simply) rather than the "acquire as mother tongue" bit.
Neither excel in English.

I cannot see any reason why they would have a better accent if DH does not speak German nor have a German accent.

Did your children hear it spoken around them as babies - perhaps by grandparents?

No, I don't think "genetics" alone are relevant. I think accent acquisition in a language is much more involved.

No real advantage over others learning for the first time imo, I think that the key is hearing the language from a young age. I am half Iranian, never got taught the language growing up and sound like other people trying to learn really. I think some people are better at copying accents than others but I don't think that is genetic, dh and I spent time learning both Spanish and French and have far better accents (though not amazing by any means!) Than our mothers who try to speak either language. But I suspect part of that is also subconsciously preferring to sound British than to be seen as an idiot for trying to copy an accent whereas dh and I don't care about that as we know we'll sound stupid either way

Their advantage is entirely motivational. That is a big advantage in language learning, though, especially considering the low motivation most British children start off with.

Well, they've probably heard more German at home than their classmates, plus, that aside, some people are just better at picking up accents than others. My once-fluent French is pretty rusty these days as I no longer live in France, but I have an American friend married to a Frenchman and living and raising her children in France for the past eighteen years, and although her French is far, far more fluent than mine now, I get away with a smaller vocab and simpler grammar a lot of the time because my accent is better than hers.

And if you think there could be a genetic role, please don’t help them with their biology homework.

yes he will help them with homework and will talk to them in German if they ask him to

Well there's your answer - these things will certainly help their acquisition of German. Also, if they heard German as infants, perhaps spoken by grandparents, it could have an effect on attaining a good accent.

It's an interesting notion... my parents spoke English at home, but I think my dad is more or less fluent in Irish. I am SHIT at Irish. My mum was good at French, but only at school and I also am good at French (have a degree in French and...). We also went to the same school. Not sure what makes the difference tbh. I wonder if there is a tendency in families to be better at languages though. One of my closest friends spoke three languages growing up and she picks up languages quite easily.

Nope, my Austrian is awful and I heard it growing up!

It depends. What accent does the teacher use?

For Brits it's mostly about how comfortable you feel moving your face around when speaking. My French and German accents improved hugely once I realised that British people barely move their mouths when they are speaking compared to most other countries in Europe (apart from some bits of Germany, funnily enough). Basically I tried doing a very trite French accent when speaking French and it really works . Well enough for Parisians to answer me in French, anyway (and then I get stuck because these days I sound waaaay more fluent than I am)

I imagine they’d be on the same footing as kids with British parents. What a shame they weren’t brought up bilingual! I wish I had been, it gives you a great advantage in life

My mum was french and I speak French with a good accent. My daughter does too. It does make a difference.

Hearing it spoken accurately is bound to help.

I get the impression that the real big gain with regard to accent is at a very early stage - babies babble and make all sorts of different sounds, and then drop the ones that aren't what they're hearing from those around them.

My aunt is french, my cousins spoke both languages from a very early age, in their teens the family moved to France to be near my aunts elderly mother, while their french was excellent their written french wasn’t. They were behind their peers
They caught up obviously and no both diesel about 5 languages which I put down to speaking both English and french as young kids

And it's also about how French and German people speak - where they put the stress in the sentence, especially in German where the sentence structure is radically different.

I think if they have regularly heard their father/grandparents speaking then they will know how German sounds to some degree. But I don’t think it’s much advantage past that.

I loved languages at school (I am bilingual in a different community language totally unrelated to anything we learnt at school) and there seemed to be a few key things that I think are prob helpful.

1. I didn’t struggle with the concept that everything doesn’t come in the same order in other languages.
2. I didn’t feel silly with accents.

Many of my monolingual friends struggled with these things. Some still were good enough for languages at A level though in spite of this but IME it was just a hurdle they had to get over.

Did they hear your DH speaking Gerkan from time to time? I’m reading a neurology / child development book, and their ability to distinguish German sounds will be much better if German was spoken around them in their formative years

Depends. One of mine is a fantastic mimic of accents and got A* in Spanish.No Spanish relatives.

I teach German at GCSE and A-Level and the 'native' speakers or those who speak it al home have no real advantage.

They may be able to speak better and understand stuff quicker but they hate writing and find spelling and grammar really difficult. Non-natives tend to fare better as they're learning it from scratch and tend to make more of an effort.

'Native' speakers tend sadly to be a bit on the lazy side and think they know it all already which might get them somewhere with GCSE but is not a great approach to A-Level.

@MorganKitten

Nope, my Austrian is awful and I heard it growing up!

Is Austrian a language? I thought Austrians spoke German!