Beyond the ACCENT: Speak Without Limits, with Keri

This week on Beyond the Accent, I sat down with writer and Russian literature creator Olga Ruchina to talk about why Dostoevsky continues to haunt readers around the world, what happens to a novel when it crosses languages, and why some stories survive centuries while others quietly disappear.

We discuss why Russians themselves don't always worship Dostoevsky, whether translators become co-authors, what gets lost (and occasionally invented) in translation, and why certain words — тоска included — seem determined to resist English altogether.

Along the way, we somehow arrive at healthy relationships, modern publishing, censorship, small talk, Russian depth, Western politeness, and the uncomfortable truth that perfectly adjusted people rarely make particularly compelling protagonists.

Is the Underground Man wicked or merely spiteful? Are we reading Dostoevsky or his translator? Why do Russian novels feel so emotionally intense? And can healthy people survive a Russian novel?

Come for Dostoevsky. Stay for the linguistic nerdery, literary disagreements, and a surprisingly passionate defense of flawed fictional people.

There’s a strange moment that happens to many adults when they start learning a new language.

In the rest of their lives, they’re competent. Experienced. Used to knowing what they’re doing.

And then they try to say a sentence in a new language — and suddenly they feel twelve years old again.

My guest today has watched that moment unfold hundreds of times.

Léa Perret is the co-founder of Coucou French Classes in New York, a language school she built around a deceptively simple idea: if adults are going to learn languages successfully, the classroom has to account for the emotional reality of being a beginner again.

Not just the grammar.
Not just the vocabulary.
But the vulnerability.

Years ago, I was actually one of Léa’s students. So this conversation felt like a small full circle.

We talk about why the most common question language teachers get — “How long will it take me to learn?” — misunderstands the nature of language entirely. Languages aren’t projects you complete. They’re environments you gradually begin to inhabit.

We talk about listening comprehension — the part of language learning that often surprises people the most. You can study grammar for years, and still find yourself completely lost when someone replies to you at normal speed in a crowded room.

And we talk about the strange identity shift that can happen when another language enters your life — how people often discover slightly different versions of themselves depending on which language they’re speaking.

Those ideas eventually led Léa to build 6pm in Paris, a platform designed to tackle one of the hardest problems in language learning: how to create real immersion outside the classroom.

This isn’t a theoretical conversation.

It’s a conversation with someone who has spent more than a decade designing environments where people can actually live inside another language — first in a physical school, and now online.

Along the way we also talk about French understatement (“c’est pas mal”), code-switching, subtitles, wine in language classes, and why sometimes the most important part of learning a language is simply learning to relax into it.

What if the question “Where are you from?” isn’t small talk — but a trapdoor? In this episode, I’m joined by Xenia: Russian-speaking trilingual living in Madrid, English and Spanish teacher, American accent coach — and someone who knows what it means to live in several voices at once.

We talk about the actual multilingual experience: the selves that emerge in different languages, the homes you grow out of, and the subtle grief and freedom that come with becoming.

We get into:

- why “I’m a linguist” can feel truer than “I’m a teacher” ;

- why some of us say Siberia, not Russia ;

- how 2022 quietly rewired the emotional weight of “where are you from?” ;

- accent prejudice, identity flexibility, and the psychology behind “I want to lose my accent” ;

- fluency arriving before permission ;

- language not as a skill, but as a way of living .

This episode is for the people who don’t feel fully at home anywhere — and have stopped trying to force themselves into one version of themselves.

What happens to confidence when your voice crosses languages?
In this episode, Aviya Gavriel, Israeli-born accent coach and psychology student based in Los Angeles, joins me to talk about the space between our native and adopted selves, and what it takes to feel at home in both.

We trace her story from a small Israeli village and Orthodox schooldays to an LA adolescence of “matcha and drama.” Aviya shares how she first became fascinated by speech after silently watching a professor’s mouth move, and how studying psychology later helped her understand the link between ego, learning, and voice.

Together, we talk about:
• why slowing down can change not only how you sound, but how you feel;
• how Hebrew and English pull the voice (and the self!!) in different directions;
• the moment confidence stops being ego and starts being awareness;
• the idea of “making yourself a rabbi”: finding a teacher who can hold your uncertainty;
• how forgiveness, even for small classroom humiliations, can free the voice years later.

It’s a grounded, generous conversation about belonging, self-perception, and the psychology behind how we speak - an exploration of what it means to sound like yourself in every language you live in.

Today I sit down with Alex — American in France, language teacher, and co-founder of Peasy Anglais — to explore what happens when your sense of self stretches across languages.

We talk about French becoming the language where Alex feels her emotions most fully, about couple-created words (quat = quoi + what), and about the cultural scripts that shape how we sound — from the American “awesome!” to the French “c’est pas possible.”

This is an episode about bilingual love, code-switching as an art, and the twilight zone between words — but most of all, it’s about identity. Who are you when you speak French vs English? How does your voice change when you love, argue, or confess in your second tongue? And how do we step away from perfectionism and into authenticity — the version of us that’s real, unpolished, and whole?

What if I told you that “sounding spontaneous” isn’t about winging it – it’s about structure?

In this episode, we’re busting the myth that speaking off the cuff means chaos or brilliance by chance. From jazz musicians to Stanford tour guides to your next team meeting, the secret to speaking confidently on the fly lies in a simple road map.

I’ll share practical frameworks you can start using today (What – So What – Now What, anyone?), why lists aren’t stories (and why stories stick), and how preparation isn’t cheating—it’s your superpower.

Whether you freeze mid-sentence or just want to sound more like you in the moment, this one’s for you.

What happens when your British self is calm and structured… but your American self is loud, messy, and totally free?

In this intimate duo episode, I speak with Annie (a.k.a. Anita) — a pronunciation coach, multilingual thinker, and unicorn of the accent world — about what it’s like to live in multiple voices. She teaches both British and American accents and reveals how each one taps into a different part of her personality.

We talk about:
– How speaking in different accents can change how you feel
– Why some languages open fairy doors to other parts of yourself
– Emotional associations with accents and languages
– What it means to “sound real” vs “sound right”
– And why the word /jan/ carries more love than English ever could

If you’ve ever code-switched, shape-shifted, or felt like you’re made up of several selves — this one’s for you.

Anita's Insta page!!

https://www.instagram.com/misssanitta?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=Z2xrNDZsZXd1eDBw

Imagine a language that spent nearly two millennia asleep. Not forgotten—just… paused. Whispered in prayer, never yelled in traffic. Then one day, it woke up. And started swiping on Tinder. Ordering coffee. Dropping slang.

This episode is about that language—Hebrew. But not the one locked in liturgy. We're talking about the Hebrew that got reinvented, repurposed, and remixed by dreamers, poets, immigrants, and one very determined man with a very serious mustache.

We’ll talk about:

How Eliezer Ben-Yehuda turned Hebrew from sacred script into a living, breathing mother tongue.

What Modern Hebrew sounds like—and how it got there.

The poet Bialik, who gave the language a soul.

And the messy, beautiful question of who Hebrew belongs to now.

If you’ve ever wondered how language can carry not just meaning, but identity, protest, memory—and yes, memes—this one’s for you.

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In this episode, I sit down with British accent coach and pronunciation expert Olga Sytina to explore what accent training is really about. (Spoiler: it’s not just about sounding “native.”) We dive into the emotional, physical, and linguistic layers that make up this work — from rhythm and prosody to confidence, identity, and all the myths that still linger in the language-learning world.

Olga shares how she helps ESL teachers master the British accent — not to perform someone else’s voice, but to feel more empowered, expressive, and professionally confident in their own.

We talk about:
– British vs. American prosody: rhythm, intonation, and cultural vibe
– Why confidence — not being a copy of something or somebody — is the real outcome of accent work
– The physical side of pronunciation (yes, it’s basically face/mouth choreography)
– How pragmatics shapes not just how we speak, but how we’re understood
– The surprising emotional payoff of shadowing, feedback, and doing the work

“Accent is like your personal DNA. It doesn’t have to be British or American — it has to be you.”

One soul-soothing listen for pronunciation teachers, advanced learners, and anyone curious about how voice, identity, and communication intersect.

The Voice You Hear — and the Silence You Keep
What does your inner voice sound like in English?
And what do your pauses say — in a culture that’s not your own?

In this introspective deep-dive, we’re exploring two powerful, often-overlooked aspects of speech: inner monologue and cultural silence.
You'll learn:
🎧 how bilingual minds shift their inner voice based on mood, memory, and geography
📚 why the accent you hear while reading reveals so much about your fluency
⏸️ how pauses mean radically different things in different cultures
🌍 why “feeling too slow” or “too intense” might just be a rhythm mismatch — not a flaw

Whether you're speaking English, thinking in French, or just trying to feel like yourself in a new language — this episode invites you to notice the unspoken layers of speech.