Wonderer

Thank you! Hehe, funny, I have been told the same thing about my accent sounding as if it is Russian so many times before as well. I am not Russian, cannot speak Russian language and have not even been there on vacation. Hehe, @St Andrews Lynx, was not aware the Russian-ish accent has such powers. Thought this is "reserved" only for Australians and English, hehe.

Thank you very much! You cannot imagine what a confidence boost I just experienced, hehe.

Wonderful!I just made a 54-seconds long recording on SpeakPipe. Here is the link to it: https://www.speakpipe.com/voice-recorder/msg/tcut73xo957nn5ex

Thank you all for your comments, they are all very helpful, encouraging and supportive! You are raising a very interesting point, @ExponentialDecay. Although it sounds logical, I have never considered this as a factor. I hope that I am not asking for too much, especially after all the great advises you have all given me, however, would anyone be willing to listen to a one-ish minute long recording of me talking about something in English and then share his/her honest opinion about whether I was understandable or not?

Thanks everyone for your comments and tips, I appreciate it. Well, initially I thought so as well, however, after spending 3 years in a foreign country, where I had to speak in English with everyone since I do not speak the local language, I cannot say that my accent has faded. Yes, it is definitely softer or maybe I have just learnt on which parts to emphasize more and which words/sounds to skip in order to be more understandable, however, the miscommunication at times, especially with people I have just met or do not know me very well, remains present. I know that being shy does not help one deal with this issue and I am really trying to get over this shyness of mine, which I should add is not part of my character, it is something entirely new to me and is caused by my accent and fear of not being understood, however, it is just not that simple. :/

Hi everyone, I am not entirely sure whether this section is the most appropriate for sharing my issue, please move it, if it is not and accept my apologies. I will be attending Yale next year for a MA course in the field of social sciences and I cannot stop worrying about my accent. I come from a country in Southeast Europe (the Balkans) and I did my BA in English in Western Europe. Before I did my BA, I had never practiced my English apart from the times when I had English language classes at school. When I started my BA, I immediately noticed that people have difficulty understanding what I say exactly. It does not necessarily mean that what I say is linguistically wrong, but it is the way I say it I guess. I studied in one of the top universities in Europe and all my written papers were graded very high. The problem comes when I open my mouth and try to speak to people in English, they start struggling to understand what I am saying and I can see it very well from their (probably unconscious) facial expressions of a person, who cannot assimilate what is being said to him. As you can imagine, this is very inconvenient. It has made me ultra shy and I have been avoiding to take part in discussions in class unless it is absolutely necessary. Moreover, it creates all kinds of difficulties for a productive academic discussion. For instance, the longer and more convoluted my sentence is, the less people can follow my thought. I have shared all this with my student counselor at the university where I did my BA and he told me that there is nothing one can do about his accent. I was hoping that maybe some of you have had similar experiences and would like to share how to deal with issues of this type. I am thrilled about the opportunity to go to Yale, in fact, I turned down an offer from Oxford for this, I also have been awarded a 50% off tuition fellowship by Yale and I just do not want to disappoint all the people that trust in my academic skills and abilities. Furthermore, when I graduate and search for a job in the US, I assume having a hard accent would be a huge disadvantage? Any thoughts or tips would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

As I said in my previous post, Yale's program is better in almost every aspect. My main concerns have to do with Yale's popularity, or lack thereof, in Europe in comparison to Oxford. I am not planning on staying in the US after I graduate. I am from Europe and I will try to find work in my home country or in other European country. To be honest, I am leaning toward Yale. However, knowing that it is probably less known in Europe than Oxford and having to pay few extra $ks.. not sure if it is a smart choice.

Oh, sorry. I am neither from the US, nor from the UK and I am not familiar with the educational systems of these countries, so no advantages/disadvantages there. The field is regional studies (a mix between social sciences and humanities).

I received offers from both Yale and Oxford. Both courses are 2 years. I have secured a partial scholarship, so Yale is just slightly more expensive (the difference is not significant, though). In terms of academic content and opportunities, Yale's course is better than Oxford's. It is more flexible and provides freedom to choose from different classes. Now... in terms of prestige and rankings, I have heard contradicting opinions. Some argue that Yale and Harvard are like "THE universities" and there's nothing better out there (do not take it literally), others argue in favour of Oxford. What would be your take on this?