Beyond the ACCENT: Speak Without Limits, with Keri

About Beyond the ACCENT: Speak Without Limits, with Keri

Unlock the power of your bilingual voice and redefine how you speak and live in English. Welcome to Beyond the Accent: SPEAK WITHOUT LIMITS with Keri, the podcast where expats, migrants, and language enthusiasts explore what it really means to speak English with confidence — beyond pronunciation. Join Keri, a linguist, voice coach, and seasoned expat navigating life across cultures for over a decade. With firsthand insights and expert guidance, Keri dives deep into the intersections of voice, identity, and the bilingual experience. Whether you’re working for an American company, teaching English, or simply passionate about mastering your unique sound, this show is your go-to resource. What You’ll Discover: 🎙️ Voice & Identity Insights: Understand how your bilingual brain shapes your voice and identity. 🌍 Real-Life Expat Stories: Relatable experiences of navigating English-speaking worlds. 🗣️ Accent & Pronunciation Tips: Expert advice to enhance your speaking skills. 📚 Linguistic Deep Dives: Fascinating discussions on language, culture, and communication. Expect candid conversations, expert interviews, and actionable tips that help you embrace your full potential as a voice user and language learner. Who It’s For: • Working Adults mastering their voice in English as a Second Language • Migrants, Expats, and Internationals building lives across cultures • English Teachers & Coaches shaping their unique teaching styles • Language Nerds & Polyglots passionate about accents and speech Ready to speak without limits? Hit Follow, and let’s redefine what your voice can do! Stay Connected: 📸 Instagram: keri.on.accent 📺 YouTube: keri.on.youtube 🎁 Freebies & More: Be the first to grab exclusive resources! Keywords: AmericanAccent, AmericanPronunciation, EnglishLanguage, Bilingual, LanguageAndIdentity, Emigrant, RussianEmigrants, Polyglot, LanguageLearner, LanguageNerd, VoiceCoach, PronunciationCoach, SpeechCoach, EnglishTeacher, English, ESL, EFL, LanguageTeacher, Speech, EnglishSpeech, Speaking, LanguageNerd

Publisher

Keri

Category

education · education · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

23 Dec 2024

Latest episode

24 Jun 2026

Latest episodes

27 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   24 Jun 2026

   Russian Classics in the Modern World: Dostoevsky, Wokeness, and Translation

   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.

2. 

   8 Mar 2026

   Language Isn’t a Skill. It’s a Relationship. — with Léa Perret

   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.

3. 

   15 Dec 2025

   Shifters: On Language, Identity, and Becoming

   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.

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

150,388

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

1 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 39 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

44

Social presence

0

YouTube

86

Engagement

0

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Guest appearances

Does not typically book guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.