Why Your Accent Isn't Holding You Back as an Immigrant in Canada
Alisa Zavialova has a PhD in linguistics and runs a language school in Calgary. Her advanced English class, built for immigrants who are already fluent, is full right now, for a reason that surprised her: it's not grammar these professionals are missing, but the unspoken rules of small talk, workplace culture, and belonging that no textbook covers.
Why this matters more for immigrants
Zavialova immigrated to Canada from Ukraine in 2012, completed a master's and a PhD in second language studies at Carleton University, and spent years teaching English as a second language before founding Calgary Central Language Solutions, known as CELS. She started the school after pandemic-era funding cuts hollowed out community language programs, and after realizing there was no path from teaching at a language school into a tenure-track academic post.
Now her students range from complete beginners to advanced professionals, and it's the advanced class, for people who already test at CELPIP 8 or CLB 9 and above, that's full right now. That surprised her. These are people already working in their fields, using English every day on the job. What's missing isn't ability. It's the sense that they belong here, that they can be promoted, or make small talk with a colleague the way someone born here would.
Why accent reduction is the wrong goal
At CELS, Zavialova doesn't teach accent reduction, and she's direct about why: for most adults, reducing an accent after around age fifteen is close to biologically impossible, unless someone arrived in Canada very young. What her team teaches instead is pronunciation, working on specific sounds so students are easier to understand. That's a different goal than sounding like a native speaker.
She also pushes back on the idea of a "native speaker" itself. Canada has its own regional accents, so a newcomer trying to sound native would first have to pick whose accent to copy, someone from southern Alberta or someone from BC. And globally, more people speak English as a second language than as a first one, which has never stopped anyone from succeeding in business internationally. Her advice to students: be proud of your heritage, don't hide it, and put your energy into being understood, not into erasing where you're from.
The real skill gap is pragmatics, not grammar
Her advanced students are usually high achievers who ask her to help with grammar. She tells them the opposite: at that level, grammar isn't the problem. What's missing is pragmatics, the unwritten rules of when and how to say things.
Her go-to example is the exchange "Hi, how are you?" In Canadian small talk, that's not really a question. It expects a short, scripted answer like "Good, and you?", not an honest update on your week. She also has students break down idiomatic expressions from real Canadian media. Recently, that meant picking apart a CTV interview about the Alberta separation movement for phrases like "it's not in the cards right now" and "the squeaky wheel gets the grease." Pop culture matters too. When she asked a class if anyone had heard of the show Heated Rivalry, something colleagues at work seemed to be talking about, most students said no.
Zavialova estimates it can take up to ten years in a new country to absorb these unspoken rules, and it only happens if you get outside your own language bubble on purpose: making friends who don't speak your first language, following Canadian news, staying curious about Canadian authors, French Canadian culture, and Indigenous history. As she puts it to her students: "The only native Canadians are Indigenous people. Everyone else is a settler."
Networking as a newcomer: curiosity beats a business card
Zavialova has collected plenty of business cards from newcomers at networking events, then emailed people who never wrote back. Her advice: stop treating networking as a pitch. Ask more questions about the other person than you answer about yourself. Skip the industry jargon and acronyms, since even people in your own field may use them differently. And follow up. A contact someone hands you is an opening, not a transaction.
She's also candid that English level usually isn't the real barrier for newcomers building a career here. "The biggest challenge, in most cases, is not the English level. It's the lack of network," she says. Trust takes time: showing up consistently, responding to emails, being someone people remember. It took her, a PhD with years of teaching experience, several years after moving from Ottawa to Calgary to build a real professional network from nothing.
Email, workplace culture, and reading the room
Formal letter-writing classes teach "Dear Sir/Madam" and "Faithfully yours." Canadian workplace email rarely looks like that. It's common to open with a first name and keep things short, but how casual is appropriate depends entirely on context: the region, the industry, and the specific workplace. What's formal in Calgary might not be formal in Texas, and banking, oil and gas, and nonprofit offices each have their own norms.
Her advice is to watch before you write: notice how your boss and colleagues communicate, then match it. She practices what she teaches, too. In professional communication, she always responds in English, even to students who share her first language, because every exchange is a chance to practice.
Key takeaways
- Accent reduction isn't the goal, and it's rarely realistic after your teens anyway. Work on pronunciation and clarity instead of trying to sound "native," a category that doesn't really hold up even within Canada.
- The real ceiling for advanced English speakers is pragmatics: knowing the unspoken rules of small talk, workplace conversation, and pop culture references, not more grammar drills.
- Networking works when you're curious about other people and you follow up afterward. A stack of business cards means nothing without a next step.
- Watch before you write. Email formality in Canada depends on your industry, region, and workplace, so read how your boss and colleagues communicate before deciding your own tone.