How Important Is an Accent When We Learn a Foreign Language?

 
Learning accent have now become a mainstream thing to do among English learner, this came to be because of many reason, a few are because they want to sound smart or even just to look cool and separate themselves from an apprentice English learner other do it because they enjoy using certain accent because they tend to feel odd if they pronounce a certain word or sentence but when they heard a native speaker do it they feal like they're like a dummy so they learn accent to comfort themselves other do it because they need to for instance they work in an embassy and want to be able to communicate properly  with the people around their workplace. But it is an important thing to do as a foreign language learner?
 
Some people say that learning a language is not only learning how other people communicate but also learning their culture and in some places accent can be seen as a part of their culture for instance in the UK every country have their own distinct accent according to their culture according to Luke Nicholson "Accents are an important part of our identity. An accent gives clues about who we are, and the community we belong to or wish to belong to. They're also important for those getting to grips with a new language. "Having information about accents empowers a language learner," explains Luke Nicholson, as it allows learners to make informed decisions about the kind of accent they would like to adopt and why. "For example, if you're moving a to a certain part of a country, you might want to integrate better with your new community by learning the specific accent of that region ." From the statement above it shows us just how important it is an accent as a part of foreign culture. So, in come cases learning an accent is an important matter to some people especially a literarian because as a literarian it is important to understand every aspect of a language.
 
There are some issues that we need to address when it comes to accent and one of them according to Larry Friedman is that "The problem comes when the accent becomes so large that the listener(s) can't understand what you're saying. This ceases to be an accent and becomes an impediment. Many foreign sounds can be learned by simply showing the student exactly how to articulate it, but there are some that remain almost impossible. Our job as learners is to get as close as possible to the standard pronunciation simply so we can be understood." So according to Larry Friedman our focus when learning a new language is not the accent but rather how clear can the students pronunciation and articulation and how clear they can speak a foreign language. So as a foreign language learner our focus must be at the pronunciation and articulation rather than the accent because we don't need to be involved in other country's language as soon as possible but rather to just be able to communicate accordingly to our need's