I studied English in high school and then at university, but when I talk with native speakers on Discord or Twitch, they tell me I'm not understandable. I listen to podcasts regularly, I watch series in English with French subtitles, but nothing changes. It's frustrating because grammatically I'm doing fine.
That's clearly the difference between understanding and producing, and it's totally normal that it frustrates you.
The guys above are right about passive vs active, but something we often forget is that you also need to fix your prosody - not just individual sounds, but rhythm, intonation, liaisons. Like, even with perfect grammar, if you speak like a French person translating in their head, it sounds off.
Try shadowing native speakers (repeating exactly after them at the same time), it forces your brain to pick up rhythm patterns and not just isolated words.
I had exactly the same problem when I was in college, I had good grades but as soon as I spoke people would ask me to repeat 😅 The thing is, just listening passively isn't really enough, you actually have to speak out loud while you're studying, imitate the sounds you hear in TV series, check how your mouth moves when you say certain words.
A lot of people don't realize that accent isn't just about pronunciation, it's also the rhythm and intonation that you have to actively work on.
Try to find someone on Discord or a tutor to do regular pronunciation sessions with, it's way more effective than just consuming content passively 💪
Most people who studied English formally for years discover that pronunciation is a completely different muscle from grammar. What the previous answers say about speaking alone is true, but there's something people forget: passive listening just gives you an accent recorded in your head. The problem is you have to train your mouth to produce sounds you've never actually pronounced. It's kind of like watching someone do kayaking for years and expecting to know how to paddle without water. You have to practice actively, like really actively, not just by observing.
Record yourself speaking and listen back - that's useful for spotting weird stuff, but it's not enough if you're correcting without knowing exactly what to look for. What works better is finding a native speaker on Discord or something similar and asking them directly "what sounds am I messing up?" instead of just throwing recordings out there randomly. Often it's not your overall accent that's the problem, it's two or three consonants or the way you're handling short vowels. Once you know what you need to target, you can work on it specifically instead of vaguely listening to podcasts hoping it'll stick. And actually speak loudly during your solo sessions, not like in a whisper. Pronunciation is a matter of confidence and muscles too.
You really gotta practice speaking out loud on your own before you talk with native speakers, like record yourself reading simple texts and listen back to spot where it sounds weird.
The thing nobody tells you is that most people just learn to recognize the accent without ever actually imitating it with their own mouth, and it changes everything when you start actively practicing your pronunciation instead of just passively soaking it up.
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