Accent

Do you believe it's possible to completely lose your mother tongue accent when speaking a foreign language? How much does it interfere in communication? Do you consider a person speaking with accent less skilled?

I think it's impossible for an adult learner, although I've seen some people get very close. Good pronunciation is very important, but a mild accent won't hinder communication.

It's really, really unlikely that someone who started learning a language after their teens will be able to lose their foreign accent completely without complete immersion (basically, living in a country where you only use that language in your daily life), and for a lot of learners it's really hard.

I've been told by my teachers that being able to get a close-to-native accent is similar to having a good musical ear - you hear something, and you can replicate it quite closely. It's not that closely related to language learning talents.

And yeah, some accents are easier to understand for me than others, but with clear pronunciation any accent is fine I think.