Accent Reduction

Accent Reduction

Different Opinions and Suggestion Literature, creative writing, etc. Your accent is part of you so think twice and be careful what you wish for! Sounding like everyone else is boring! An accent is both interesting and memorable. one thing that might help, listen to, and sing along with Olivia Newton John records or cds,,,,,,, she has a clear english accent,,,,,,, immerse yourself in the language with native speakers. You could take a class, get a voice coach, watch YouTube videos, buy a book, or just practice in front of a mirror. One thing that you can try is listen to audio books and try to repeat the words as the orator in the audio. Pick up the sounds of the words and the accent, repeat as much as you can and keep on practicing until you pick up the accent as close as to the orator. Just watch the television and focus on how they say things. To improve your accent, first you have to know how to pronounce a particular sound or a word, so you have to listen to the language (internet radio, sat. TV, etc.), second, muscles of your mouth have to accommodate to news sounds, so you have to speak or read aloud. And please note there is no easy and fast way to get rid of an accent. It's a quite demanding task. Most community colleges have classes in accent reduction, often available in the evening. But do realize that the only way you can really reduce your accent is by practicing. And if you are afraid to talk to people or participate in class, you will be practicing less and less, and going backward instead of forward. What on earth are you afraid of? It is not the accent that makes you shy. It is your shyness that keeps your accent heavy. Total immersion - watch TV, radio, and talk as much as you can, and ask people to rate your accent. Strengthen your knowledge on that language, take accent reduction courses if it gives you more speaking confidence but be proud of who you are. I think accents are wonderful. People are more likely to notice and remember you if you have an accent. If it is only a light one, then I wouldn't worry about being misunderstood. Be proud of who you are, where you come from and where you are going. There is nothing wrong with standing out a little in a crowd. But if you insist on losing the accent, then the best way is to record the accent that you want to change to, and practice it one phrase at a time. Stick to one phrase until you happy with it. Then go to the next phrase. It is slow at first, but it speeds up fairly quickly. The other alternative is to hire an accent reduction coach. They specialize in the difference of how sounds are spoken, and they can help you in that way. I would advise you to study articulatory phonetics, which will explain to you how the speech organs work as you speak. Then study a phonological description of the language that makes use of some form of the alphabet of the International Phonetic Association. Once you do this, there are a lot of audio and video courses on accent reduction. You will find they will be more effective if you know how the vocal tract works. What's wrong with people? When you move from your native country to a foreign country there's no need to loose your accent, that's very disrespectful. That's the accent and the language of your parents, your family, your ascendants and your country. There's no need to loose your accent, is enough to speak the language of the country you'll live in. People should be proud of their heritage. What if your friends make fun of you? Actually if they make fun of you because of your accent they are not your friends at all, you should get rid of them. A real friend appreciates you with or without your accent, your color, your nationality, your religion, your country, etc. A real friend respects your culture and traditions, respects your country and your family, respects you in every sense. Avoid "street" slang. Model your speech after newscasters, television reporters, new anchors. Broadcast news reporters and anchors have non-regional educated accents. Travel and listen to the way people from other areas talk and try to pick up their style a little bit. Study about words and phrases and pronunciation that they use too and pick that up. My suggestion is keep your ears open, don't be embarrassed to ask people how to pronounce something that you are not sure about. takes time. try speech therapy. It's not the accent that makes you wine, it's your obnoxious tone of voice. The only thing I can suggest is to speak slowly and softly and concentrate on every little sound you make. It's very difficult to lose an accent, although possible with expensive speech lessons or a LOT of practice. Actors do it, after all. Dream, Desire and Dominate . The people you hear, the things you read, and your vocabulary also affect the way you speak!Talk to your friends on the phone or in person more. Read textbooks aloud to yourself as clearly as you can. There's no better way than to learn by ear and practice a bit. The most important thing you can do to improve your accent is to understand it. Read about phonetics and phonology and analyse your own accent. Once you know what you do, you can modify it. When you learned your native language, you had parents and friends you could repeat after, and such repetition was acceptable - even encouraged - since you were a baby. When you learn a 2nd or 3rd language, you don't have the same opportunity to repeat after people, as it is not socially acceptable for adults to do so. Hiring a voice coach gives you the opportunity to repeat without the social stigma of doing so in other settings. But, if you really want to change it, I think a speech coach is the way to go. It is hard to say how your accent will affect your social life. It all depends on how thick it is. If people have no problem understanding you, it won't be a problem. Listen carefully to the type of accent you want to use (on tape or CD is probably best, as you can listen to parts as often as you need to), and practise. Try shorter sentences with different vowel types, as that's the main part of speech affected by accent, then build up to longer sentences. When you're more confident with these aspects, try working on speech inflections and the overall rising and falling pitch patterns and rhythms when you're more confident. Think of it as music, and listen to it as carefully as you would to your favourite CD. There are teachers and coaches that teach people how to get rid of their accents. You have to exercise your speech organs, like tongue, larynx, teeth, nose etc. pay attention to breath and how words are spelling according each breathing, it means you arent having keep pay attention to how native speakers speak. There is no really easy way answer to this. To help dilute an accent, I recommend just practicing a lot. Speak in front of native speakers. Listen to music.I've been told it really works. Its nothing to be ashamed about or anything. Every single person who can talk has an accent. Most people just get used to the accent people around them talk with, resulting in a "normality". the parody approach works well.. Well my best advice would be to be around native speakers as much as possible. While it might help practicing with others trying to learn the language, you'll never be able to pick up on the accent perfectly that way. While your around native speakers pay close attention, and then mimick them (just not to their face). Copy their pitch, rate of speech, and anything else you can pick up on. I would also recommend that you listen to music in that language. This way you will be able to listen to the native speakers and you can sing along, learn, and have fun all at the same time. You can also try watching movies/t.v. shows in that language. Just simply confine in that and tell them how important it is to you, and that when you are in a group with the people you trust (or one-to-one) and ask them to support you.Either that, or try to find an elocution teacher. The more you speak,the less the accent becomes. There are many factors that contribute to retaining one's foreign accent: age when first began studying, natural ability, desire to retain one's identity or to be included in another group, etc. Chances are, you probably won't ever completely lose your accent, but you will be able to improve it a lot as you get more practice and exposure to the language. Especially if you make a conscious effort to improve your pronunciation. The other way to reduce the accent is to improve grammar, because that's easily noticed when you have weak grammar. Why would you want to "get rid" of something that makes you YOU, just because someone is teasing you? Should someone cut his hands off because he has dry skin? That's just ridiculous! If your friends are hurting your feelings by teasing you, try talking to them about how much it bugs you. If they don't stop, get new friends who actually care about you and are worthy of the title "friend". Or, instead of working on your accent, work on gaining some self-confidence! Embrace what's YOU, and don't let some teenage pettiness or stupidity or stereotypes ruin your life. Everyone has words they say differently - no matter who you are or where you're from or where you now live. Don't believe me? Go to a restaurant or somewhere with a steady stream of people. Count the number of people who say a word in a "non-English-Canadian" accent. You'll lose count. Imitation is about the only thing that will work. My suggestion: watch the news every night and repeat what the newscasters say, the way they say it. Most newscasters are hired because of their neutral accent. Losing an accent can be tough. One thing to try is to live in that country for a while. Another would be to listen to native speakers and try to repeat sound for sound what they are saying. A third option would be to hire a speech/accent tutor to help you. I think accents sound cool because it spices up the language. Be analytical. It's hard to be specific when I don't know what your native tongue is. All I can really say is to train your ear to listen analytically. Well I'm not sure if you can ever get rid of it completely. But if you practice your pronunciation you can make your accent a lot less noticeable.. With a lot of diction coaching and practice you can probably train yourself away from it but it will take work. Many of the actors and actresses speak their lines in movies without an accent, but when they speak informally they have their accents.It is a challenge, but it is possible and don't let anyone tell you it can't be done. For Accent Training Course - Visit us at www.letstalk.co.in