Accent reduction

[BlondGirl]

Does anyone have any experience with accent reduction? What exercises did you do that improved your speaking abilities? What exercises were more frusterating or simply a waste of time? Did you take classes or purchase a program? What was it and how would you rate it in success? Are you clearly understood now?

Also, if anyone knows of a loved one's history or has teaching experience in this, I'd appreciate any information.

Any and all serious suggestions or tips are appreciated. Thanks.

 

[jeepman6]

Does anyone have any experience with accent reduction? What exercises did you do that improved your speaking abilities? What exercises were more frusterating or simply a waste of time? Did you take classes or purchase a program? What was it and how would you rate it in success? Are you clearly understood now?

Also, if anyone knows of a loved one's history or has teaching experience in this, I'd appreciate any information.

Any and all serious suggestions or tips are appreciated. Thanks.

why would you want to reduce your accent. Accents are sexy and erotic. I can say that having lived in H-town one of the things that I miss are the accents of the beautiful and sexy women there. I also love the accents of Brits and Aussies they are so sexy.

 

[Minout]

I would say that you should treat it as you would learning a new language. You aren't really losing your accent, you are learning a new one. If you can afford professional help, that would likely be the best/fastest way to do it but, you could rent movies with the right kind of accent and practice, or get tapes of people talking. There are a million books on tape you can rent at libraries, they often get famous people to read the stories. Get someone who has the "right" kind of accent to say some things that you often say yourself and learn to say those key phrases and work from there. Practice with a tape recorder running and listen to your progress. You might find you reach a point where you need a clever ear to help you figure out how what you are saying differs from what you want to be saying.

Good luck and be patient. It takes a long time to become fluent in a new language. What accent are you trying to adopt by the way?

 

[SexyChele]

I have a few of friends who wanted to reduce their accents. (I live in an area that has a high population of Asians) All went to classes and all improved at varying degrees. It came down to how willing they were to practice and work through the exercises. None of their accents completely disappeared, but a couple significantly reduced their accents - but it does take work and concentration.

 

[BlondGirl]

For those of you commenting on reducing MY accent, I think it is fine. I can speak clearly in most situations and be understood by the average person who knows English.

I was asking because I am helping someone very near and dear to me in the reduction of HIS accent, which is very thick. He has a hard time with R's, S's, and L's in particular. He also tends not to finish his words (as in not saying the S or ES on the end). I do not speak his first language, but am becoming more familiar with it. His undestanding of English grammar is probably better than mine as far as the rules go, but in practice, he needs help with using it and pronounciation.

When watching films, we use the captioning (which I have to anyway with my hearing problems) to help. We read together, with either him or me reading aloud and the other making comments, questions, or whatever. I also like to take the current issue of Time and read a few of the shorter articles. There is no time right now for a formal class and his work schedule is downright wierd. I simply want to help him as much as I can and must admit that it is pretty fun to help him out. Witnessing his successes is a pleasure.

SexyChele, are you aware of any of the particular exercises or any websites with tips? I spend hours last night looking and found only 3 with actual suggestions (including some thesis that was lllllooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnggggggggggg) with the rest being advertising. Hard stuff to wade through.

 

[Amfig]

Courses in oratory, public speaking & debate did it for me. Grew up with a lot of "South in the Mouth" but have sounded like Peter Jennings since high school, 30 years ago.

 

[Wantonica]

I must comment on this thread... I was born a German and lived there (with it as my first language) until my stepfather brought my mother and I to a small town in the USA. I just ran across a cassette of me at the age of five, and I sound like a hillbilly with a German accent. It is hilarious! Since I was so young, I lost the accent, but my mom still has it thick, as do many women in her International Women group. I don't know the answer, just sharing.

Hugs,
Wantonica

 

[Weird Harold]

When watching films, we use the captioning (which I have to anyway with my hearing problems) to help. We read together, with either him or me reading aloud and the other making comments, questions, or whatever.

Speaking of films, My Fair Lady is a film about solving exactly the problem you need advice on. The songs from that movie are actually very good elocution excercises -- with or without the melody.

Singing is a good excercise to improve enunciation and pronunciation -- especially trying for a perfect impersonation of the original singer. (Having the written lyrics a song helps, though. Avoiding some of the more embarrassing misheard lyrcs is important if you're trying to improve language skills.)

 

[anders^g]

Does anyone have any experience with accent reduction?

Being swedish, and having moved to Florida - I was lucky enough to not have an accent at all... Well... When I get drunk or tired (or both) I tend to have a very slight accent...

/Anders
12x for the ladies

 

[SexyChele]

SexyChele, are you aware of any of the particular exercises or any websites with tips? I spend hours last night looking and found only 3 with actual suggestions (including some thesis that was lllllooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnggggggggggg) with the rest being advertising. Hard stuff to wade through.

Sorry, I don't know the specific exercises they used. However, one of my friends shared with me that most of them concentrated on using the tongue more. This confused me until she told me that in her native language, they really don't use the tongue as much as we do in English. She was one who went to these classes, but says she is lazy to remember to use her tongue.

Most of what I've heard of are classes that are held within the community. As I stated before, we have many Asians, so these classes are everywhere and very cheap.

I do know that when I was taking Spanish, the instructor gave us homework that was to watch at least a half hour of Spanish language TV at least 2 to 3 times a week. It helped us with hearing how the language was pronounced. Some it helped, some it didn't. It helped me, because I'm a good mimic - especially when it comes to languages. If some one has a good ear for subtle sounds, TV/movies/radio is a great way to pick up the tones and pronounciations used in another language.

As Weird Harold stated using the exercises in My Fair Lady are good. "The Rain in Spain Stays Mainly In The Plain" covers most sounds that people have difficulty with!