I won't beat around the bush: some people feel it's not "politically correct" to change an accent. We are all different, and diversity is a good thing, so why would we want to change the way we sound? However, if people don't understand you well when you speak English, you know you need to do something.
When speaking another language, most of us want to speak it as well as we possibly can. When you are learning a foreign language, Spanish for example, would you want to sound like a foreigner speaking Spanish, or would you strive to sound like a native Spanish speaker as much as possible? It’s also a matter of pride for many of us to do well at whatever we do. If we feel we don’t speak well or clearly, we lose confidence.
Another sad fact of life is that we tend to judge each other not only on how we look, but also by how we sound. If someone sounds like us, then they are familiar, and we consider them to be part of our group. Many other factors come into play here and a different accent in itself does not mean we are automatically perceived as outsiders. However, if we find it difficult to express ourselves, if we don’t get the jokes, if we are hard to understand, then we will tend to feel like outsiders and may be perceived as such.
There are a couple of ways to deal with this: one is that we should all do our best to familiarize ourselves with different accents. We can get used to how others speak and get better at listening and understanding. This can happen naturally; when we work with someone or interact with them regularly we will understand them better over time. But when interacting with clients there may not be time for them to get used to the way we speak.
A faster approach is to learn the native accent of the language we are speaking. This gives us some control over the situation and enables us to speak well with people from many different backgrounds. Taking an American accent and English coaching course is a good way to learn the patterns, pronunciation, and techniques of the American accent while getting personalized feedback right away. Accent coaching courses can be effective in as few as ten one-hour sessions if you are consistent and do the recommended practice. And remember, the goal is to be understood and to communicate with confidence, not to eliminate your native accent completely.
Here’s to being heard!
We provide 1-1 courses in advanced English fluency and American accent for non-native English speakers. Your course is customized to your individual objectives and challenges.
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