Can you lose your accent?
For 20 years, I’ve been giving people completely Standard American English accents in a relatively short time. (Usually less than 10 sessions.)
For some reason, I’m still reading articles claiming that you can’t get rid of your accent unless you’re very young. I guess that’s true if you’re not doing it right!
You can get rid of your accent at any age, you just need to learn the steps involved.
FYI, my oldest client was 82! He got rid of all traces of his accent! You merely have to want it enough!
No one was born a perfect communicator in their first language!
Forget about the second and third languages.
Do you want to know how to get rid of your accent? It’s easy. I can teach you the techniques. They’re straightforward and easy to implement. Practice them for 10 minutes per day.
The first step to getting rid of your accent is to train your ear.
So in a way, telling people they can’t get rid of their accent is correct. If they don’t hear the difference between their speech and Standard American English accent they won’t be able to make changes.
Once you’re able to hear the differences (I can teach you, it’s so easy!) then you can end up with The Perfect Accent.
Are you up for the challenge of improving your accent?
Making it so people easily understand your message and follow your call to action? Imagine how that could impact your life!
Read on or scroll straight to the last paragraph entitled How to Get Rid of Your Accent if you don’t want to know the why.
Yes, I got rid of my accent.
I changed my NY accent when I was a kid. I started at the age of 14 and it took me a few years. But it won’t take you that long! I was figuring it out as I went along!
It was that important to me to sound Standard American English. I knew it would improve my success in the future.
I really wanted to make sure I succeeded in life and I didn’t want everyone always saying, “you’re from NY, I can tell by your accent.” That interferes with my getting my message across! I say something I think is important and all anyone can say is, “I know where you’re from!” Ugh.
And truthfully, I wasn’t clear. I talked too fast and with too high a pitch. People worked a little harder to understand me. That needed to change.
That’s an obstacle I wanted to remove straightaway!
American Accent: Pronouncing the Dreaded TH Sound
You can lose your accent!
So the first thing I did was learn the difference between my speech and standard American English. How the sounds were different, how the intonation was different. Then I focused on hearing them in my own speech.
An Introduction to Accent Reduction
This brief introduction will get you started on the road to speaking Standard American English.
Losing your accent is your first step to being influential.
How to Improve Your Speaking Skills
Are you going to let not being crystal clear stand in the way of your success?! No way you’re not! You’re going to do everything you can to improve your standing in life. For yourself and for your family!
We should never stop improving our communication skills! No one was born a perfect communicator. And if we want to succeed in life we must be crystal clear & highly persuasive. That’s what it means to be a great communicator. 🙂 And that’s what getting rid of your accent will do for you.
Communication skills equal getting your message across, how credible you seem, how much people trust you. The better you are at communicating, the more success you’ll have in life.
How to Remember Names & What to Do When You Don’t
When you learn a new language, part of that learning is to master the accent. So let’s give you the clearest most engaging accent possible!
Why should you get rid of your accent?
If you’re on the path to becoming an A-list actor, you must go to a general American accent. And you can. I give people standard American accents every day.
But if you’re trying to get ahead in your career and have incredible personal and professional relationships, then you may not need to go all the way, but you do need to be a crystal clear speaker.
Everyone needs to work on their communication skills, even in their native language. No one was born a perfect communicator in their first language!
All the exceptional communicators you know have worked on it!
You Can Lose Your Accent!
Those articles are misinforming you! You can easily get rid of your accent. This article talks about how it’s difficult for your brain to hear sounds different from those of your native language. That’s the correct part. As babies, we’re auditorily bombarded with the sounds of our native language.
But the flaws in the reasoning are two-fold.
- An accent is much more than just the sounds. The sounds play a minimal role in an accent. Your accent involves your voice, resonance, intonation & rhythm. The American accent has a rhythm & intonation system much different than all other languages!
- Training you to hear your mistakes and the correct production is super easy. Necessary, yet easy.
This article says it’s science that you can’t change your accent! That’s hilarious! Not to mention lazy.
(Ah, well, I can’t get rid of my accent, so I may as well not try.)
It’s science that you CAN change your accent 🙂 They say, “Your accent is here to stay” (not accurate) and, like the previous article, makes some truisms about accents. The truisms are that one substitutes the sounds of their native languages for the sounds of the 2nd language. Yes, that’s true. But we can change that.
9 Secret Steps to Influencing Others
Want to be more influential? We all want to communicate our most important messages in a way that encourages others to take action. Whether that action is voting for our candidate or picking up milk from the store, the words we use and how we speak play a huge role in getting the job done.
Train yourself to hear the sounds.
The second truism is that one loses the ability to hear sounds. Both true. Unfortunately, not addressing the fact that human ears are easily trained. It’s also true that most people can’t do it on their own. The article is correct in that if we are left to our own devices, our accents won’t go away.
They need the help of a speaker coach to help them hear what they’re doing wrong, resulting in your ability to change your accent
How to Nail Your Job Interview & Land Your Dream Job
Example of sound training to get rid of your accent.
Let’s look at the words “doctor” and “comedy.” The letter “o” in each word is pronounced “ah” in English.
To train yourself to hear those sounds, record yourself saying those words the way you say them, then intentionally say them with the “ah” sound. Play it back many times until you can hear the difference.
Once you hear the difference you’ll start to hear the “ah” sound in lots of words and then you can intentionally place that sound where it belongs.
You can easily change your accent.
The same article also addresses how some people feel that losing their accent would cause them to lose their identity. How you speak is absolutely not your identity! Your identity is not superficial!
Your identity is how smart you are and how funny you are.
It’s what’s inside of you! That’s your identity! You want people to have faith in you just by listening to you speak.
Show people how credible you are as soon as you open your mouth.
What’s more likely is that your accent is disguising your identity. It’s making it harder for people to understand your message. It can hide just how funny you are.
It can also hide how smart you are. To get ahead in this world, you need people to see how intelligent you are. Getting rid of your accent makes that happen 🙂
When you speak your native language, speak it to a fare-thee-well. When you communicate in your second & third languages, speak them to a fare-thee-well also. The ultimate trick? Just train your ear. Here are 4 more steps. You’ll want to learn how to get rid of your accent in any language you learn. That’s how you get your point across in a crystal clear & highly persuasive fashion.
American Accent: Pronouncing the Dreaded TH Sound
Tip: Working hard on producing your sounds causes your accent to get worse. It results in your being super choppy & using a flat intonation pattern. Causing your speech to sound accented. Instead, work on gluing your words together into “breath groups” separated into pauses and using a back resonance.
How to Lose Your Accent Once & For All.
Getting rid of your accent causes you to be taken seriously at work. It results in people clearly understanding your message & seeing the real you!
- Train your ear. Listen for the sounds in Standard American English. Also, listen for the rhythm & intonation patterns. Notice that there’s a rise and fall of intonation & it depends on the information the speaker is delivering.
- Next, you have to use lots of air for speech. Just make sure you match your voice to the air. Unless sounding like Marilyn Monroe works for you.
- Divide your message, not into sentences, but breath groups. Units of meaning that shouldn’t be separated. Then connect them. Then apply those same sounds & rhythm patterns to your speech. Be sure to record yourself a lot!
- Use a varied intonation pattern.
- Lastly, measure your success in increments. It’s essential to self-assess. Don’t beat yourself up if it’s not perfect. Just determine what’s getting better. 🙂
Watch Ita Olsen in this video: 3 Amazing Tips to Sounding Smooth in Standard American English
The Top 5 Reasons Why Your Employees are NOT Closing Deals
If your team isn’t getting it done, the reasons may not be what you think they are. Download this e-book for the hidden problems holding business people back.
Lose your accent with me.
I can do this with you and we can reduce the amount of time it takes and increase the results. Just contact us and get into my schedule for a consultation.
People will understand every word that comes out of your mouth, they’ll respect you and follow your call to action.
Don’t be afraid to spend a couple of bucks on this. It’s that important. And it’ll come back to you manyfold once you’re crystal clear & highly influential.
🙂
This is such an amazing post. The insights given here are so helpful and i hope it will help to shape ours. Thanks for all the time that you put in .Very impressed !
Very cool! I learned something new today. I didn’t think it was possible to ever truly lose your accent. Not only is it in fact possible, it is also easy to do.
Yes, as long as you don’t follow the old, incorrect rules of pronouncing every letter and you change where you place your resonance, you’re pretty good to go. Of course, you have to get it into your life. And that requires a system. Luckily I’ve got one right here: The Perfect Accent 🙂
Don’t hide your accents. I very much like hearing different dialects and phrases from place to place. Learn to speak clearly standard English for when it’s best. But day to day keep those lovely variations.