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Tutors / tips to change your English accent

120 points by thiago_fm 4y ago

Let's start with that my accent is clear enough and I don't have communication issues at work. I actually feel quite comfortable. But I'd love to have a perfect west coast American accent when I speak english. Having learned a few other languages myself, it feels pretty good when you can surprise a native. Anybody that went through that process of improving their accent with a tutor or on their own could share their learnings on it?

NoImmatureAdHom 4y ago
I used an accent coach (https://www.dannybryckcoaching.com/accent-modification https://www.dannybryckcoaching.com/accent-modification , who was excellent). Highly recommend this path--you need a human in the loop providing feedback. You will probably be able to get some improvement on your own, but it will be inefficient.
- nixcraft 4y ago
  Just out of curiosity, how much does such service cost hourly? So I did A quick google search returned group training begins at about $40 an hour per person, and individual training at $100 an hour, with additional fees for materials.[1] [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/05/business/worldbusiness/05iht-accents.1.6000898.html https://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/05/business/worldbusiness/05...
  - NoImmatureAdHom 4y ago
    I don't recall what I paid as it was a few years ago, but I do recall feeling like it was worth it.
- pulse7 4y ago
  How much did you pay?
- synergy20 4y ago
  hour pay is the key, as long as it's affordable. speech AI moves fast these days, maybe we can have a chatbot focusing on accents, in fact I have been thinking about this for a startup idea for a few weeks myself.
jzellis 4y ago
I'm a native English speaker, but I'm from Texas, and as a kid I tended to talk really fast and mumble: if you've ever seen the show King Of the Hill, I talked like Boomhauer. I deliberately trained myself to speak with a neutral American accent - probably what you mean by a West Coast accent - by watching particular actors and practicing - in private - speaking like them. In particular, for me, it was John Malkovich, who has perfect diction and enunciation. This was in my teens and it took a couple of years, but it paid off. Nobody can tell where I'm from now, though people mostly assume California. I still say "y'all" but I say it with no Texan drawl, which sounds a bit odd to people, I think. Just find people who speak the way you want to speak and watch them, listen to them, try to repeat things they say until you've got the accent down. At first it'll seem embarrassing, even if you're alone, and you'll find yourself feeling like a pretentious poseur for a while, but eventually you won't. It'll just be how you speak English.
- anonymousDan 4y ago
  For what it's worth, I would take a beautiful Texan drawl all day every day over most other American accents (which tend to sound really nasally)!
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- willcipriano 4y ago
  Were you the guy who left this voicemail for Mike Judge? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kiwgG6T9se0 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kiwgG6T9se0
- d23 4y ago
  For me (also from the south), specifically, it was about identifying the sounds that I usually misspoke. Dragging vowels out was one obvious one, but one I literally couldn’t hear at first was e.g. the difference between “pen” and “pin”. That one took a lot of practice and I still have to think about it occasionally for multisyllabic words I’m not sure how to spell.
- 4y ago
whiddershins 4y ago
Not at all the same thing, but I was briefly capable of speaking enough Chinese to just barely make it around rural China for two weeks, and I attribute it to a tutor I had who was a musician and taught me to literally sing the tones. What I observe about most native English speakers who try to learn a tonal language is that they don’t really do the tones, but it isn’t because they aren’t capable. It’s because it feels silly or wrong to sing when you’re supposed to be talking. I’ve also noticed I have friends with, for example, an Italian accent who can mimic my English pronunciation pretty closely if they want to mock me. I think many people are pretty good at mimicry, but they probably keep their accent because doing it differently feels like they are being someone else, or they just feel silly or wrong doing it. So I guess I say, tutors are great. Also maybe just mess around with mimicking speakers you want to sound like and put aside whatever identity you have subconsciously tied to how you currently speak? Especially try not to think about how words are spelled. Just mimic the sounds.
- uranusjr 4y ago
  Also sometimes accent shows because the speaker isn’t sure at real-time how the sentence is “supposed” to be said, and therefore falls back to the way that feels the most natural. So yeah, listen to more people speak, mimic them, and practice repeatedly so it comes through naturally when you need them.
- yodsanklai 4y ago
  > it isn’t because they aren’t capable. It’s because it feels silly or wrong to sing when you’re supposed to be talking. My problem with tones is mostly that they are hard to remember. But I think you have a point that sometimes it feels silly. Especially if you learn with non-native with others who have the same bad accent as you, you don't want to stand out as the one who tries too hard. Another issue is when the language you learn use the same alphabet. For instance, if you're French learning English, you're tempted to read the English words with your French accent.
  - causality0 4y ago
    Feeling silly can definitely hurt you. When I was learning Spanish in school I could never forget how stupid I felt assigning genders to inanimate objects.
jacknews 4y ago
Do you want an English accent, or a particular American accent?
- mkl 4y ago
  From the question: > I'd love to have a perfect west coast American accent when I speak english
- denton-scratch 4y ago
  Author said they want a "West Coast" accent. Author failed to say what their present accent is. I enjoy regional accents; I find it sad that people would want to dispose of their heritage, and adopt some neutral "white-bread" speaking style instead. People's accents change through immersion. My parents lived in Liverpool, but sent me away to school. But my sister went to school in Liverpool, and began to acquire a scouse twang. I hated it, because I thought it was put on; I don't think that any more. She was just talking the way her schoolfriends talked. So I think the best way to acquire a particular speaking style is to hang around exclusively with people who talk the way you want to talk. In particular, it seems to me that hiring elocution tutors from Mexico and Spain respectively, can't be a good idea. My guess is that the author is hispanic. I've seen this "immersion drift" in accents many times. I've even done it myself; when living in London as a youth, I started talking in a sort of mockney street style. It wasn't deliberate, or even conscious; in fact when I realised it was happening, it embarrassed me.
  - ColFrancis 4y ago
    It's tricky. I find it a little sad that regional accents are disappearing but it's a process that's been happening for a long time. The trouble is that there's real benefits for having certain accents and you can't fault someone for wanting to be seen in a different way.
  - bradwood 4y ago
    I'm with you on this. I'm an expat South African living in London and I find myself occasionally doing the mockney thing. It sounds like a really bad blend of DiCaprio in Blood Diamond and Vinny Jones in Lock Stock. Not a good sound. As an aside, for a laugh do you ever ask your sister to get you some "chghicken and chgan of cghoke" /s
Eleison23 4y ago
Professional actors rely on "dialogue coaches". Have you ever viewed "The King's Speech"? That seems like a parallel experience. I haven't deliberately picked up new English accents, but I've taken formal classes in Spanish, making conscious efforts to imitate the phonemes of native speakers. I would say that consistency will count for a lot in choosing your dialogue coach. Every year I had a new teacher; the first was Mexican, the second was American, and the third was from Barcelona! So, I was faced with deciding which accent(s) to learn and how to distinguish them and how to avoid mixing them all together. So, identify your target culture, and articulate that to your prospective coach so that you're on the same page, and try not to change coaches once you've settled into a relationship. So you'll soon find out that there is not one "West Coast American accent", although there may be fewer of those than British English has produced. Growing up, I learned how to communicate with Valley Girls, surfers, CEOs, computer geeks, vatos, Crips, Bloods, goths, rivet-heads, Christians, pagans... well, you get the picture! And before anyone objects and says those aren't accents, "surprising a native speaker" will involve vocabulary, grammar and syntax as much as the phonemes and inflection. So the OP has a broad definition of "accent" in mind.
Dracophoenix 4y ago
It depends on what you mean by "West Coast accent". Generally, the stereotypical Surfer Dude/Valley Girl accent is looked down upon in professional circles unless you live in Los Angeles or you're a Kardashian. If by "West Coast", you mean the relatively neutral accents of, say, Silicon Valley employees and CEOs, then you should look for American movies and shows featuring Brits imitating modern-day Americans (Christian Bale, Hugh Laurie, etc.) and compare those performances to the actors' original voices in order to get an idea of how they "translate" their accents. Cartoons are also helpful[1]. A British voice actress by the name of Theresa Gallagher does a nearly flawless "neutral" American accent as the mother of the titular character in The Amazing of Gumball. An accent coach is certainly a good investment, but it helps to be specific about you're goals. Doing so will save you money in the long run. "Sounding native" depends on time, location, and association as much as it does on enunciation. You may know this already, but the West Coast is a big place. Just as the accents of most Englishman aren't solely split between the * Made in Chelsea* crowd and Sir Humphrey Appleby, there is no monolithic West Coast accent. [1] Trivia: many cartoons are recorded and animated in and around Burbank
vbo 4y ago
I tend to pick up the accent spoken around me (I'm not a native English speaker). Not quite sure to what extent it borders native speaker's accent, but it happens without any training. On a separate note, if you feel you need to change your accent to fit in, perhaps the people you feel would appreciate hearing you speak in a different accent are not worth the effort of fitting in with?
- NegativeLatency 4y ago
  Personally I love hearing different accents and turns of phrase, makes things more interesting. Although I do understand the desire to fit in or not be judged differently (especially with the number of mean/bigoted people out there)
mkl 4y ago
There are some interesting search results for [accent training app]: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=accent+training+app&atb=v279-1__&ia=web https://duckduckgo.com/?q=accent+training+app&atb=v279-1__&i... I'm a native English speaker, but have modified my accent for teaching international students, to be better understood. I did it by interacting with small classes and individuals, and paying attention to their level of confusion/understanding. I had been explaining the same subject matter to native speakers for years, so could have a reasonable guess at whether confusion was caused by language or content.
senthil_rajasek 4y ago
I went through this process on my own. I grew up in India and my first language is Tamil which is very distant to the European languages. I now live in the midwest. I can't tell the differences between regional American accents except the very famous Bostonian "paak the car" but I've listed some tips on how I improved my pronunciation. When I started doing stand up comedy 12 years ago I realized I needed to work on my accent[1]. Here are some tips, Pronunciation of english sounds is influenced by your first language. Understand phonetics. https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/fohull/a_year_to_learn_japanese_reflections_on_five/ https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/fohull/a_yea... Follow the links to Pronunciation: Basics, prosody and phonetics on the page above and understand how sounds are made. If you don't understand the mechanics of tongue position, lip shapes, where the sound originates (front of the mouth or back of the throat) then you may not be able make the right sound. If you can spend money get expert help (speech therapist, though I haven't done this personally). Practice. Speaking involves physical muscles so practice those muscles. Record yourself and listen ( after a few days). Observe pronunciations that need to be fixed and repeat. In time, the mechanics of tongue position, lip shapes etc., will become subconscious and you will not have to worry about this consciously and you will speak naturally. 1. Most recent stand up comedy performance. https://youtu.be/845a6wyO5h0 https://youtu.be/845a6wyO5h0
- noobhacker 4y ago
  I'd love to learn phonetics, but with written materials like this it feels like learning to ride a bike by reading a book. I'm still at a loss with regards to how to actually make the sound. Without a teacher, I don't think I even realize my own mistakes. How did you learn to physically make the sound? How much time did you spend practicing daily? Thanks so much for the advice. I too hope to do stand up one day.
  - senthil_rajasek 4y ago
    You are right. Language is a living thing and the spoken language needs to be practiced in real life. For some aspects of phonetics I found this book helpful, https://www.google.com/books/edition/American_Accent_Training_Book/9kF-MAEACAAJ?hl=en https://www.google.com/books/edition/American_Accent_Trainin... Also, I had help from friends in the comedy world sometimes. I would ask them if I am saying a word right before going on stage. It took many years but that's because I had to learn it without any books. I was willing to become a child and look like an idiot for a long time. If I had to do it all over again I would invest time in learning phonetics.
simonh 4y ago
When I’ve been to the states, as a Brit the only regional accent I’ve regularly had problems understanding is west coast.
- NegativeLatency 4y ago
  Any specific things stuck out to you about it?
iandanforth 4y ago
Accent coaches are great. I worked with one in the context of learning an Irish accent for theater in college. You learn IPA as a tool for discussing sentences and get someone whose mouth you can watch closely without freaking them out and who will watch and understand your mouth position well and provide immediate feedback. For some language transitions though you have to start out retraining your brain to hear sound distinctions before you can hope to produce them. The L-R distinction in English, for example, is particularly hard for Japanese speakers because they can't hear that there are two sounds. It can also be very helpful to enlist a native speaker with the target accent who is a coworker. Basically give them permission to tell you after every conversation what you said that wasn't in the target accent.
kebsup 4y ago
As a Slavic language speaker, i used to pronounce "th" as "d" and simply focusing on this mistake made me feel like the accent improved greatly. I have also met a lot of people who roll their "r"s, so that's another easy fix.
- dehrmann 4y ago
  One of my CS processors was slavic, and for a few weeks, I thought De Morgan's laws were the Morgan laws.
oblak 4y ago
1. Forget about the letter "R" and use "ah" instead. That's how they talk. 2. Squeeze your nose with your fingers and talk 3. Keep your chin up. Literally and figuratively I am only half joking. Proper English is very the opposite of how I was taught to speak my native Bulgarian. I can do it well enough but still feels completely unnatural even after all these years. Especially weird because we were exposed to so much US English on TV while my teachers were doing the British one.
- dehrmann 4y ago
  > Forget about the letter "R" and use "ah" instead. That's how they talk. Take this too far and you'll sound like you're from Boston or Long Island.
ggambetta 4y ago
I'm currently studying West Coast American (Los Angeles specifically, so "Hollywood" accent) with a tutor I found on Preply. We're using a book called Mastering the American Accent by Lisa Mojsin, which comes with audio tracks. Getting feedback would be ideal (hence a tutor), but maybe you could use the book by yourself?
traceroute66 4y ago
What's your native tongue ? Some variant of English or something else ? If its a foreign language, depending which one, it could well be more hassle than its worth to try to get a "perfect" accent. Whichever way, you should be prepared to invest a lot of time to it, especially if you are hoping to be able to fluently switch between accents. Its unlikely to be something you can master in a couple of weeks.
FinanceAnon 4y ago
Write down a list of words that you do not pronounce as you want. Record yourself reading them out loud, listen back to it and try to say it better next time. You can also create some sentences from those words and read them.
whoooooo123 4y ago
Some good advice in here. One thing I'll add is: make sure you know which English words have weird spellings that are nothing like the pronunciation. (This is a lot of words!) The huge mistake I hear non natives make all the time is to incorrectly pronounce things like they're spelled. Eg pronouncing the "b" in "debt" (it's actually pronounced just "det" in every dialect), or pronouncing "says" with the same vowel as "say" (it's actually more like "sez" in most accents.) There are zillions of other examples - I can't give you a list of words to be aware of, but I'm sure that someone somewhere must have compiled a good list.
- fgeiger 4y ago
  Is that the list you are looking for? ;-) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chaos https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chaos
  - fgeiger 4y ago
    Maybe better enjoyed when someone reads it to you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1edPxKqiptw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1edPxKqiptw
satya71 4y ago
There are a few apps that help you with that. I’ve used “Real Accent” and it’s useful for practicing a new accent. There are some with live instruction now. They may be worth checking out.
tartoran 4y ago
To me accents are nice, diction is the one that is important to practice for clear conversation. One can be a native speaker and have a terrible diction though.
orbital-decay 4y ago
Where do you live? What's your first language? The generic way to perfectly learn a local dialect of any language is to: - live there, have local friends, coworkers etc - get an accent coach - check if there's a good linguist specializing in the transition from your native language/accent/dialect to the target one (for me there was this guy https://www.youtube.com/c/PhoneticFanatic https://www.youtube.com/c/PhoneticFanatic who is excellent at explaining things in depth, but his channel might not be useful for others)
eric4smith 4y ago
I don’t think accents are a problem per-se. The thing is to speak clearly and don’t rush the words. Try to enunciate each word slowly and carefully and first and you will not have a problem. I love hearing accents. The diversity and genuineness of them are amazing and that’s what makes travel awesome.
Jaruzel 4y ago
I have a London accent, with a bit of Home Counties[1] thrown in. It's not an 'Eastenders' accent. What I would like is to transition to soft Scottish accent, as someday I expect to be living north of the Border, and the Scots really don't like the English[2] (in the main). It's an odd use case to be sure, but it's something I'd like to do nonetheless. --- [1] The 50-ish miles around Greater London. [2] I don't really blame them to be honest.
lottin 4y ago
You should start by learning the phonology of the English language and its main dialects (namely Standard British English and General American). You need to know the theory because if you try to rely on your perception it will fool you. You need to know what you have to pay attention to. For example, if your L1 is a Romance language you have to be aware that vowel length is important in English, and that diphthongs are a single phoneme. Things like these you'll never be able to figure out yourself, they need to be taught. Once you know the theory in and out, you have to get a lot of exposure to the accent that you're interested in. Lastly, you start to imitate what you hear. Bear in mind that it takes a lot of practice to get a foreign accent right.
tintedfireglass 4y ago
Listening to a particular accent will get you comfortable with it. Too much tech youtube helped me with picking up an American accent
printvoid 4y ago
While this thread is mostly about American accents and switching among them. Is there a way to inherit in general the western accent. Anything US related or British accent would do me good. Bonus points for Australian accent. However I come across from Northern India and have a strong mother tongue influence. Any general tips for me to switch to US or UK accents?
- unsafecast 4y ago
  What did it for me was just listening to _a lot_ of spoken English. Try to watch movies, youtube, listen to podcasts, etc. You need to feel it. And practice speaking to yourself or others.
AlbertCory 4y ago
First of all: my admiration to anyone who really tries to do this. Secondly: I sang for 10-15 years, quite often in German, Italian, French, Latin, and a few others. In the community opera I was in the chorus with, they always had a diction coach, so we didn't sound like a bunch of Americans ("tutti" isn't "tood-ee", it's "toot-tee"). I'm sure that to a native speaker, we still did, but at least the effect wasn't comical. Lastly: a shout-out to native French speakers. Is it even common for an American to lose their American accent, especially one over the age of 35? I read somewhere about a class in Paris where the teacher had you speak while holding a pencil in your mouth (sideways); I forget what exactly that was supposed to drill into you.
- elliekelly 4y ago
  > I read somewhere about a class in Paris where the teacher had you speak while holding a pencil in your mouth (sideways); I forget what exactly that was supposed to drill into you. This is definitely a strategy for teaching the French “r”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrjMJ_PAlB8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrjMJ_PAlB8
  - unsafecast 4y ago
    I was supposed to have learned the rolling r, since that's how it's pronounced in Romanian (my native language). It always came out as the french one though. Nowadays I can somewhat kind of do it for the common words so I don't sound terrible. I'm guessing with a bit of practice I can figure it out. It turned out right though, since I recently moved to France. It makes learning pronunciation _much_ easier. My r is already perfect.
  - AlbertCory 4y ago
    I loved this. un crayon
trey-jones 4y ago
There seem to be a lot of people interested in learning how to speak with a certain accent. I only really have observations to share about this. I studied linguistics at university in both the US and Germany. I'm a native English speaker. I studied Chinese, Japanese, French, and Spanish to some extent in addition to German and English. I don't consider myself fluent in any, unfortunately, but I can actually sound like a native speaker in any of these languages, when I focus on it. I've known people who didn't focus on English who still had barely-detectable or undetectable accents, and I've known people who dedicated their lives to learning languages and never lost their accents. My observation is that there are some people who can hear and imitate easily and naturally, some who can if they focus on it and try hard, and some who probably can't at all. There is a direct correlation with music, I believe. If you can hear a pitch and sing it, there's a good chance you can also imitate a native speaker relatively easily. I'm not here to discourage anyone though. I tell my children that their brain is just as good as anyone else's. Even though some people are naturally better at certain things than other people, if you work harder than they do, you will be able to exceed them in most cases. So the final word, the TLDR: practice, practice, practice is the way to learn to speak with or without an accent.
ChrisMarshallNY 4y ago
Be careful what you wish for. Here's a comment that I made, a couple of months ago, about someone that I used to work with[0]. I also remember the testimony of Fiona Hill[1]. If you know anything about her, she is seriously credentialed. Heavy duty The Real Deal. She testified about how she came to the US, because she couldn't catch a break in the UK, with her "distinctive Northern accent." Me mum[2] was raised by Scouse (Liverpool), and her parents went well out of their way to make sure she talked "posh." Worked a charm, but it was a pain for us sprogs, because she was constantly correcting grammar we'd use ;). [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31567522 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31567522 [1] https://www.brookings.edu/experts/fiona-hill/ https://www.brookings.edu/experts/fiona-hill/ [2] https://cmarshall.com/miscellaneous/SheilaMarshall.htm https://cmarshall.com/miscellaneous/SheilaMarshall.htm
robaato 4y ago
A few decades ago, when learning languages at school, we had access to tape recorders for particular phrases: listen, record, rewind, repeat ad nauseam. Very powerful. These days recording tech is all around. But study and repeat. Ask friendly people to correct you (at appropriate times) - most won't!
idontwantthis 4y ago
Can anyone tell me what it was like to live in the USA as an immigrant child and have a strong accent? Is it something you wanted to change about yourself and did you or do you wish you could have? Did people bully you for it? Asking because I will be bringing a step son to the US and I’m wondering if we should try to correct his accent or not.
- ampham 4y ago
  I had an accent because English wasn’t my first language despite being born and growing up in the US. I had to take ‘English as a second language’ courses and was bullied through school. I was also scared to talk for my first two years in elementary school. Though my experience may be vastly outdated. And it all depends on your environment. What kind of school would your child go to? Would it be a diverse school? Are kids more exposed to things now, so that accents won’t be so much of a big deal? Either way, I think it would benefit to try and correct your kid’s accent. It would help them with pronunciation and help others understand them better. It may help them feel more confident in speaking.
- dixie_land 4y ago
  I have many Asian American friends and I can tell you with confidence that they have zero accents even when their parents sound like someone fresh off the boat. Kids mimic how their friends and teachers talk, not their parents
nibbleshifter 4y ago
Unsure about west coast american, but there's a metric fuckload of accent coaches for the British RP (received pronunciation) accent. I had a housemate a few years ago who had normally a very Yorkshire accent, but for career reasons had been taking RP lessons and sounded like a BBC presenter. Apparently its pretty common in some professions to take such lessons.
katspaugh 4y ago
Two recommendations: - American Accent Training – it’s an audio book. Lots of great advice. - Accent’s Way on YouTube. She’s an Israeli who taught herself the American accent to a complete perfection. You wouldn’t tell. Lots of information and motivation!
- redthrow 4y ago
  > Accent’s Way on YouTube > taught herself the American accent to a complete perfection Her oldest video is 12 years ago and I couldn't personally tell if she's just talented at mimicking sound from a young age or if she transitioned from a thick accent to a natural American accent.
mprime1 4y ago
Here’s a class from Stanford (continued studies so anyone can take it, for a price), it was via Zoom for the last couple of years. Accent Reduction for Non-Native Speakers of English https://continuingstudies.stanford.edu/courses/professional-and-personal-development/accent-reduction-for-non-native-speakers-of-english/20221_COM-39 https://continuingstudies.stanford.edu/courses/professional-...
- atum47 4y ago
  Thanks, I'll look into it
Scoundreller 4y ago
This won’t be a helpful answer, but reminds me of the times I’ve had to translate between the Ukrainian team at work speaking English for the Indian team speaking English. And I only speak English. I felt like an active repeater cleaning up the signal.
jackallis 4y ago
i have question, Why?
dehrmann 4y ago
> perfect west coast American accent Aim for something more neutral, like what you hear from national newscasters. No one will think about a neutral accent, but if you start saying "hella" and "stoked," it might be cringy. Or you say "The 101 was hella slow today," and every native Californian will know what's up.
- toast0 4y ago
  > "The 101 was hella slow today," and every native Californian will know what's up. Dude, hella is way norcal, and "the 101" is way socal; gonna stick out when you mix them like that.
  - dehrmann 4y ago
    Keep those shibboleths straight.
ergeysay 4y ago
I am a non-native speaker. I’ve took an accent training course from a coach, it took about a year. We made a recording before we started and additional records over the length of the course, and I cannot believe how much more pleasant and American-y I sound now. It kind of gives confidence I never had before when speaking English. If you’re interested, I can give a referral. My mail is in profile.
kimchidude 4y ago
Could I shamelessly post a link to my accent training YouTube channel? The whole channel is devoted to language development through speech shadowing exercises. These exercises will help you do some accent training on your own: https://m.youtube.com/c/IELTSRyan https://m.youtube.com/c/IELTSRyan
dave333 4y ago
Just practice imitating the desired accent a lot - eventually you will get really good at it. My perspective was growing up in southern England (Devon and Somerset) and going to first public school and then private school (known as state and public schools in UK respectively). My Dad decided to send me to private school when I started developing a strong local Devon accent that he didn't like. At private school I learned "BBC english" that has a certain non-regional accent. For fun we used to imitate various regional accents - Devon, Somerset, London/cockney, Birmingham, Newcastle/Geordie, Yorkshire, Scottish, Irish are the main ones I remember. Later at age 23 I emigrated to USA and was immediately exposed to my boss's Brooklyn accent as well as generic NJ/east coast accent. Later moved to the midwest for 10 years and then the west coast, but by that time it was too late and I still retain what Americans consider a British accent, but which Brits now consider distinctly American.
watersb 4y ago
A friend of mine invented a new way of teaching English vowel sounds. There's a card-game version of this method that adults, kids can play. We tried the card game version with a room full of native "American" English speakers... but I first learned English in "Deep South" USA. Another player was Latina from Los Angeles... It was very interesting: I discovered that I could hear vowels that they could not. They think they pronounce "o" in "orange" about the same as "o" in dog. While Southern USA would say "ahringe dawg", but we can also pronounce a more neutral "orange" but it's not the same as a West Coast standard accent. I used to be really into these distinctions, trying to place people on the map from their choice of words and accent. If you like this sort of thing, want to learn a new way to experience English accents, you might like the Color Vowel Chart: https://colorvowel.com https://colorvowel.com
padheyam 4y ago
Can strongly recommend 'Astound' app for this.

120 points by thiago_fm 4y ago

NoImmatureAdHom 4y ago

I used an accent coach (https://www.dannybryckcoaching.com/accent-modification https://www.dannybryckcoaching.com/accent-modification , who was excellent). Highly recommend this path--you need a human in the loop providing feedback. You will probably be able to get some improvement on your own, but it will be inefficient.

nixcraft 4y ago
Just out of curiosity, how much does such service cost hourly? So I did A quick google search returned group training begins at about $40 an hour per person, and individual training at $100 an hour, with additional fees for materials.[1] [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/05/business/worldbusiness/05iht-accents.1.6000898.html https://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/05/business/worldbusiness/05...
- NoImmatureAdHom 4y ago
  I don't recall what I paid as it was a few years ago, but I do recall feeling like it was worth it.
pulse7 4y ago
How much did you pay?
synergy20 4y ago
hour pay is the key, as long as it's affordable. speech AI moves fast these days, maybe we can have a chatbot focusing on accents, in fact I have been thinking about this for a startup idea for a few weeks myself.

jzellis 4y ago

I'm a native English speaker, but I'm from Texas, and as a kid I tended to talk really fast and mumble: if you've ever seen the show King Of the Hill, I talked like Boomhauer. I deliberately trained myself to speak with a neutral American accent - probably what you mean by a West Coast accent - by watching particular actors and practicing - in private - speaking like them. In particular, for me, it was John Malkovich, who has perfect diction and enunciation. This was in my teens and it took a couple of years, but it paid off. Nobody can tell where I'm from now, though people mostly assume California. I still say "y'all" but I say it with no Texan drawl, which sounds a bit odd to people, I think. Just find people who speak the way you want to speak and watch them, listen to them, try to repeat things they say until you've got the accent down. At first it'll seem embarrassing, even if you're alone, and you'll find yourself feeling like a pretentious poseur for a while, but eventually you won't. It'll just be how you speak English.

anonymousDan 4y ago
For what it's worth, I would take a beautiful Texan drawl all day every day over most other American accents (which tend to sound really nasally)!
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
willcipriano 4y ago
Were you the guy who left this voicemail for Mike Judge? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kiwgG6T9se0 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kiwgG6T9se0
d23 4y ago
For me (also from the south), specifically, it was about identifying the sounds that I usually misspoke. Dragging vowels out was one obvious one, but one I literally couldn’t hear at first was e.g. the difference between “pen” and “pin”. That one took a lot of practice and I still have to think about it occasionally for multisyllabic words I’m not sure how to spell.
4y ago

whiddershins 4y ago

Not at all the same thing, but I was briefly capable of speaking enough Chinese to just barely make it around rural China for two weeks, and I attribute it to a tutor I had who was a musician and taught me to literally sing the tones. What I observe about most native English speakers who try to learn a tonal language is that they don’t really do the tones, but it isn’t because they aren’t capable. It’s because it feels silly or wrong to sing when you’re supposed to be talking. I’ve also noticed I have friends with, for example, an Italian accent who can mimic my English pronunciation pretty closely if they want to mock me. I think many people are pretty good at mimicry, but they probably keep their accent because doing it differently feels like they are being someone else, or they just feel silly or wrong doing it. So I guess I say, tutors are great. Also maybe just mess around with mimicking speakers you want to sound like and put aside whatever identity you have subconsciously tied to how you currently speak? Especially try not to think about how words are spelled. Just mimic the sounds.

uranusjr 4y ago
Also sometimes accent shows because the speaker isn’t sure at real-time how the sentence is “supposed” to be said, and therefore falls back to the way that feels the most natural. So yeah, listen to more people speak, mimic them, and practice repeatedly so it comes through naturally when you need them.
yodsanklai 4y ago
> it isn’t because they aren’t capable. It’s because it feels silly or wrong to sing when you’re supposed to be talking. My problem with tones is mostly that they are hard to remember. But I think you have a point that sometimes it feels silly. Especially if you learn with non-native with others who have the same bad accent as you, you don't want to stand out as the one who tries too hard. Another issue is when the language you learn use the same alphabet. For instance, if you're French learning English, you're tempted to read the English words with your French accent.
- causality0 4y ago
  Feeling silly can definitely hurt you. When I was learning Spanish in school I could never forget how stupid I felt assigning genders to inanimate objects.

jacknews 4y ago

Do you want an English accent, or a particular American accent?

mkl 4y ago
From the question: > I'd love to have a perfect west coast American accent when I speak english
denton-scratch 4y ago
Author said they want a "West Coast" accent. Author failed to say what their present accent is. I enjoy regional accents; I find it sad that people would want to dispose of their heritage, and adopt some neutral "white-bread" speaking style instead. People's accents change through immersion. My parents lived in Liverpool, but sent me away to school. But my sister went to school in Liverpool, and began to acquire a scouse twang. I hated it, because I thought it was put on; I don't think that any more. She was just talking the way her schoolfriends talked. So I think the best way to acquire a particular speaking style is to hang around exclusively with people who talk the way you want to talk. In particular, it seems to me that hiring elocution tutors from Mexico and Spain respectively, can't be a good idea. My guess is that the author is hispanic. I've seen this "immersion drift" in accents many times. I've even done it myself; when living in London as a youth, I started talking in a sort of mockney street style. It wasn't deliberate, or even conscious; in fact when I realised it was happening, it embarrassed me.
- ColFrancis 4y ago
  It's tricky. I find it a little sad that regional accents are disappearing but it's a process that's been happening for a long time. The trouble is that there's real benefits for having certain accents and you can't fault someone for wanting to be seen in a different way.
- bradwood 4y ago
  I'm with you on this. I'm an expat South African living in London and I find myself occasionally doing the mockney thing. It sounds like a really bad blend of DiCaprio in Blood Diamond and Vinny Jones in Lock Stock. Not a good sound. As an aside, for a laugh do you ever ask your sister to get you some "chghicken and chgan of cghoke" /s

Eleison23 4y ago

Professional actors rely on "dialogue coaches". Have you ever viewed "The King's Speech"? That seems like a parallel experience. I haven't deliberately picked up new English accents, but I've taken formal classes in Spanish, making conscious efforts to imitate the phonemes of native speakers. I would say that consistency will count for a lot in choosing your dialogue coach. Every year I had a new teacher; the first was Mexican, the second was American, and the third was from Barcelona! So, I was faced with deciding which accent(s) to learn and how to distinguish them and how to avoid mixing them all together. So, identify your target culture, and articulate that to your prospective coach so that you're on the same page, and try not to change coaches once you've settled into a relationship. So you'll soon find out that there is not one "West Coast American accent", although there may be fewer of those than British English has produced. Growing up, I learned how to communicate with Valley Girls, surfers, CEOs, computer geeks, vatos, Crips, Bloods, goths, rivet-heads, Christians, pagans... well, you get the picture! And before anyone objects and says those aren't accents, "surprising a native speaker" will involve vocabulary, grammar and syntax as much as the phonemes and inflection. So the OP has a broad definition of "accent" in mind.

Dracophoenix 4y ago

It depends on what you mean by "West Coast accent". Generally, the stereotypical Surfer Dude/Valley Girl accent is looked down upon in professional circles unless you live in Los Angeles or you're a Kardashian. If by "West Coast", you mean the relatively neutral accents of, say, Silicon Valley employees and CEOs, then you should look for American movies and shows featuring Brits imitating modern-day Americans (Christian Bale, Hugh Laurie, etc.) and compare those performances to the actors' original voices in order to get an idea of how they "translate" their accents. Cartoons are also helpful[1]. A British voice actress by the name of Theresa Gallagher does a nearly flawless "neutral" American accent as the mother of the titular character in The Amazing of Gumball. An accent coach is certainly a good investment, but it helps to be specific about you're goals. Doing so will save you money in the long run. "Sounding native" depends on time, location, and association as much as it does on enunciation. You may know this already, but the West Coast is a big place. Just as the accents of most Englishman aren't solely split between the * Made in Chelsea* crowd and Sir Humphrey Appleby, there is no monolithic West Coast accent. [1] Trivia: many cartoons are recorded and animated in and around Burbank

vbo 4y ago

I tend to pick up the accent spoken around me (I'm not a native English speaker). Not quite sure to what extent it borders native speaker's accent, but it happens without any training. On a separate note, if you feel you need to change your accent to fit in, perhaps the people you feel would appreciate hearing you speak in a different accent are not worth the effort of fitting in with?

NegativeLatency 4y ago
Personally I love hearing different accents and turns of phrase, makes things more interesting. Although I do understand the desire to fit in or not be judged differently (especially with the number of mean/bigoted people out there)

mkl 4y ago

There are some interesting search results for [accent training app]: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=accent+training+app&atb=v279-1__&ia=web https://duckduckgo.com/?q=accent+training+app&atb=v279-1__&i... I'm a native English speaker, but have modified my accent for teaching international students, to be better understood. I did it by interacting with small classes and individuals, and paying attention to their level of confusion/understanding. I had been explaining the same subject matter to native speakers for years, so could have a reasonable guess at whether confusion was caused by language or content.

senthil_rajasek 4y ago

I went through this process on my own. I grew up in India and my first language is Tamil which is very distant to the European languages. I now live in the midwest. I can't tell the differences between regional American accents except the very famous Bostonian "paak the car" but I've listed some tips on how I improved my pronunciation. When I started doing stand up comedy 12 years ago I realized I needed to work on my accent[1]. Here are some tips, Pronunciation of english sounds is influenced by your first language. Understand phonetics. https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/fohull/a_year_to_learn_japanese_reflections_on_five/ https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/fohull/a_yea... Follow the links to Pronunciation: Basics, prosody and phonetics on the page above and understand how sounds are made. If you don't understand the mechanics of tongue position, lip shapes, where the sound originates (front of the mouth or back of the throat) then you may not be able make the right sound. If you can spend money get expert help (speech therapist, though I haven't done this personally). Practice. Speaking involves physical muscles so practice those muscles. Record yourself and listen ( after a few days). Observe pronunciations that need to be fixed and repeat. In time, the mechanics of tongue position, lip shapes etc., will become subconscious and you will not have to worry about this consciously and you will speak naturally. 1. Most recent stand up comedy performance. https://youtu.be/845a6wyO5h0 https://youtu.be/845a6wyO5h0

noobhacker 4y ago
I'd love to learn phonetics, but with written materials like this it feels like learning to ride a bike by reading a book. I'm still at a loss with regards to how to actually make the sound. Without a teacher, I don't think I even realize my own mistakes. How did you learn to physically make the sound? How much time did you spend practicing daily? Thanks so much for the advice. I too hope to do stand up one day.
- senthil_rajasek 4y ago
  You are right. Language is a living thing and the spoken language needs to be practiced in real life. For some aspects of phonetics I found this book helpful, https://www.google.com/books/edition/American_Accent_Training_Book/9kF-MAEACAAJ?hl=en https://www.google.com/books/edition/American_Accent_Trainin... Also, I had help from friends in the comedy world sometimes. I would ask them if I am saying a word right before going on stage. It took many years but that's because I had to learn it without any books. I was willing to become a child and look like an idiot for a long time. If I had to do it all over again I would invest time in learning phonetics.

simonh 4y ago

When I’ve been to the states, as a Brit the only regional accent I’ve regularly had problems understanding is west coast.

NegativeLatency 4y ago
Any specific things stuck out to you about it?

iandanforth 4y ago

Accent coaches are great. I worked with one in the context of learning an Irish accent for theater in college. You learn IPA as a tool for discussing sentences and get someone whose mouth you can watch closely without freaking them out and who will watch and understand your mouth position well and provide immediate feedback. For some language transitions though you have to start out retraining your brain to hear sound distinctions before you can hope to produce them. The L-R distinction in English, for example, is particularly hard for Japanese speakers because they can't hear that there are two sounds. It can also be very helpful to enlist a native speaker with the target accent who is a coworker. Basically give them permission to tell you after every conversation what you said that wasn't in the target accent.

kebsup 4y ago

As a Slavic language speaker, i used to pronounce "th" as "d" and simply focusing on this mistake made me feel like the accent improved greatly. I have also met a lot of people who roll their "r"s, so that's another easy fix.

dehrmann 4y ago
One of my CS processors was slavic, and for a few weeks, I thought De Morgan's laws were the Morgan laws.

oblak 4y ago

1. Forget about the letter "R" and use "ah" instead. That's how they talk. 2. Squeeze your nose with your fingers and talk 3. Keep your chin up. Literally and figuratively I am only half joking. Proper English is very the opposite of how I was taught to speak my native Bulgarian. I can do it well enough but still feels completely unnatural even after all these years. Especially weird because we were exposed to so much US English on TV while my teachers were doing the British one.

dehrmann 4y ago
> Forget about the letter "R" and use "ah" instead. That's how they talk. Take this too far and you'll sound like you're from Boston or Long Island.

ggambetta 4y ago

I'm currently studying West Coast American (Los Angeles specifically, so "Hollywood" accent) with a tutor I found on Preply. We're using a book called Mastering the American Accent by Lisa Mojsin, which comes with audio tracks. Getting feedback would be ideal (hence a tutor), but maybe you could use the book by yourself?

traceroute66 4y ago

What's your native tongue ? Some variant of English or something else ? If its a foreign language, depending which one, it could well be more hassle than its worth to try to get a "perfect" accent. Whichever way, you should be prepared to invest a lot of time to it, especially if you are hoping to be able to fluently switch between accents. Its unlikely to be something you can master in a couple of weeks.

FinanceAnon 4y ago

Write down a list of words that you do not pronounce as you want. Record yourself reading them out loud, listen back to it and try to say it better next time. You can also create some sentences from those words and read them.

whoooooo123 4y ago

Some good advice in here. One thing I'll add is: make sure you know which English words have weird spellings that are nothing like the pronunciation. (This is a lot of words!) The huge mistake I hear non natives make all the time is to incorrectly pronounce things like they're spelled. Eg pronouncing the "b" in "debt" (it's actually pronounced just "det" in every dialect), or pronouncing "says" with the same vowel as "say" (it's actually more like "sez" in most accents.) There are zillions of other examples - I can't give you a list of words to be aware of, but I'm sure that someone somewhere must have compiled a good list.

fgeiger 4y ago
Is that the list you are looking for? ;-) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chaos https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chaos
- fgeiger 4y ago
  Maybe better enjoyed when someone reads it to you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1edPxKqiptw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1edPxKqiptw

satya71 4y ago

There are a few apps that help you with that. I’ve used “Real Accent” and it’s useful for practicing a new accent. There are some with live instruction now. They may be worth checking out.

tartoran 4y ago

To me accents are nice, diction is the one that is important to practice for clear conversation. One can be a native speaker and have a terrible diction though.

orbital-decay 4y ago

Where do you live? What's your first language? The generic way to perfectly learn a local dialect of any language is to: - live there, have local friends, coworkers etc - get an accent coach - check if there's a good linguist specializing in the transition from your native language/accent/dialect to the target one (for me there was this guy https://www.youtube.com/c/PhoneticFanatic https://www.youtube.com/c/PhoneticFanatic who is excellent at explaining things in depth, but his channel might not be useful for others)

eric4smith 4y ago

I don’t think accents are a problem per-se. The thing is to speak clearly and don’t rush the words. Try to enunciate each word slowly and carefully and first and you will not have a problem. I love hearing accents. The diversity and genuineness of them are amazing and that’s what makes travel awesome.

Jaruzel 4y ago

I have a London accent, with a bit of Home Counties[1] thrown in. It's not an 'Eastenders' accent. What I would like is to transition to soft Scottish accent, as someday I expect to be living north of the Border, and the Scots really don't like the English[2] (in the main). It's an odd use case to be sure, but it's something I'd like to do nonetheless. --- [1] The 50-ish miles around Greater London. [2] I don't really blame them to be honest.

lottin 4y ago

You should start by learning the phonology of the English language and its main dialects (namely Standard British English and General American). You need to know the theory because if you try to rely on your perception it will fool you. You need to know what you have to pay attention to. For example, if your L1 is a Romance language you have to be aware that vowel length is important in English, and that diphthongs are a single phoneme. Things like these you'll never be able to figure out yourself, they need to be taught. Once you know the theory in and out, you have to get a lot of exposure to the accent that you're interested in. Lastly, you start to imitate what you hear. Bear in mind that it takes a lot of practice to get a foreign accent right.

tintedfireglass 4y ago

Listening to a particular accent will get you comfortable with it. Too much tech youtube helped me with picking up an American accent

printvoid 4y ago

While this thread is mostly about American accents and switching among them. Is there a way to inherit in general the western accent. Anything US related or British accent would do me good. Bonus points for Australian accent. However I come across from Northern India and have a strong mother tongue influence. Any general tips for me to switch to US or UK accents?

unsafecast 4y ago
What did it for me was just listening to _a lot_ of spoken English. Try to watch movies, youtube, listen to podcasts, etc. You need to feel it. And practice speaking to yourself or others.

AlbertCory 4y ago

First of all: my admiration to anyone who really tries to do this. Secondly: I sang for 10-15 years, quite often in German, Italian, French, Latin, and a few others. In the community opera I was in the chorus with, they always had a diction coach, so we didn't sound like a bunch of Americans ("tutti" isn't "tood-ee", it's "toot-tee"). I'm sure that to a native speaker, we still did, but at least the effect wasn't comical. Lastly: a shout-out to native French speakers. Is it even common for an American to lose their American accent, especially one over the age of 35? I read somewhere about a class in Paris where the teacher had you speak while holding a pencil in your mouth (sideways); I forget what exactly that was supposed to drill into you.

elliekelly 4y ago
> I read somewhere about a class in Paris where the teacher had you speak while holding a pencil in your mouth (sideways); I forget what exactly that was supposed to drill into you. This is definitely a strategy for teaching the French “r”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrjMJ_PAlB8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrjMJ_PAlB8
- unsafecast 4y ago
  I was supposed to have learned the rolling r, since that's how it's pronounced in Romanian (my native language). It always came out as the french one though. Nowadays I can somewhat kind of do it for the common words so I don't sound terrible. I'm guessing with a bit of practice I can figure it out. It turned out right though, since I recently moved to France. It makes learning pronunciation _much_ easier. My r is already perfect.
- AlbertCory 4y ago
  I loved this. un crayon

trey-jones 4y ago

There seem to be a lot of people interested in learning how to speak with a certain accent. I only really have observations to share about this. I studied linguistics at university in both the US and Germany. I'm a native English speaker. I studied Chinese, Japanese, French, and Spanish to some extent in addition to German and English. I don't consider myself fluent in any, unfortunately, but I can actually sound like a native speaker in any of these languages, when I focus on it. I've known people who didn't focus on English who still had barely-detectable or undetectable accents, and I've known people who dedicated their lives to learning languages and never lost their accents. My observation is that there are some people who can hear and imitate easily and naturally, some who can if they focus on it and try hard, and some who probably can't at all. There is a direct correlation with music, I believe. If you can hear a pitch and sing it, there's a good chance you can also imitate a native speaker relatively easily. I'm not here to discourage anyone though. I tell my children that their brain is just as good as anyone else's. Even though some people are naturally better at certain things than other people, if you work harder than they do, you will be able to exceed them in most cases. So the final word, the TLDR: practice, practice, practice is the way to learn to speak with or without an accent.

ChrisMarshallNY 4y ago

Be careful what you wish for. Here's a comment that I made, a couple of months ago, about someone that I used to work with[0]. I also remember the testimony of Fiona Hill[1]. If you know anything about her, she is seriously credentialed. Heavy duty The Real Deal. She testified about how she came to the US, because she couldn't catch a break in the UK, with her "distinctive Northern accent." Me mum[2] was raised by Scouse (Liverpool), and her parents went well out of their way to make sure she talked "posh." Worked a charm, but it was a pain for us sprogs, because she was constantly correcting grammar we'd use ;). [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31567522 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31567522 [1] https://www.brookings.edu/experts/fiona-hill/ https://www.brookings.edu/experts/fiona-hill/ [2] https://cmarshall.com/miscellaneous/SheilaMarshall.htm https://cmarshall.com/miscellaneous/SheilaMarshall.htm

robaato 4y ago

A few decades ago, when learning languages at school, we had access to tape recorders for particular phrases: listen, record, rewind, repeat ad nauseam. Very powerful. These days recording tech is all around. But study and repeat. Ask friendly people to correct you (at appropriate times) - most won't!

idontwantthis 4y ago

Can anyone tell me what it was like to live in the USA as an immigrant child and have a strong accent? Is it something you wanted to change about yourself and did you or do you wish you could have? Did people bully you for it? Asking because I will be bringing a step son to the US and I’m wondering if we should try to correct his accent or not.

ampham 4y ago
I had an accent because English wasn’t my first language despite being born and growing up in the US. I had to take ‘English as a second language’ courses and was bullied through school. I was also scared to talk for my first two years in elementary school. Though my experience may be vastly outdated. And it all depends on your environment. What kind of school would your child go to? Would it be a diverse school? Are kids more exposed to things now, so that accents won’t be so much of a big deal? Either way, I think it would benefit to try and correct your kid’s accent. It would help them with pronunciation and help others understand them better. It may help them feel more confident in speaking.
dixie_land 4y ago
I have many Asian American friends and I can tell you with confidence that they have zero accents even when their parents sound like someone fresh off the boat. Kids mimic how their friends and teachers talk, not their parents

nibbleshifter 4y ago

Unsure about west coast american, but there's a metric fuckload of accent coaches for the British RP (received pronunciation) accent. I had a housemate a few years ago who had normally a very Yorkshire accent, but for career reasons had been taking RP lessons and sounded like a BBC presenter. Apparently its pretty common in some professions to take such lessons.

katspaugh 4y ago

Two recommendations: - American Accent Training – it’s an audio book. Lots of great advice. - Accent’s Way on YouTube. She’s an Israeli who taught herself the American accent to a complete perfection. You wouldn’t tell. Lots of information and motivation!

redthrow 4y ago
> Accent’s Way on YouTube > taught herself the American accent to a complete perfection Her oldest video is 12 years ago and I couldn't personally tell if she's just talented at mimicking sound from a young age or if she transitioned from a thick accent to a natural American accent.

mprime1 4y ago

Here’s a class from Stanford (continued studies so anyone can take it, for a price), it was via Zoom for the last couple of years. Accent Reduction for Non-Native Speakers of English https://continuingstudies.stanford.edu/courses/professional-and-personal-development/accent-reduction-for-non-native-speakers-of-english/20221_COM-39 https://continuingstudies.stanford.edu/courses/professional-...

atum47 4y ago
Thanks, I'll look into it

Scoundreller 4y ago

This won’t be a helpful answer, but reminds me of the times I’ve had to translate between the Ukrainian team at work speaking English for the Indian team speaking English. And I only speak English. I felt like an active repeater cleaning up the signal.

jackallis 4y ago

i have question, Why?

dehrmann 4y ago

> perfect west coast American accent Aim for something more neutral, like what you hear from national newscasters. No one will think about a neutral accent, but if you start saying "hella" and "stoked," it might be cringy. Or you say "The 101 was hella slow today," and every native Californian will know what's up.

toast0 4y ago
> "The 101 was hella slow today," and every native Californian will know what's up. Dude, hella is way norcal, and "the 101" is way socal; gonna stick out when you mix them like that.
- dehrmann 4y ago
  Keep those shibboleths straight.

ergeysay 4y ago

I am a non-native speaker. I’ve took an accent training course from a coach, it took about a year. We made a recording before we started and additional records over the length of the course, and I cannot believe how much more pleasant and American-y I sound now. It kind of gives confidence I never had before when speaking English. If you’re interested, I can give a referral. My mail is in profile.

kimchidude 4y ago

Could I shamelessly post a link to my accent training YouTube channel? The whole channel is devoted to language development through speech shadowing exercises. These exercises will help you do some accent training on your own: https://m.youtube.com/c/IELTSRyan https://m.youtube.com/c/IELTSRyan

dave333 4y ago

Just practice imitating the desired accent a lot - eventually you will get really good at it. My perspective was growing up in southern England (Devon and Somerset) and going to first public school and then private school (known as state and public schools in UK respectively). My Dad decided to send me to private school when I started developing a strong local Devon accent that he didn't like. At private school I learned "BBC english" that has a certain non-regional accent. For fun we used to imitate various regional accents - Devon, Somerset, London/cockney, Birmingham, Newcastle/Geordie, Yorkshire, Scottish, Irish are the main ones I remember. Later at age 23 I emigrated to USA and was immediately exposed to my boss's Brooklyn accent as well as generic NJ/east coast accent. Later moved to the midwest for 10 years and then the west coast, but by that time it was too late and I still retain what Americans consider a British accent, but which Brits now consider distinctly American.

watersb 4y ago

A friend of mine invented a new way of teaching English vowel sounds. There's a card-game version of this method that adults, kids can play. We tried the card game version with a room full of native "American" English speakers... but I first learned English in "Deep South" USA. Another player was Latina from Los Angeles... It was very interesting: I discovered that I could hear vowels that they could not. They think they pronounce "o" in "orange" about the same as "o" in dog. While Southern USA would say "ahringe dawg", but we can also pronounce a more neutral "orange" but it's not the same as a West Coast standard accent. I used to be really into these distinctions, trying to place people on the map from their choice of words and accent. If you like this sort of thing, want to learn a new way to experience English accents, you might like the Color Vowel Chart: https://colorvowel.com https://colorvowel.com

padheyam 4y ago

Can strongly recommend 'Astound' app for this.