Today I'm here with the first accent post of the blog. For those of you interested in reducing, changing or getting rid of your accent, it may help. Today's accent is American, but there are lots of different accents and I will try to post an accent training for most of them. So here it is, american accent training post:
First of all, we need to know what an accent is:
"An accent is the way of pronunciation of a speaker with shared characteristic of a certain locality within the community. It is a manner of pronunciation peculiar to a particular individual, location, or nation. An accent may identify the locality in which its speakers reside , the socio-economic status of its speakers, their ethnicity, their caste or social class, their first language (when speaking a second language imperfectly), and so on."
If your first language is English, you're lucky! It will be easier for you to change or transform your accent into another one. But if your first language is not English, and you want to change your accent, don't get desperate! It can be done, though it will take more time an patience. If English is not your mother tongue, it has to be an obsession for you if you want to reduce your accent, you have to watch movies, pause them, listen carefully, repeat and try to do it as much as you can, you better like it or you will probably give up!
That's why this blog can help you with it. Go to a video that you like in the blog, watch it and read the script, repeat, try to match the melody and rhythm of the speakers, try to say the words the same way. It takes a lot of time, but if you really are into it, you can get it.
The american actress Amy Walker has done an american accent training an she uploaded it on the internet. We should be very grateful with her for taking the time to do it and to share it with us for free. You can find more videos and information about this great actress in her website www.amywalkeronline.com and in her blog www.21accents.com.
This is the worksheet we are going to work with in this accent training.
Here is a short introduction:
American accent training by Amy Walker: intro to the series
Before starting with the training, we better warm up! This is the warm up video, I highly recommend that you do it before the training because it helps to put you in the mood to start and it's fun too! Here it goes, Warm up video:
American accent training by Amy Walker, Part one: Vowels
One of the most important parts of an accent are the vowels. Watch how she does it, how she pronounces, listen carefully, repeat, pause and enjoy, you'll probably have to do it a lot of times!
American accent training by Amy Walker, Part two: Consonants and letter combinations and omissions
Also consonants are very important when trying to change your accent, be carefully and practice all of them, as many times as you want.
American accent training by Amy Walker, Part three: The melody
The melody is also very important when trying to reduce or change your accent, match it if you can and remember, repeating is the key!
American accent training by Amy Walker, Part four: The rhythm
And after the melody, here it comes the rhythm. Are you talking too fast? One of the biggest problems for foreign speakers of English is that they speed it up a little too much. But don't worry, you will get there by following her instructions.
American accent training by Amy Walker, Part five: The vibe
How does it feel to be American? To sound American (or any other accent) you have to BE American, you have to believe it, you want to be comfortable speaking with your new acquired accent so we can believe you sound American (or any other accent you're trying to acquire).
Well done you! You got it!
You made it through all five part of the Standard American Accent tutorial, now Amy Walker has made a video specially for you:
American accent training by Amy Walker, Bonus: Different American accents
Hope you liked it! See you soon!
Don't understand it? Click here!
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