Get your Accents Corrected
If you are aiming to become an impeccable Hollywood star, then maybe the change has its merits. But if you are just ashamed of yourself that you have an accent, despite the fact that you actually have a pretty comprehensible English, then I’m not sure. As always – if you do it, do it for yourself.
An accent is often a strong barrier between people. There are some that are harder to comprehend and some that are simpler to. My English teacher a long time ago shared that when he went to USA he couldn’t fully understand black people. Well, to his relief, a US woman he knew confessed that she didn’t understand all of their speech either.
In a professional environment though it is a very good idea to correct your speech, because accents will become a hindrance in communicating efficiently.
Getting rid of it.
Here is how I and many other people did it – we imitated anything sounding English, went through countless repetition and adaptation
In other words, Listen to interviews, movies, English audio podcasts, English music. Try to imitate the way people speak, the way they joke, even the way they think, because you imitate the way people think and you imitate the way they construct their ideas.
This will help you tremendously. Don’t forget to practice a lot and seek the right way of pronouncing the words and the intonation to use to emphasize certain ideas, even if it means looking up a dictionary or watching something extra times.
Record yourself.
This is a very important step. Not only do you practice your speech and fluency, when you record yourself, but also you get to actually hear yourself when you speak and get a direct personal feedback from no one than yourself!
When you do it – listen to your voice and try to modulate the sounds and intonation in the way you speak. Again, do it a lot. There will be differences in how you think you sound and the way you actually come across in the audio – don’t be embarrassed, it is a normal thing. Come to love your voice. Speak with confidence and right pace, and you might even get better impressions of the way you speak.
