Lose your Accent

Are you one of the many people who would like to lose your accent? Many people come to me with the same question - can you help me lose my accent? To be fair, most of these people don't want to lose their accent completely but they do want to tone it down a bit.

Sometimes it's because they feel that their work colleagues can't understand them quickly enough and they get fed up of repeating themselves. As one of my students recently said, "I speak as clearly as I can so all I can do when they ask me to repeat what I've just said is to say the same but louder!".

Sometimes, people can be understood but they get embarrassed by their accent. Another student said he was fed up of people thinking he came from Wales when, infact he came from Dorset, another, from the west country was fed up of people asasuming he was uneducated when infact he had two degrees!

The trouble most people who do not have English as a first language have is that the vowel sounds in English can be long or short and are usually comprised of two sounds.

English also has the 'th' sound that is unfamiliar to a lot of people.

English is a stress language and not a syllable based language so speakers of other languages can often sound a bit disjointed.

A course of elocution lessons can always help the forming of vowel and consonant sounds for both regional and foreign accents.

Regional accents usually need work on vowel sounds and inflection.

Obviously some people find it easier to alter their accent than others - this depends on many factors.

How long have you spoken with that accent?

Do you mix with other people who still have that accent?

How hard are you prepared to work?

To what degree do you want to change the accent - do you want it to disappear completely or just modify it a bit?

Would like to lose your accent?

Summer Special Offer

Each session is 45 minutes long and I can come to you or you can come to me in Corfe Mullen.

How many lessons will I need?

You won't be able to lose your accent over night. Sometimes people can hear a difference in as little as two sessions but the process takes longer and results vary from person to person depending upon the accent in question. If English is your second language, it will depend on how heavy your accent is. Lots of patience is required during this process.

Fees

Sessions can be anytime between 6 am and 8 pm, 7 days a week.

Special Offer £39 for three 45 minute sessions in your home (local to Bournemouth, Dorchester etc) between 6 am and 8 pm or in my Corfe Mullen studio.

These sessions have to be paid for at the end of the first session (if you decide you don't want any more just pay £17 for the first one) and they can be taken within the same week or spread out over several weeks.

I will travel further but obviously the fee will be more. It might be worth while getting a friend to share a lesson and having a longer session. I would recommend that for two people 60 mins is ideal and for 3 or 4 people 2 hours is ideal. Prices will depend on how far away from Bournemouth you are.

Buy my DVD

See also my elocution page.

Where would you like to look next?

English as a foreign language

Go from my Lose Your Accent page to my about me page.