YOU  AND YOUR ACCENT is a monthly feature in the Asian Fortune Newspaper.  Articles from the past six months can be accessed here.   To view other articles from this newspaper go to www.asianfortunenews.com/

Speaking Successfully

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June

A reminder for all those who contacted me about our special rates for the September/October intensive group program in honor of our 20^th anniversary.  Register before August 1 to receive our special discount.  You can subscribe to our newsletter at www.accentmodification.com for details. 

I have often discussed the importance of correctly pronouncing r and l in American English.  These two sounds occur with high frequency within our language, so incorrect pronunciation means a high frequency of errors.  These two sounds are worked on heavily in our intensive program. 

Although Americans may not always use the tongue tip to produce the /l/ sound, non-native speakers will find it to their benefit to consistently use a tongue tip on their hard palate to produce this sound in all positions such as lady, ball, and able.  This helps you to develop accuracy and provides some simple bio-feedback.  You do not want the tongue to touch the teeth when practicing. 

The /r/ sound is more difficult. Some Americans raise their tongue tip and curl it back to produce the /r/ sound, but do not allow the tongue tip to touch the hard palate.  If you curl the tongue back too far, it will sound as if you ‘swallowed’ the sound.  If you tap it on the hard palate, it may sound like a /d/. 

 Tongue tension and pressure are the critical differences between these sounds.  It is much easier to make changes when you work with a coach who can see what you are doing and help you to make subtle modifications.   We often work from your strengths to improve your weaknesses.

 We also have many accents in the U.S.  There is no need to speak English with a standard accent (which one should you choose?), but to produce the sounds and intonation of English with clarity and consistency to improve conversational communication.  With practice, consistent production of r and l can result in much clearer speech in a short period of time. 

May, 2008

May is Asian Pacific American Month, and I salute all those who have come to this country.  First generation Asian Pacific Americans are special people.  You are risk takers, willing to step outside of your comfort zone to come to a country with different customs and a different language. 

 Many of you have become clients.  You are successful people who continue to learn and polish those skills that aid you in your personal and work endeavors.  You are people who persevere despite the complexities of English. 

 Some Americans take for granted the work and effort required to live in a new country.  I understand many of the issues you need to deal with on a daily basis.  You study, work, raise families, learn the language, and deal with the seeming arbitrary nature of English every day. 

 Your accomplishments should not be taken lightly.  You have worked hard to achieve each accomplishment.  I wish you continued success in all you do.

For those who continue to need some assistance with communication skills, I urge you to develop these as early in your career as possible.  So many clients come when advancements are just around the corner, and last minute attempts to improve speaking skills require miracle teachers and students.  

Improving your skills is a process that helps you to make modifications over time.  You need to develop tools to make improvement.  First you need to develop improved listening skills, then understand basics of English pronunciation, and finally integrate what you’ve learned into your professional speech. 

 The first two are easy with a good coach.   The third requires continued practice and review using the skills learned in class.

 If you are interested in pursing help with communication skills, contact us about our group and private programs. 

April, 2008

Many Asians have difficulty with the many /l/ sounds of American English.  Some of these are easier than others, but if you can produce one, you can produce all of them.  The tongue can be placed in the same position for all of these /l/ sounds, or it can vary slightly, but still have a nice, strong production.  We will review these and discuss who they are so hard for many Asians.

 Our easiest /l/ is the alveolar /l/ as in Lady.  It is the easiest as it begins words or syllables.  You can easily see the tongue tip touch the roof of your mouth when you say lady.

 Another initial /l/ is with blends.   These are double consonants and can be a little more difficult for those who come from primarily a consonant- vowel language.  The tendency is to try to put a vowel between these sounds, so you may say pu-lease, rather than please.

 The syllabic /l/ as in abLE or legEL comes at the ends of words, and is difficult for Asians as most Asian languages have few final consonants.  To complicate matters, you may see a variety of vowels with the /l/, but the vowel production is the same for all-   able, utensil, local, council, and naval, - only the consonants are different. 

 The most difficult /l/ is the vowel plus /l/ as in call or pole.  Many people either eliminate the /l/, or ‘swallow’ it by producing the /l/ with the back of the tongue, or block the vowel by raising the tongue tip too early.  Correctly producing the vowel adds to the difficulty of these combinations.

 Now that my new PRISM CD and workbook is completed, I am developing an audio/video CD to train the correct /l/ production.  If you would like to be alerted when this is available, sign up for our newsletter at www.accentmodification.com.  In addition, you can be alerted to our next group program (May/June), the most cost effective way to improve your communication skills.

March, 2008

Unlike Spanish and some other languages, you cannot be sure how to spell some or pronounce many in American English based strictly on spelling or how the word sounds.  English has borrowed from many languages.  Sometimes, we borrowed the word with the pronunciation and spelling intact, other times we’ve changed one or the other… or both!  

American English has even changed spelling and pronunciation from British English.  Think of words like colour/color, where only the spelling has changed, LAboratory/laBORatory, where the pronunciation changed, and aeroplane/airplane where both have changed. 

Many of you come from areas where the English that was taught and learned was British.  This adds to difficulties when speaking in an American English dialect.

 In English, we have only 6 vowel letters (counting y) but we produce many vowel sounds from those letters.   Consonants also have variation in sounds they produce.  For example, we have the j sound as in jelly, which is the same sound that occurs at the beginning and ending of George and judge.  In this case, these sounds actually begin with a d for pronouncing the sounds.

 Many of these variations in spelling and pronunciation are based on word origination.  Latin, Greek, French… all impact how we pronounce them.  So how are you supposed to figure all this out?

 The key to good pronunciation is a combination of ‘hearing’ the sound accurately, and becoming aware of the sound-spelling options.  Vocabulary expansion is also helpful, so use a dictionary.  There is no way for you to figure out that seque is actually pronounced SEGway. 

 These are some of the skills we focus on in our accent modification classes.  If accurate expression is a necessity for your business and personal communication, call us to learn more about how a program can help you.  We have early registration discounts if you register for our April 5^th program before March 15^th.

If you wish to be alerted to our group programs or receive our newsletter for tips and additional information, please subscribe to our newsletter at www.accentmodification.com

February, 2008

Happy New Year!  The year of the Rat celebrates new beginnings.  I hope this year brings many good beginnings to the special readers of The Asian Fortune. 

We are planning some new beginnings ourselves.  February, 2008, our new PRISM CD and workbook will be released, and will now be sold commercially to other trainers across the country.  We’ve added new material and made lessons easier to locate. 

All of our new clients who attend either the group or private program will be using our new PRISM materials.  

If you are ready to begin focusing on new and improved communication skills, the year of the Rat is an excellent time to start.  Communication skills are key to job and personal interaction.  Reading, writing and speaking are all important business skills that require on-going improvement.  Those who communicate best within their fields are highly valued and respected.  As you rise within an organization, those skills become even more important. 

People often have wonderful ideas that fail to gain attention due to an inability to effectively communicate or sell the concept to others.  Sometimes this is due to limited vocabulary, poor grammar, unclear pronunciation or just plain lack of proper vocal enthusiasm. 

These deficit areas are not limited to non-native speakers of English.  Many Americans fail to convey the proper message in either written or verbal communication.  They too, can be limited in job advancement due to failure to communicate. 

Make this the year to begin re-dedicating yourself to developing those skills that will enhance your communication.  If a clearer and more professional speech style is one of those skills, contact us about our March/April group program.  

January, 2008

Happy New Year.  I hope 2008 will be a great year for all of you.  I am very excited because 2008 is the year our new PRISM accent modification program is available to other trainers for use with their clients.  We’re going national! 

Change can be very motivational, frightening, or exciting; sometimes all three at once.  The New Year is a great time to consider what you need to change in your life;  a new job, a new house, a new you?  No matter what change you make, it requires hard work and risk. 

Developing new speaking skills requires dedication and risk taking.  The in-class pronunciation work is easy and fun, especially in groups where everyone is in the same predicament.  Learning what changes you need to make and how to make them in the safety of the classroom is exciting and motivational. 

The hard part is the carry-over to the day-to-day speaking.  People are often afraid someone might ‘notice’ they are speaking differently.  But isn’t that what they wanted?  To speak differently?  

The problem is that we can be very self-conscious of our speech.  We want to change, but we fear the change.  We fear the failure of trying and not succeeding.  We fear people may notice we are speaking differently.  Yet, the reason they want to begin a program is because they are self-conscious and people are noticing their errors.  The reality is, there is little to lose and much to gain by working to improve your communication skills! 

For those willing to take the risk and expand their communication skills, the rewards are great:  clearer communication, more self-confidence, and more options in the workplace.    Call to learn more about our spring program if you are ready to make 2008 your ‘year of change.  Class begins March 8.